Biography
Walter Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 21, 1932 to Richard Gilbert, a Harvard University economist, and Emma Cohen, a child psychologist. In 1939 his family moved to Washington D.C., where he attended public schools and later the Sidwell Friends School. Gilbert developed an early interest in science; he ground mirrors for his own telescope, joined scientific clubs, and in 1949 was awarded a Westinghouse Science Scholarship by the Science Clubs of America Talent Search. In addition to his scientific pursuits, Gilbert wrote poetry, prose, and plays, and would go on to study philosophy and Chinese while an undergraduate.
In 1949 he graduated from Sidwell Friends School and pursued his scientific interests at Harvard University, studying chemistry and physics. He was awarded numerous scholarships, was elected to the Harvard Chapter of the Society of Sigma Xi, and graduated with a degree in physics in 1953. He then went on to attend Cambridge University (Trinity College) in England, aided by a National Science Foundation fellowship. At Cambridge his thesis advisor was future Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, and in 1957 he graduated with a PhD in mathematics. After graduation he returned to the United States and married Celia Stone, a poet he met while attending Sidwell Friends School.
In 1958 Gilbert joined the faculty at Harvard as a lecturer in physics, and in 1959 he was appointed assistant professor of physics. In the early 1960s he became interested in messenger RNA and worked with James D. Watson on experiments to isolate the nucleic acid. From this point on Gilbert’s scientific career would be primarily focused on molecular biology; his first paper on messenger RNA appeared in Nature in 1961, while his last paper on physics would be published in 1964. In 1964 he was appointed associate professor of biophysics, and in 1968 he was promoted to professor of biophysics.
Beginning in the mid-1960s he began investigating why different cells produce different proteins (even though they have identical DNA), and with Benno Müller-Hill he isolated the lac repressor gene in Escherichia coli, which prevented the production of certain enzymes except when lactose is present in the cell. This confirmed an earlier theory, proposed by Jacques Monod and François Jacob, that repressor genes regulate the process of protein synthesis in the cell. He then went on to develop a pioneering method for determining the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (Frederick Sanger independently developed the same method). For this work he was awarded the 1979 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (with Sanger), the 1979 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (with Sanger and Roger Wolcott Sperry), and finally the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Sanger and Paul Berg).
In 1978 he cofounded, with other prominent biologists and businessmen, Biogen, one of the earliest biotechnology companies. He left Harvard to run the company in 1982. In 1985 he resigned as chairman and CEO of Biogen and returned to Harvard to conduct research. In 1987 he was appointed Carl M. Loeb University Professor at the university. In 1992 he founded the biotechnology company Myriad Genetics, and would go to serve on the advisory board of numerous other biotech firms.
He is married to Celia Stone, and has two children.
Found in 40 Collections and/or Records:
File — Box CR56, Folder: 13
Identifier: JDW_02_02_0686_001
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
1960, 1975-1991
File
Identifier: PA_056_Gilbert
Scope and Contents
Speaker introduces Walter Gilbert; Gilbert lectures about the Human Genome Project from the viewpoint of neurobiology.
Dates:
1954 - 2006; Majority of material found within 1995 - 2002
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The discovery of mRNA splicing in 1977 established a new step in the central dogma of molecular biology, the “flow” of genetic information from DNA to RNA to the protein product. Our meeting will focus on forty years of advances in this field with topics such as the spliceosome, alternative RNA splicing, diseases related to RNA splicing, and therapeutics focused on RNA splicing. The meeting will encompass discussions not only of what has already been accomplished, but also how this history...
Dates:
2017
Item — Box CP16, Folder: 16
Identifier: SB_1_1_631_1
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
18/03/1964
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_1
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
8/7/1987
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_3
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
9/3/1972
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_6
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
2/4/1969
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_8
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
24/03/1969
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_11
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
15/01/1969
Item — Box CP06, Folder: 9
Identifier: SB_1_1_232_2
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
6/3/1972