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The Walter Massey Family Lectureship
8/6/09 - 4:00 PM, Speck Auditorium
"Decoding RNA Regulation in the Brain"
Robert Darnell, Rockefeller University
Dr. Darnell received his undergraduate degree double majoring in Biology and Chemistry at Columbia University, and his MD and PhD from the Washington University School of Medicine in 1985, where he specialized in molecular biology. He trained in Internal Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical School in NY, and in Neurology at Cornell University Medical School, where he was Chief Neurology Resident in 1989-1990. In 1990 he was appointed Clinical Assistant Attending Neuro-Oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and in 1993, he joined the Rockefeller University as Assistant Professor, Head of Laboratory, and Associate Physician at the Rockefeller University Hospital. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor and Senior Physician in 2000. In 2006 he was made Director for Scientific Programs at the Rockefeller University Hospital. He continues to holds affiliate positions as Attending Neurologist and Member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he remains clinically active as an Attending Physician, and as Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Cornell University Weill Medical College. Dr. Darnell has served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of numerous foundations, which currently include the Fragile-X Research Foundation and Chairman of the NINDS Board of Scientific Counselors. His awards include the Irma T. Hirschl Careen Scientist Award, the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. In 2002, Dr. Darnell was appointed Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and named the Heilbrunn Cancer Professor at Rockefeller University.
Dr. Darnell has pioneered translational studies of the paraneoplastic neurologic disorders (PNDs), disorders in which tumor immunity is linked to autoimmune brain degenerative disease. He developed the concept that PNDs provide a basic approach to understanding brain specific functions co-opted by tumor cells, as well as the best documented example of naturally occurring human tumor immunity amenable to study. His work led to the discovery of several neuron-specific RNA binding proteins. Darnell was the first to recognize the need for combining genetic approaches with biochemistry and new methods development to study RNA regulation in vivo. Darnell found rules predicting brain-specific alternative splicing, studying the Nova RNA-binding protein in depth, which he showed coordinately regulates splicing and alternative polyadenylation in transcripts encoding synaptic proteins. He has developed a general theory of how genome-wide RNA-binding maps predict protein-RNA regulation, is being validated by innovative new methods. Recently he has generalized his work to develop the first precise means of pinpointing miRNA-mRNA regulatory sites and hence a means to understand the interactions between the protein and miRNA pathways regulating RNA expression.
Walter Eugene Massey was born on April 5, 1938, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to Almar and Essie Massey. His mother was a teacher and his father worked in a chemical plant. Dr. Massey went on to complete the highest levels of education, earning a B.S. from Morehouse College in 1958 and later his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at Washington University in 1966. Growing up in racially segregated Mississippi, Dr. Massey did not begin his career with aspirations to become a college president. His proclivity for science led him to a career as a physicist. His research was in the Theory of Quantum Liquids and Solids. The turning point in his career came when he assumed a faculty position at the University of Illinois, Urbana. The offer to join the faculty of University of Illinois in 1968 coincided with the movement to integrate African Americans into higher education.
Dr. Massey went on to become a professor and later Dean of the College at Brown University, Vice President for research at the University of Chicago, and Provost of the University of California system. He served as Director of Argonne National Laboratory from 1979 through 1984. Following his tenure as Argonne’s Director, he served as Vice-President for Research at the University of Chicago with Argonne National Laboratory being under his supervision. Subsequently, Dr. Massey served as the Director of the National Science Foundation from 1990 to 1993. On June 1, 1995, Dr. Massey was named the ninth president of Morehouse College, where he served until 2007.
In recognition of his many accomplishments, Dr. Massey has been awarded more than forty honorary doctorates and numerous awards for excellence in teaching. In addition, he is active in several professional organizations and maintains a commitment to service through his affiliation with a number of civic, cultural, and community organizations.
Dr. Massey lives in Chicago with his wife, Shirley Anne Massey. They have two sons, Keith and Eric, and three grandchildren.
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