Bruce William Stillman

Bruce William Stillman, AO, FAA, FRS (born 16 October 1953, in Melbourne, Australia) is a biochemist and cancer researcher who has served as the Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) since 1994 and President since 2003. He also served as the Director of its NCI-designated Cancer Center for 25 years from 1992 to 2016.[2] During his leadership, CSHL has been ranked as the No. 1 institution in molecular biology and genetics research by Thomson Reuters.[3] Stillman's research focuses on how chromosomes are duplicated in human cells and in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae; the mechanisms that ensure accurate inheritance of genetic material from one generation to the next; and how missteps in this process lead to cancer. For his accomplishments, Stillman has received numerous awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize in 2004[1] and the 2010 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize,[4] both of which he shared with Thomas J. Kelly of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,[5] as well as the 2019 Canada Gairdner International Award for biomedical research, which he shared with John Diffley.[6]

Bruce William Stillman
Born(1953-10-16)16 October 1953
Melbourne, Australia
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
(BSc [Hons. 1]),
Australian National University (PhD)
SpouseGrace Stillman
Children2
AwardsAlfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize,[1] Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Canada Gairdner International Award, Dr. H. P. Heineken Prize
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsCold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Life and career

Stillman was educated at Glen Waverley High School (1966-1969) and Sydney Boys High School (1970–71), then graduated with First Class honours from the University of Sydney, and earned his PhD from the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

He began his career at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1979 with investigations into how DNA is copied, starting with studying DNA replication of human adenovirus as a model. He then began to study how the genome of simian virus 40 (SV40) is duplicated in cells. Eventually his research focused on how cellular chromosomes are duplicated and how the entire process is regulated in cells, studying the process primarily in the yeast S. cerevisiae and in human cells. This work provided key insights into how both virus and cellular oncoproteins manipulate cellular physiology to bring about oncogenic transformation.

One of his most significant achievements was the biochemical reconstitution with purified proteins of the complete replication of the SV40 DNA genome. This system utilized the virus-encoded T antigen that binds to the SV40 virus origin of DNA replication, the start site for DNA synthesis, coupled with purified human proteins,[7] many of them discovered by Stillman and his colleagues. These proteins include RPA, RFC, PCNA, and the discovery that multiple DNA polymerases participate in the process of copying DNA, often switching from one polymerase to the other.

Another major accomplishment was the discovery of the Origin Recognition Complex (ORC), a key protein made up of six subunits that binds to cellular origins of DNA replication and coordinates the entire process of initiating a complete cycle of DNA replication throughout the entire cell genome. Soon after the discovery of ORC, Stillman's group identified other initiation proteins that together form the pre-replication complex (pre-RC), which makes chromosomes competent for the subsequent initiation of DNA replication during the S phase of the cell cycle.[8][9][10] His group's recent studies have revealed the intricate details of the mechanism of the initiation of DNA replication and illuminated how this process is regulated throughout the cell cycle, including the mechanisms that prevent DNA replication from occurring more than once during each cell cycle. These studies include elucidation of the structure of ORC and its associated pre-RC proteins.

Stillman has also studied how the proteins associated with the cellular DNA are inherited as cells divide. The proteins that combine with DNA to organize the genome into a chromatin structure include histones. He developed a biochemical system to study DNA replication-coupled chromatin assembly in a test tube and discovered proteins such as Chromatin Assembly Factor-1 (CAF-1) that cooperate with the DNA replication machinery to assemble new histones onto the DNA. These studies resulted in understanding how chromatin is inherited.

Honors and awards

Professional activities

Stillman is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and advises a number of other research organizations including the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He is a former advisor to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, the Lewis-Sigler Institute at Princeton University, and advises a number of corporations. He is past co-chair of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Cancer Institute, past vice-chair of the National Cancer Policy Board of the National Institute of Medicine and past member of the Board on Life Sciences of the National Research Council. He also served as a member of the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors and as a member of the State University of New York Research Council.[19]

Further reading

References
  1. "Cold Spring Harbor Scientist Bruce Stillman Awarded Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 10 June 2004. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  2. "Dr. David Tuveson named Director, NCI-Designated Cancer Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory". 29 November 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  3. "Top 10 Institutions in Molecular Biology and Genetics". Thomson Reuters and Nature Magazine. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  4. "Bruce Stillman, PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's president, wins 2010 Horwitz Prize for seminal work on DNA replication". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  5. "Horwitz Prize Awardees". Columbia University Irving Medical Center. 20 June 2018.
  6. "Gairdner Awards 2019 Laureates". gairdner.org.
  7. Waga, S.; Bauer, G.; Stillman B. (1994). "Reconstitution of complete SV40 DNA replication with purified replication factors". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 269 (14): 10923–10934. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(17)34146-7. PMID 8144677.
  8. Waga, S.; Stillman, B. (1998). "The DNA replication fork in eukaryotic cells". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 67: 721–751. doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.67.1.721. PMID 9759502.
  9. Bell, S.P.; Stillman, B. (1992). "ATP dependent recognition of eukaryotic origins of DNA replication by a multi-protein complex". Nature. 357 (6374): 128–134. Bibcode:1992Natur.357..128B. doi:10.1038/357128a0. PMID 1579162. S2CID 4346767.
  10. Stillman, B. (1996). "Cell cycle control of DNA replication". Science. 274 (5293): 1659–1664. Bibcode:1996Sci...274.1659S. doi:10.1126/science.274.5293.1659. PMID 8939847. S2CID 23519414.
  11. "Professor Bruce William Stillman"., Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
  12. "Fellows List - National Academy of Inventors". academyofinventors.org.
  13. "Bruce Stillman Awarded Clarkson University Honorary Degree - Clarkson University". www.clarkson.edu.
  14. Mosher, Julianne (20 April 2019). "CSHL's Stillman Recognized for Research |". Huntington Now. HuntingtonNow.com. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  15. "Bruce Stillman - Heineken Prizes". 2 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  16. "Dr Bruce Stillman AO". advance.org. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  17. "2010 to date, Roll of Honorary Doctorates". Alumni. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  18. "2024 ASBMB Annual Award winners". 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  19. "State University of New York Research Council".
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