Paul W. Sternberg

Paul W. Sternberg is the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, where he is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Sternberg seeks to understand how a genome controls development, behavior, and physiology. The Sternberg lab uses Caenorhabditis elegans molecular genetics to understand detailed mechanisms of these phenomena, as well as C. elegans functional genomics to obtain global views of development and behavior. In order to do this, their research tightly couples computation and experimental data, in part to use computation to make experimental tests more efficient. Sternberg is well known for his work using C. elegans as a model to study the signal transduction pathway by which proto-oncogenes control the fates of cells during organismal development. Another, parallel line of research in the Sternberg lab is the study of the genomes, genetics, and biology of other nematodes to help comprehend C. elegans, to learn how development and behavior evolve, and to learn how to control parasitic and pestilent nematodes. Sternberg is also a leader of the WormBase Consortium, founded in 2000, an international consortium of biologists and computer scientists dedicated to providing the research community with accurate, current, accessible information concerning the genetics, genomics and biology of C. elegans and related nematodes. In addition to his American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership, Sternberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His numerous publications appear in journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, and Science.