Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

40 FARRERAS

Over the course of three years he created four sections and a field

station that studied the structural and functional development and

organization of the nervous system: Experimental Neuropathology (Jan

H. W. Cammermeyer, Chief ), Functional Neuroanatomy (Grant L.

Rasmussen, Chief ), Neurocytology (Sanford L. Palay, Chief ), Field

Station of Perinatal Physiology (in Puerto Rico), and his own Sec­

tion on Development and Regeneration.^25

Kenneth S. Cole’s NINDB-supported Laboratory of Biophysics was

established shortly afterwards, in early 1954. Research in this laboratory

emphasized mathematical formulations that would predict the forma­

tion and behavior of nerve impulses under various conditions.^26

The last laboratory to be established, in mid-1954, was the Labora­

tory of Cellular Pharmacology, under Giulio Cantoni. His two section

chiefs–Seymour Kaufman and S. Harvey Mudd–headed the Section

on Cellular Regulatory Mechanisms and the Section on Alkaloid

Biosynthesis and Plant Metabolism, respectively, and Cantoni was chief

of his own Section on Proteins.^27 This laboratory studied the biochemi­

cal mechanisms and action of drug and hormone synthesis.

Kety’s planned program did not develop exactly as he had hoped, as

he had necessarily to rely on those scientists who would accept the

top positions. His appointments, however, always “demonstrated origi­

nality and conceptual ability in their choice, design, and execution

of...research.”^28

Basic Research Director Transition: Kety to Livingston

By 1955, Kety’s ambitious program had culminated in the establish­

ment of eight laboratories and one field station concentrating on

basic research and involving 55 scientists. These were the Addiction

Research Center, Neurophysiology, Socio-Environmental Studies,

Neurochemistry, Psychology, Neuroanatomical Sciences, Biophysics,

Cellular Pharmacology, and Clinical Science.^29 In addition to con­

ducting research on specific entities–as was common in the other insti­

tutes–Kety intentionally organized his program so that it would support

“the principal scientific disciplines.” In this way, fundamental areas of

knowledge involving the “structure, function, and metabolism of the