Stanley Fields is an American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

best known for developing the

yeast two hybrid Two-hybrid screening (originally known as yeast two-hybrid system or Y2H) is a molecular biology technique used to discover protein–protein interactions (PPIs) and protein–DNA interactions by testing for physical interactions (such as bindi ...

method for identifying protein–protein interactions. He is currently a professor of Genome Sciences at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Investigator.

Education

Fields was educated at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in 1981 for research carried out in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) with

Greg Winter Sir Gregory Paul Winter (born 14 April 1951) is a Nobel Prize-winning English molecular biologist best known for his work on the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies. His research career has been based almost entirely at the MRC Laborator ...

and

George Brownlee Professor George Gow Brownlee Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FMedSci is a British pathologist and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. Education Brownlee was educated at Dulwich College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he studied Natural Sc ...

Research

Along with Matt Kaeberlein and Brian Kennedy, Fields has carried out genome-wide screens for aging genes in

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...

. Kaeberlein and co-workers have questioned the hypothesis that lifespan extension from

caloric restriction Calorie restriction (caloric restriction or energy restriction) is a dietary regimen that reduces intake of energy from caloric foods & beverages without incurring malnutrition. "Reduce" can be defined relative to the subject's previous intake be ...

is mediated by

Sirtuins Sirtuins are a family of signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation. They are ancient in animal evolution and appear to possess a highly conserved structure throughout all kingdoms of life. Chemically, sirtuins are a class of proteins ...

. Instead Kaeberlein, Fields, and Kennedy have proposed that

increases lifespan by decreasing the activity of the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) kinase.

Honors and awards

*2003 Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine (jointly with Roger Brent)

References

1955 births Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Living people American molecular biologists American geneticists University of Washington faculty Howard Hughes Medical Investigators {{US-biologist-stub