David A. Sanders
David
Sanders is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Yale College in Molecular
Biophysics and Biochemistry. He conducted graduate research with Dr. Daniel
E. Koshland, Jr., who was then editor of the journal Science, at the University
of California at Berkeley. His Biochemistry Ph.D. thesis concerned his
discovery of a critical biochemical reaction that underlies how bacteria
sense and respond to changes in their environments. He also originated
the idea for a "Molecule of the Year" (now called "Breakthrough
of the Year") feature in Science. Following a position as a Visiting
Scientist at the University of California at San Francisco, where he studied
signal-transducing GTPases, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead
Institute for Biomedical Research, which is affiliated with M.I.T. It was
there that he began his studies on the entry of viruses into cells with
a focus on the inhibition of infection and applications to gene therapy.
He joined the Markey Center for Structural Biology at Purdue in 1995, where
he is also a member of the Cancer Center. Dr. Sanders was the discoverer
of a biochemical reaction that leads to the entry of cancer-causing retroviruses
into cells. His work on the Ebola virus led to his participation in the
U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Biological Weapons Proliferation
Prevention Program, a product of the Nunn-Lugar legislation. His responsibilities
included inspecting the Vector laboratory in Siberia, which was the site
of biological-weapons development in the era of the Soviet Union. He has
investigated the transmission of viruses from other animals, especially
birds, to humans and is often invited to speak on biodefense, evolution,
gene therapy, vaccination and influenza viruses in public forums, including
regular interviews on WIBC in Indianapolis, He is a recipient of the National
Science Foundation CAREER Award and an American Cancer Society Research
Scholar.
