Brent Stockwell Explained

Brent Stockwell
Birth Place:Bay Terrace, Queens, New York, US
Education:AB, chemistry and economics, Cornell University
PhD, 1999, Harvard University
Thesis Title:Forward and reverse chemical genetic studies of transforming growth factor beta signaling
Thesis Year:1999
Known For:discovering Ferroptosis
Awards:Beckman Young Investigators Award
Workplaces:Columbia University
Whitehead Institute
Harvard University

Brent Roark Stockwell is an American chemical biologist. He is a Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry at Columbia University. In 2012, Stockwell and Scott Dixon coined the term ferroptosis and described several of its key features.

Early life and education

Stockwell was born in Bay Terrace, New York and attended Hunter College High School. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry and economics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University.[1] While completing his doctorate degree, Stockwell worked in the laboratory of Stuart Schreiber where he spent eighteen months unsuccessfully investigating a molecule that could shut down the protein TGF-beta. He eventually used naturally occurring molecules to block the effects of TGF-beta, resulting in the discovery that synthetic molecules were unlikely to be successful drug candidates.[2] As a result of his research, Stockwell founded CombinatoRx to develop combinations of FDA-approved drugs to fight disease.[3]

Following his PhD, Stockwell was appointed as a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute, where he worked on synthetic lethal screens and cell death. In 2003, he developed the first library of biologically annotated compounds and approved drugs to capture the information underlying cellular mechanisms to give scientists greater and more immediate insight into cell biology mechanisms.[4] [5] He also began a campaign to identify compounds that selectively kill engineered tumor cells, identifying and naming the novel compound erastin.[6]

Career

Upon completing his fellowship, Stockwell joined the faculty at Columbia University as an assistant professor of biological sciences and of chemistry. Early into his tenure at the institution, Stockwell found two new compounds, RSL3 and RSL5, that could kill tumor cells.[7] In order to find drug candidates that could selectively kill tumor cells, Stockwell used cells engineered with a cancer-causing mutation and identical cells lacking the mutation.[3] As a result of his research into undiscovered mechanisms controlling cell death, Stockwell received a 2007 Beckman Young Investigators Award[8] and was named a 2009 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist.[3] Following this, he was one of six winners of the BioAccelerate NYC Prize to conduct late-stage, "proof-of-concept" research on a new class of drugs to treat cancer in a more selective and non-toxic way.[9]

In 2011, Stockwell published his first book entitled The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicine.[10] [11] Later, using erastin, Stockwell discovered the process of ferroptosis, coined the term ferroptosis, described its key mechanisms, and developed the first chemical probes to control ferroptosis.[12] In 2014, he received one of 10 recipients of the 2014 Lenfest Distinguished Teaching Awards.[13]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stockwell co-published Lead compounds for the development of SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors through the journal Nature Communications.[14] He was also recognized by City & State as one of the inaugural Life Sciences Power 50 amongst scientists, entrepreneurs and investors.[15] Later in November, Stockwell was again listed by Clarivate as one of the Highly Cited Researchers of the Year.[16]

Selected publications

Personal life

Stockwell is married to Melissa, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health at Columbia.[17]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Brent R. Stockwell, Ph.D. . columbia.edu . November 15, 2020.
  2. Web site: Quenqua . Douglas . The Long Shot . Columbia University . February 21, 2022 . Winter 2011.
  3. Web site: The 2009 Early Career Scientists: R-T . . February 21, 2022 . 2009.
  4. Web site: Cameron . David . New Compound Library to Speed Drug Discovery . . February 21, 2022 . September 4, 2003.
  5. Root . David E. . Flaherty . Stephen P. . Kelley . Brian P. . Stockwell . Brent R. . Biological Mechanism Profiling Using an Annotated Compound Library . Chemistry & Biology . September 2003 . 10 . 9 . 881–892 . 10.1016/j.chembiol.2003.08.009 . 14522058 . free .
  6. Dolma . Sonam . Lessnick . Stephen L. . Hahn . William C. . Stockwell . Brent R. . Identification of genotype-selective antitumor agents using synthetic lethal chemical screening in engineered human tumor cells . Cancer Cell . March 2003 . 3 . 3 . 285–296 . 10.1016/s1535-6108(03)00050-3 . 12676586 . free .
  7. Web site: Scientists Discover New Way of Selectively Killing Cancer Cells . . February 21, 2022 . March 26, 2008.
  8. Web site: Beckman Young Investigator Award . . February 21, 2022 . August 20, 2007.
  9. Web site: Partnership For New York City And New York City Economic Development Corporation Announce Winners Of $1.5 Million BioAccelerate. Fierce Biotech . February 21, 2022 . May 4, 2010.
  10. Web site: Nathan . David G. . On Discovering Drugs . Harvard Magazine . February 21, 2022 . December 2011.
  11. Kroll . David . The valiant interrogator . . March 22, 2012 . 4 . 239 . 239 . 10.1038/nchem.1316 . 2012NatCh...4..239K . free .
  12. Dixon . Scott J. . Ferroptosis: an iron-dependent form of nonapoptotic cell death . . May 25, 2012 . 149 . 5 . 1060–1072 . 10.1016/j.cell.2012.03.042 . 22632970 . 3367386 . 206559990 .
  13. Web site: Brent Stockwell Receives 2014 Lenfest Distinguished Teaching Award . Columbia University . February 21, 2022 . March 25, 2014.
  14. Lead compounds for the development of SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors . . April 1, 2021 . 12 . 2016 . February 21, 2022.
  15. Web site: The Life Sciences Power 50 . . February 21, 2022 . August 1, 2021.
  16. Web site: Cancer Center Members Named as Highly Cited Researchers . Columbia University . February 21, 2022 . November 16, 2021.
  17. Web site: Instructional Innovators Brent and Melissa Stockwell Highlighted in Columbia News . Columbia University . February 21, 2022 . September 1, 2015.