The nonprofit Carnegie Science will close its operations at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University this summer, ending a 100-year cooperation between the school and one of the largest private funders of science research, a Carnegie spokesperson said.
“We are in the final stages of consolidating all of our life sciences research in Pasadena, California, where we are expanding our relationship with Caltech,” Carnegie’s Natasha Metzler told The Baltimore Sun in an email. “This decision was first announced in 2020, and we sold the Maxine F. Singer building on San Martin Drive to Johns Hopkins University in November 2023. Since that time, we have been slowly winding down Carnegie operations on site, and Hopkins has been using more and more of the facility.”
The handoff will be completed in June, she said.
The Carnegie partnership began in December 1914 with the Department of Embryology, working closely with Hopkins’ Anatomy Department, according to the Johns Hopkins Chesney Archives. Researchers at this site were the first to purify a gene and discovered RNA interference, which shuts down gene expression by destroying specific messenger RNA molecules before they can get to work producing proteins. Carnegie Researcher Andrew Fire received a Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery in 2006.
Carnegie Science uses a nearly $1 billion endowment to support researchers “who challenge conventional ideas, define new fields of research, and drive breakthrough discoveries for the betterment of humankind,” its website states.
In 2020, Hopkins tore down the original “Old Carnegie” building, built in 1960 on the north side of its Homewood campus.
Johns Hopkins did not respond to questions about the transition or future use of the Singer building.
Have a news tip? Contact Karl Hille at 443-900-7891 or khille@baltsun.com.
