Richard D. Kolodner, PhD
Dr.
Richard D. Kolodner received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Sciences
from the University of California, Irvine and was then a postdoctoral fellow
in the Department of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School. From
1978 to 1997, he was a member of the faculty of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
and Harvard Medical School. Prior to moving to San Diego, Dr. Kolodner was
a full Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He served
as Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Head of the Laboratory
of X-Ray Crystallography and also served three-year terms as Chair of the
Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology and as Chair of the Charles A.
Dana Division of Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Kolodner was named the Charles A. Dana Investigator at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute in 1996. Since 1997, Dr. Kolodner has been a member of the
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research where he is Head of the Laboratory of
Cancer Genetics at the Ludwig Institute, San Diego Branch. He is also Professor,
Department of Medicine and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine,
and Member of the Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego,
School of Medicine.
Dr. Kolodner's research interests are in the areas of the genetics and molecular mechanisms of recombination and repair, with a particular focus on the pathways that maintain genome stability. He is also active in the area of the human genetics of inherited cancer susceptibility. For many years his work has focused on the biochemical and genetic characterization of proteins that function in recombination and repair in E. coli and more recently yeast. Of particular interest have been his studies of DNA mismatch repair, which led to the identification and characterization of many of the genes and proteins that function in eukaryotic mismatch repair. Dr. Kolodner played a key role in the cloning of the human mismatch repair genes, and the demonstration that inherited defects in mismatch repair underlie Hereditary Non-polyposis Colorectal Cancer, and that acquired loss of mismatch repair underlies varying proportions of different sporadic cancers. More recently his laboratory has developed methods for identifying the genes and pathways that prevent genome rearrangements such as translocations and is studying how defects in such genes may provide insights into the origin of the genome rearrangements seen in human cancers.
Dr. Kolodner is an Associate Editor of Cell and serves on the editorial board of Cellular and Molecular Biology, the Journal of Biological Chemistry and DNA Repair. He served as an Associate Editor for Cancer Research from 1995-2000. He has served on numerous advisory and review boards and presently serves on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Councilors and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Review Board. An author or co-author on more than 210 scientific publications, Dr. Kolodner has received numerous honors and awards, most recently these include: a National Institutes of Health MERIT Award, 1992; a Sandoz Special Scientific Achievement Award, 1994; the Morse Research Award, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 1994; the 1996 Charles S. Mott Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation; election, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, 1998; the Mutation Research Award for Scientific Excellence, 2000; election to the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 2000; and the Ernst W. Bernter Award, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (2002).