Frederick W. Alt is an American geneticist. He is a member of the

Immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see ther ...

section of the

National Academy of 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 Nat ...

and a Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of

Genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar worki ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools ...

.Dana-Farber profile
/ref> He is the Director of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, since 1987.

Career

Alt completed his undergraduate studies at

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

, graduating in 1971. He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University in 1977 while under the research direction of

Robert Schimke Robert Tod Schimke (October 25, 1932 – September 6, 2014) was an American biochemist and cancer researcher. He was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of a dentist and a homemaker. Schimke obtained an undergraduate degree from Stanford Univers ...

. He performed his postdoctoral work in

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Tech ...

's laboratory at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT). From 1982 to 1991 he was on the faculty at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

and then moved to Harvard Medical School. Alt's research interest is in maintenance of genome stability in cells of the mammalian immunological system, particularly antigen receptor variable region gene assembly in developing B and T lymphocytes,

immunoglobulin heavy chain The immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) is the large polypeptide subunit of an antibody (immunoglobulin). In human genome, the IgH gene loci are on chromosome 14. A typical antibody is composed of two immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chains and two Ig li ...

class switch recombination (CSR), and somatic hypermutation in activated mature B lymphocytes.

Personal life

Alt is the son-in-law of the organic chemist,

Koji Nakanishi was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University. Early life Nakanishi was born in Hong Kong on May 11, 192 ...

, who served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at

. Alt is also the father of the chef and food writer, J. Kenji López-Alt.

Awards, memberships and honors

He has received many awards, this is a select list: * Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research * Rabbi Shai Shacknai Prize from The

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

* Leukemia & Lymphoma Society de Villiers International Achievement Award * Irvington Institute Immunology Award *

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. T ...

Alfred K. Knudson Award for pioneering contributions that have revolutionized the field of Cancer Genetics * AAI-Huang Meritorious Career Award, American Association of Immunologists * Excellence in Mentoring Award, American Association of Immunologists. * 2004 – Pasarow Foundation Prize for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research * 2007 – Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology for his discoveries on B cell development and antigen responses * 2009 – William B. Coley Award for New Discoveries in Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute * 2014 – 44th annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research * 2015 –

Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research The Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, established by National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) and named in honor of Albert Szent-Györgyi, Nobel Laureate and co-founder of NFCR, has been awarded annually since 2006 to out ...

, from the

National Foundation for Cancer Research National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1973. It provides funds to cancer scientists and researchers, with the ultimate goal of a cure for cancer. Awards The Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progr ...

(NFCR) * 2019 – BioLegend Herzenberg Award, for "exemplary research contributions to the field of B cell biology", American Association of Immunologists. * 2023 – Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter PrizePaul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2023
/ref> The Cancer Research Institute of New York gives an annual prize in his honor, the Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology. Alt is a member of: *

U.S. National Academy of 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 ...

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, ...

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

References

External links

Official page at Harvard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alt, Frederick American geneticists Harvard Medical School faculty Living people Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology