<p>A few more details on what it might mean for both institutions…</p>
<p>[MBL</a> OKs ties with Univ. of Chicago | CapeCodOnline.com](<a href=“Entertainment in Hyannis, MA | Cape Cod Times”>Entertainment in Hyannis, MA | Cape Cod Times)</p>
<p>By JASON COOK
June 02, 2013</p>
<p>WOODS HOLE — Marine Biological Laboratory Corp. members voted overwhelmingly Saturday in favor of an affiliation with the University of Chicago to help keep the struggling private institution afloat.</p>
<p>While it is not yet clear what the partnership means for how the nonprofit research lab will be managed, members of its corporate body embraced the proposed affiliation of the two institutions, whose ties date back some 125 years.</p>
<p>“We wish to emphasize that additional actions need to be taken by each institution’s board of trustees before the proposed affiliation becomes a reality,” according to a joint statement from MBL President Joan Ruderman and Colleen Cavanaugh, speaker for the 436-member MBL Corp. “Negotiation also will continue on details of an affiliation.”</p>
<p>The bylaw amendment to allow the affiliation — approved in Saturday’s 158-2 vote — will alleviate money woes for MBL, which lost more than $11.4 million in annual grants and contributions between 2008 and 2010, according to Internal Revenue Service filings. In 2012, MBL’s operating budget was $42.6 million, with almost half of that coming from government grants. As of Dec. 31, 2011, it listed its net assets at $107 million and endowment at $64 million.</p>
<p>“We want to create an improved financial foundation that will enable the MBL to meet the demands of modern science and current funding realities and to create new opportunities that will synergize and expand on the current MBL research and educational programs,” Ruderman wrote in a memo dated Jan. 28.</p>
<p>MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the country, and the proposed deal will help keep its programs running, said Jonathan Gitlin, MBL senior scientist and director of the lab’s Bell Center. The laboratory has “a 125-year history of discovery and advancement, of forward-thinkers,” he said. Those with ties to MBL include 55 Nobel prize winners since 1929.</p>
<p>Gitlin said the affiliation will help the institution attract new people to Cape Cod. He called Woods Hole and MBL “a place for discovery” and said the deal will bring the lab into a new era.</p>
<p>More than 270 scientists pursue research year-round under the auspices of MBL, according to information provided by the laboratory. Hundreds of additional scientists, summer staff and research associates join MBL seasonally from universities around the world.</p>
<p>The potential for the university to bring students to Woods Hole during the winter — when much of the MBL facilities are empty — was an attractive angle for many corporation voters.</p>
<p>The university could bring faculty or students to the Cape to fill some of the winter vacancies, said former MBL Corp. President John Dowling. That, along with the financial implications, makes the deal a “win-win,” he added.</p>
<p>“It’s difficult for any institution to survive on soft money,” Dowling said.</p>
<p>The affiliation will allow the laboratory to stabilize and expand its funds for what Dowling called “very expensive programs.”</p>
<p>As an associate scientist working year-round, Julie Huber welcomed the possibility of working with a “world-class” university.</p>
<p>“Any new sources of funding is great,” she said. “We will be able to keep doing what we do, but better.”</p>
<p>The university and MBL have historical ties, according to information provided by the laboratory. Founding Director Charles O. Whitman was on the faculty of the University of Chicago, as was MBL’s second director, Frank R. Lillie, and both had MBL buildings named after them.</p>
<p>University faculty member Jacques Loeb and Chicago businessman Charles Crane, who served on the MBL board, also have MBL buildings named after them.</p>
<p>“Today’s endorsement of the proposed affiliation between the MBL and the University of Chicago is an encouraging and important step in this ongoing process,” according to a statement from David Greene, executive vice president of the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>A partnership with a large university will help MBL move into the future, said Dyann Wirth, chairwoman of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard University. Scientists used to be able to get work done with just a group of assistants, but access to large-scale databases and technologies is now essential to modern science, she said.</p>
<p>Marine biology has far-reaching implications in the scientific community, from the discovery of molecules to new drugs, she said.</p>
<p>The proposed deal will let MBL “keep what’s really good, make new linkages and create something new,” Wirth said.</p>