Douglas A. Melton is an American medical researcher who is the Xander University Professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and was an investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

until 2022. Melton is a co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and was an original co-chairman (with David Scadden) of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Melton founded of several biotech companies including

Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...

, Ontogeny (now Curis), iPierian (now True North Therapeutics ), and Semma Therapeutics. Melton is a member of the

National Academy of the Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, and is a founding member of the

International Society for Stem Cell Research The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Evanston, Illinois, United States. The organization's mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to hu ...

. Fox, Michael J. (May 3, 2007)
"The 2007 Time 100: Douglas Melton"
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''.

Early life and education

Melton grew up in

Blue Island, Illinois Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, south of Chicago Loop, Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park, Chicago, Morgan Park neighborho ...

and completed a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in biology at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1975.Doug Melton's Curriculum Vitae
/ref> He was awarded a

Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is considered among the most prestigious scholarsh ...

for study at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where he received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in the history and philosophy of science in 1977 and a PhD under the supervision of

John Gurdon Sir John Bertrand Gurdon (born 2 October 1933) is a British developmental biologist, best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning. Awarded the Lasker Award in 2009, in 2012, he and Shinya Yamanaka were joint ...

Career and research

Melton's early work was in general developmental biology, identifying genes important for cell fate determination and body pattern. This led to the finding that the nervous system in

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

s is formed as a default when early embryonic cells do not receive inductive signals to become

mesoderm The mesoderm is the middle layer of the three germ layers that develops during gastrulation in the very early development of the embryo of most animals. The outer layer is the ectoderm, and the inner layer is the endoderm.Langman's Medical ...

endoderm Endoderm is the innermost of the three primary germ layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm (outside layer) and mesoderm (middle layer). Cells migrating inward along the archenteron form the inner layer of the gastr ...

. He also pioneered the technique of ''in vitro'' transcription with bacterial SP6 RNA polymerase. This RNA transcription system is now widely used to make large amounts of messenger RNAs in vitro and is, for example, the basis for production of the COVID mRNA vaccines. In the mid-1990s, work in his lab became centered on the development of the

pancreas The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an Organ (anatomy), organ of the Digestion, digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdominal cavity, abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a ...

aiming to find new treatments for diabetes. In 2001 when President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

cut federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, Melton used private donations to create 17 published human stem cell lines and distributed them without charge to researchers around the world. In August 2008, Melton's lab published successful

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, an ...

reprogramming In biology, reprogramming refers to erasure and remodeling of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, during mammalian development or in cell culture. Such control is also often associated with alternative covalent modifications of histones. ...

of adult mice exocrine pancreatic cells into insulin secreting cells which closely resembled endogenous islet beta cells of the pancreas in terms of their size, shape, ultrastructure, and essential marker genes. Unlike producing beta cells from conventional

embryonic stem cells Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are Cell potency#Pluripotency, pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-Implantation (human embryo), implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4� ...

or the more recently developed

induced pluripotent stem cell Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi in Kyoto, Jap ...

(iPSC) technique, Melton's method involved direct cell reprogramming of an adult cell type (exocrine cell) into other adult cell type (beta cell) without reversion to a pluripotent stem cell state. His current research interests include pancreatic developmental biology and the directed differentiation of human

embryonic stem cell Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are Cell potency#Pluripotency, pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-Implantation (human embryo), implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4� ...

s, particularly in pertinence to

type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic cells (beta cells). In healthy persons, beta cells produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone require ...

. In 2014, he reported a method using human pluripotent stem cells to generate virtually unlimited quantities of functional insulin-producing beta cells that respond appropriately to a glucose challenge. In 2022, Melton left

and joined

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maint ...

full-time to create diabetes treatments.

Awards and honors

Melton was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and the

in 1995. In 2007 and again in 2009, Melton was listed among the ''Time'' 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2016, Melton was awarded the Ogawa-Yamanaka Prize in Stem Cell Biology. In 2023 he received the

Abarca Prize The Doctor Juan Abarca International Award in Medical Sciences, known as the Abarca Prize, is an award that recognises research and innovation through a biomedical finding of global significance. Background Created in 2020 by the Fundación de ...

for his advances towards a cure for diabetes.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Melton, Douglas 1953 births Living people American medical researchers University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates Harvard University faculty Marshall Scholars Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Stem cell researchers People from Blue Island, Illinois Members of the National Academy of Medicine Searle Scholars Program recipients