David M. Gilbert is an American molecular biologist, known for work in DNA replication. He is an investigator at the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute. Gilbert was formerly a professor of molecular biology in the Department of Biological Science and was co-founder and a director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Education and career

Gilbert received his BA degrees in Biochemistry/Cell Biology and Philosophy from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

and his PhD in Genetics from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He did two post-doctoral training periods, first as an EMBO fellow with

Pierre Chambon Pierre Chambon (born 7 February 1931 in Mulhouse, France) was the founder of the in Strasbourg, France. He was one of the leading molecular biologists who utilized gene cloning and sequencing technology to first decipher the structure of eukaryot ...

in Strasbourg, France, studying transcriptional control, and second as a Roche fellow with Melvin DePamphilis studying replication origin recognition. He joined the faculty at State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in 1994 and was appointed full professor in 2003. In 2006, he moved to

. He was elected as a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS) in 2008, as well as becoming a member of the

American Society of Hematology The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is a professional organization representing hematologists. It was founded in 1958. Its annual meeting is held in December of every year and has attracted more than 30,000 attendees. The society publishes th ...

in 2013 and 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 Skokie, Illinois, United States. The organization's mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to hum ...

in 2014. Gilbert's other awards include being named Florida State University Distinguished Research Professor (2015), the Pfeiffer Endowed Professorship for Cancer Research (2015), and the Florida State University Graduate Mentorship award (2016). Gilbert’s work focuses on the mechanisms regulating

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...

during the

cell cycle The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that take place in a cell that cause it to divide into two daughter cells. These events include the duplication of its DNA (DNA replication) and some of its organelles, and subs ...

and the relationship between DNA replication and structural and functional organization of

chromosomes A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

, most recently during differentiation in human and mouse embryonic stem cells and in pediatric leukemia. He is a former

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

in the NIH Encyclopedia of DNA Elements ( ENCODE) Consortium (2011–2017), and is a member of the NIH 4D Nucleome consortium and the Southeast Stem Cell Consortium (SESCC). He has served on

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

(1996–2004) and NIH study sections (1997–present), is an editorial member of the Epigenetics Society and is on the editorial board of the '' Journal of Cell Biology'' (2008–2021). He also maintains ReplicationDomain, a free online database resource for storing, sharing and visualizing large-scale chromosome mapping data. In 2020, Florida State University conducted an investigation into Gilbert's behavior prompted by accusations of sexual misconduct. The report concluded that Gilbert’s “gendered, sexualized and invasive behaviors were severe and pervasive”, and Florida State University removed Gilbert's endowed chair and suspended him without pay for ten days. Gilbert acknowledged some of the alleged incidents and said others were "hearsay, taken out of context, or false", and attributed some of his behavior to "poor judgement" resulting from events in his personal life. He resigned and moved to the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute in June 2021, taking two NIH grants with him. Even though NIH policy required FSU to alert the agency of the investigation and its conclusion in initiating the grant transfers, FSU did not share the report with NIH. NIH later learned the severity of the violations, but awarded another grant to Gilbert in May 2022.

References

External links

Gilbert lab website

ReplicationDomain data base
* Florida State University faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) State University of New York Upstate Medical University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science {{US-academic-scientist-stub