Cold Spring Harbor Lab President Wins Prestigious Research Honor

The president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has been awarded the 2019 2019 Canada Gairdner International Award—a prestigious award given by the Gairdner Foundation or DNA research.

Dr. Bruce Stillman, who is also the CEO of the lab, received the award in honor of his "pivotal contributions to research," the lab announced.

“The entire faculty of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory joins me in congratulating Bruce on receiving this well-deserved and prestigious award honoring his groundbreaking research accomplishments in the field of DNA replication,” said CSHL Director of Research Dr. David Spector. “CSHL has benefited greatly from Bruce’s dedication to both basic research and his profound role as President and CEO, guiding the institution on a positive trajectory.”

Stillman is being honored for "pioneering research on the eukaryotic DNA replication cycles including initiation, regulation, and responses to DNA damage," according to the lab.

Stillman will share the award with collaborator Dr. John Diffley, Associate Director of the Francis Crick Institute and Stillman’s former postdoctoral fellow.

Stillman’s discovery of the Origin Recognition Complex (ORC) and his research on the process and regulation of chromosome replication have changed how scientists understand chromosomes.

The Gairdner Foundation’s announcement said “by describing the exact sequence of events involved in DNA replication, Stillman and Diffley have provided key insights into how our genome is duplicated and how this process is coordinated with many other essential cellular events, which have implications for understanding genome instability and tumor heterogeneity in cancer.”