Charles R. Cantor (born 26 August 1942) is an American molecular geneticist who, in conjunction with David Schwartz, developed pulse field gel electrophoresis for very large DNA molecules. Cantor's three-volume book, ''Biophysical Chemistry'' co-authored with Paul Schimmel, was an influential textbook in the 1980s and 1990s.

Career

Charles Cantor received his AB from

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 ...

in 1963 and PhD from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1966. He is Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

. While on a two-year sabbatical acting as Chief Scientific Officer at

Sequenom Sequenom () is an American company based in San Diego, California. It develops enabling molecular technologies, and highly sensitive laboratory genetic tests for NIPT. Sequenom's wholly owned subsidiarity, Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine ...

, Inc. he maintained his research laboratory at Boston University. He is also a co-founder and Director of Retrotope, a US-based company using heavier isotopes of carbon (¹³C) and hydrogen (²H,

deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...

) to stabilize essential compounds like amino acids,

nucleic acids Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

and

lipids Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids includ ...

to target age-related diseases. Cantor held positions at

(1981–1989) and the

(1989–1992), before moving to

in 1992. In 2017 he became Professor Adjunct in Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research. He has been director of the Department of Energy

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

and Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He is a consultant to more than 16 biotech firms, has published more than 400 peer reviewed articles, been granted 54 US patents, and co-authored a three-volume textbook on Biophysical Chemistry.

Publications

Papers

Charles Cantor obtained his Ph.D. in the group of

Ignacio Tinoco Ignacio is a male Spanish and Galician name originating either from the Roman family name Egnatius, meaning born from the fire, of Etruscan origin, or from the Latin name "Ignatius" from the word "Ignis" meaning "fire". This was the name of sev ...

, with whom he published work on the optical properties of nucleotides. In post-doctoral work with Thomas Jukes he studied repetitive sequences in polypeptides, but most of his independent research has concerned nucleic acids, from his early work with

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR) and repetitive sequences in polydeoxyribonucleotides. onwards. Cantor’s laboratory at

has developed methods for separating large DNA molecules, for studying structural relationships in complex

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respondi ...

and

, and for sensitive detection of proteins and nucleic acids in a variety of settings. His work has been very highly cited, with five papers cited more than 1000 times each: 2709 citations of work on a toggle switch in Escherichia coli, 2594 of his paper on microtubule assembly, 2412 on his paper on pulsed field gradient gel-electrophoresis, 1437 on the launching of the

ENCODE The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) is a public research project which aims to identify functional elements in the human genome. ENCODE also supports further biomedical research by "generating community resources of genomics data, software ...

project (with about 200 authors), and 1176 on a study of noise in gene expression.

Reviews

Cantor's reviews include one on the physical chemistry of nucleic acids.

Books

Cantor co-authored ''Biophysical Chemistry'' with Paul Schimmel, which was published in three volumes: Part 1, The Conformation of Biological Macromolecules; Part 2, Techniques for the Study of Biological Structure and Function; Part 3, The Behavior of Biological Macromolecules With Cassandra Smith, he wrote ''Genomics: The Science and Technology Behind the Human Genome Project''.

References

External links

CharlesCantor.OrgA schedule of Dr. Charles Cantor's upcoming scientific talksManagement Team of Sequenom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantor, Charles Living people 1942 births Columbia University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Boston University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences New England Complex Systems Institute Columbia College (New York) alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni