Robert B. Darnell

Robert B. Darnell

Darnell lecturing in 2010
Born Robert Bernard Darnell
October 29, 1957
Washington, D.C.
Nationality American
Fields Neurooncology
Neuroscience
Immunology
Alma mater Columbia College, Columbia University, Washington University School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Doctoral advisor Robert G. Roeder
Notable awards National Academy of Science in 2014
Institute of Medicine in 2010
Spouse Jennifer Eve Cordes (m. 1987; 4 children)

Robert Darnell is an American neuro-oncologist and neuroscientist who is the President and Scientific Director of the New York Genome Center, Professor at The Rockefeller University,[1] and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research into rare autoimmune brain diseases led to the invention of the HITS-CLIP method to study RNA regulation, and he is developing new ways to explore the regulatory portions—known as the “dark matter”—of the human genome.[2]

At The Rockefeller University Darnell is the Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor of Cancer Biology, Head of Laboratory, and Senior Attending Physician, and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute he is has been an Investigator since 1992,[3] a Senior Physician at the Rockefeller University Hospital, and an Adjunct Attending Neuro-Oncologist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was named to the New York Genome Center position on November 28, 2012.[4]

His research is concentrated on paraneoplastic syndromes (PNDs, the Paraneoplastic Neurologic Disorders), disorders touching on various clinical and basic aspects of biology including Cancer immunology, Neuroimmunology, and RNA-binding proteins. His laboratory cloned and characterized the neuron-specific splicing factors Nova1 and Nova2, and developed the HITS-CLIP technique that is used to map the sites of regulatory interactions between RNA binding proteins and their target RNA sequences.

He received his undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry in 1979 from Columbia University, and his MD/PhD in Molecular Biology in 1985 from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2010 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the AAAS (the American Association for the Advancement of Science), and in 2014 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Darnell comes from a family of scientists; he is the son of American scientist James E. Darnell, another pioneer in RNA research, the father of Alicia Darnell, second place winner in the 2007 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology,[5] as well as the father to Paul Darnell, undergraduate physics student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is married to Jennifer Darnell, a leading authority on the Fragile X syndrome.[6]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ The Darnell Laboratory at Rockefeller University
  2. ↑ Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From 'Junk,' Play Crucial Role, NY Times, 2012
  3. ↑ Robert B. Darnell, Investigator at HHMI
  4. ↑ Physician Scientist Robert Darnell Named President and Scientific Director of New York Genome Center
  5. ↑ Girls Make History by Sweeping Top Honors at a Science Contest, NY Times, 2007
  6. ↑ Jennifer Darnell, Rockefeller University Research Associate Professor
  7. ↑ Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award
  8. ↑ Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational Research
  9. ↑ AAAS Members Elected as Fellows in 2010
  10. ↑ IOM Elects 65 New Members
  11. ↑ 2012 Transformative R01 Award Recipients
  12. ↑ National Academy of Sciences Announces 84 New Members, April 29, 2014

External links