Bruce Stillman, Ph.D.

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006, 12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Schiciano Auditorium, Fitzpatrick CIEMAS Building

Dr. Stillman will discuss the use of multiple new technologies for the discovery and characterization of human cancers. These technologies include whole genomic analysis of tumor DNA, RNA interference libraries and the use of stem cells to create animal models for human cancers. Such approaches have led to the identification of new therapeutic targets and diagnostic strategies.

Dr. Bruce Stillman is President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the north shore of Long Island in New York. A native of Australia, he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with honors at Sydney University and a Ph.D. at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. He then moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 1979 and has been at the Laboratory ever since, being promoted to the scientific staff in 1981. In 1992, Dr. Stillman was named Director of the Cancer Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a position he still holds. In 1994, he succeeded Dr. James D. Watson as Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and was appointed President in 2003.

 

Dr. Stillman's research focuses on the mechanism and regulation of duplication of DNA and chromatin in cells, a process that ensures accurate inheritance of genetic information from one cell generation to the next.

 

Dr. Stillman has received a number of honors, including election as a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1993, election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2000, and in 1999 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to scientific research. In 1994, Dr. Stillman was awarded the Julian Wells Medal (Australia), and in 2004, he was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation with Dr. Thomas Kelly. In 2006, he received the American Cancer Society Basic Science Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology. He has also received three honorary doctorates.

 

Dr. Stillman is a past recipient of research awards from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation. He is a former chair of the Experimental Virology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and is a member of a number of academic societies. Dr. 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 M.I.T. Cancer Center and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. He is on the Boards of the New York Biotechnology Association and AMDeC, an academic medicine development organization in New York. He is currently an advisor to Amgen, Symphony Capital and EnGeneIC (an Australian biotech company). He is past co-chair of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Cancer Institute and a member of the NCI Executive Committee and recently completed a term as vice-chair of the National Cancer Policy Board.