Molecular biologist Brent joins Basic

Dr. Roger Brent, a molecular biologist and biochemist, has joined the Hutchinson Center’s Basic Sciences Division. He was previously director and research director of the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, Calif.

Brent’s studies are highly interdisciplinary and focus on cell signaling pathways, using single cells and yeast as model systems. This work may have particular relevance to cancer, since abnormal signaling plays a role in cancer development. His research draws on molecular biological methods, genetics and computational biology, and has led to the development of a number of innovative technologies for quantitative modeling of cell behavior that have utility for addressing other biological problems outside his own research focus.

Brent received his doctoral degree from Harvard University and was a professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics. He later joined the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences faculty.

In addition to his academic work, Brent has been a longtime adviser to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He is an inventor of 12 issued and several pending patents. He also advises various U.S. federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, on functional genomics and computational biology.