Walter Gilbert was born inBoston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932, into aJewish family,[6] the son of Emma (Cohen), a child psychologist, and Richard V. Gilbert, an economist.[4][7]
When Gilbert was seven years old, the family moved to theWashington D.C. area so his father could work underHarry Hopkins on the New Dealbrain trust. While living in Washington the family became friends with the family ofI.F. Stone and Wally met Stone's oldest daughter, Celia, when they were both 8. They later married at age 21.[8]
Gilbert returned to Harvard in 1956 and was appointed assistant professor of physics in 1959.[4] Gilbert's wife Celia worked forJames Watson, leading Gilbert to become interested in molecular biology. Watson and Gilbert ran their laboratory jointly through most of the 1960s, until Watson left forCold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[10] In 1964 he was promoted to associate professor of biophysics and promoted again in 1968 to professor of biochemistry.[4]
Gilbert is a co-founder of the biotech start-up companiesBiogen, with Kenneth Murray, Phillip Sharp and Charles Weissman[11] andMyriad Genetics with Dr. Mark Skolnick andKevin Kimberlin[12][13] where he was the first chairman on their respective boards of directors. Gilbert left his position at Harvard to run Biogen as CEO, but was later asked to resign by the company's board of directors.[14] He is a member of the Board of Scientific Governors atThe Scripps Research Institute. Gilbert has served as the chairman of theHarvard Society of Fellows.
In 1996, Gilbert andStuart B. Levy founded Paratek Pharmaceuticals. Gilbert served as chairman until 2014.[15]
Gilbert was an early proponent of sequencing thehuman genome. At a March 1986 meeting inSanta Fe New Mexico he proclaimed "The total human sequence is the grail of human genetics". In 1987, he proposed starting a company called Genome Corporation to sequence the genome and sell access to the information.[14] In an opinion piece inNature in 1991, he envisioned completion of the human genome sequence transforming biology into a field in which computer databases would be as essential as laboratory reagents[16]
Together withAllan Maxam, Gilbert developed a newDNA sequencing method,Maxam–Gilbert sequencing,[23][24] using chemical methods developed by Andrei Mirzabekov. His approach to the first synthesis ofinsulin viarecombinant DNA[25] lost out toGenentech's approach which used genes built up from the nucleotides rather than from natural sources. Gilbert's effort was hampered by a temporary moratorium on recombinant DNA work inCambridge, Massachusetts, forcing his group to move their work to an English biological weapons site.[26]
Gilbert first proposed the termsintrons (intragenic regions) andexons (expressed regions) in reference to recently discovered phenomenon of splicing[27] and suggested explanation for the evolution of introns in a seminal 1978 "News and Views" correspondence toNature titled "why genes in pieces?".[28] In 1986, Gilbert proposed theRNA world hypothesis for theorigin of life,[29] based on a concept first proposed byCarl Woese in 1967.
Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert's 1977 paper "A new method for sequencing DNA" was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society for 2017. It was presented to the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Harvard University.[36][24]
Gilbert marriedCelia Stone, the daughter ofI. F. Stone, in 1953 and has two children.[3] After retiring from Harvard in 2001, Gilbert has launched an artistic career to combine art and science. His art format is centered on digital photography.[17][37]
^Close, Frank (2013).The Infinity Puzzle: The Personalities, Politics and Extraordinary Science Behind the Higgs Boson. Oxford University Press. pp. 146–147.
