Stuart L. Schreiber

Stuart Schreiber is a founding member of the Broad Institute and director of its Chemical Biology program. He is an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Morris Loeb Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995).

Stuart is known for developing systematic ways to explore biology, especially disease biology, using small molecules (precursors to therapeutic drugs that are used as bioprobes) and for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Using a chemical approach, he discovered the principles that underlie information transfer and storage in cells.

During the past 20 years, Stuart developed an integrated set of techniques that are systematizing the application of small molecules to biology. A key contribution was to formalize the planning of diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS). Using numerous applications of DOS, a chemistry technology platform, and several powerful techniques for small molecule screening, many new insights into disease biology have been gained. Over 100 labs nationwide have performed chemical genetic screens through Stuart's laboratory, leading to the development of many small molecule probes. Stuart and scientists in the Chemical Biology program also created ChemBank, a public database launched on the Internet in 2003 to facilitate the sharing of collected data on small molecules and resources for studying their properties.

Stuart founded several successful biotechnology firms, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals (1989), ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (1991) and, most recently, Infinity Pharmaceuticals (2001).

Stuart received his B.A. in Chemistry (with research advisor R. J. Sundberg) in June 1977 from the University of Virginia, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (with research advisors R. B. Woodward and Y. Kishi) in April 1981 from Harvard University. He was professor at Yale University from 1981-1988, and became a member of Harvard's Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology in 1988.