Peter Sorger
Scientist
Ludwig Center at Harvard
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
United States of America
Biography
My laboratory explores the control of eukaryotic cell division, focusing on the protein machinery that segregates chromosomes during mitosis and on the signaling networks that regulate cell proliferation and death, defects in which can lead to cancer. We seek to build data-driven, system-wide models of cellular function and are actively developing a pharmacological approach in which disease and therapy are viewed through the prism of quantitative modeling. We focus on two main areas of research: the study of the genomic instability that underlies cancer; and a systems approach to charting mammalian cell signaling and response to anti-cancer drugs. I received my Ph.D. from Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K., and trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Harold Varmus and Andrew Murray at the University of California, San Francisco. I am the Otto Krayer Professor of Systems Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and director of the Center for Cell Decision Processes, an NIH Center of Excellence in Systems Biology. I am also co-founder of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME), MIT’s Computational and Systems Biology Initiative (CSBi), and chair the Council for Systems Biology in Boston.
Research Interest
Cancer, cell cycle, cancer therapy, cell signalling
Publications
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Fritz, Jürgen, et al. "Electronic detection of DNA by its intrinsic molecular charge." Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences 99.22 (2002): 14142-14146.
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Spencer, Sabrina L., et al. "Non-genetic origins of cell-to-cell variability in TRAIL-induced apoptosis." Nature 459.7245 (2009): 428.
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Michel, Loren S., et al. "MAD2haplo-insufficiency causes premature anaphase and chromosome instability in mammalian cells." Nature 409.6818 (2001): 355.
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Sorger, Peter K., and Hugh RB Pelham. "Yeast heat shock factor is an essential DNA-binding protein that exhibits temperature-dependent phosphorylation." Cell 54.6 (1988): 855-864.
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El-Ali, Jamil, Peter K. Sorger, and Klavs F. Jensen. "Cells on chips." Nature 442.7101 (2006): 403.
