Stanley Fields

Developed a method to detect protein-protein interactions in living cells that has had a huge impact on molecular biology. His two-hybrid method enabled the elucidation of protein interaction networks in cells and is used to understand how protein-protein interactions are altered in human diseases and may be used as drug targets. In addition, he has been a leader in developing technologies to analyze protein activity and stability in vivo, as well as methods for analysis of nucleic acids. He was one of the first people to investigate gene function genome-wide, an approach now known as functional genomics. His recent research has focused on an approach to provide a quantitative measure of the function of hundreds of thousands of variants of a protein in a single experiment, which can facilitate the interpretation of variation in the human genome observed in clinical sequencing. Other efforts use genome engineering and biosensors to optimize metabolic pathways in yeast, and exploit bacteriophages as sources of novel protein activities. ~~