Dr. David M. Gilbert is a professor, researcher, and head of the Laboratory of Chromosome Replication and Epigenome Regulation at the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute in California. He is a Molecular Biologist, specializing in Cancer and Stem Cell research. He is credited with championing the field of “replication timing”. Starting as an Undergraduate student, Gilbert became interested in an observation first published in 1960 that DNA replication in humans and most organisms proceeds in a specific temporal order. He reasoned that, since such a temporal order is dispensable in some systems to simply duplicate the DNA, the function of this “replication timing program” must transcend the basic need to replicate. Since it is not only DNA that replicates but the entire structure of chromosomes with all their associated proteins and RNA (the “chromatin”), he hypothesized that, if this timing program should be different in different cell types, and awry in disease, then it could serve to assemble different types of chromatin at different times and serve to maintain the identity of a cell, whether it be a normal or diseased identity. After 40 years of pursuit, he has shown those basic tenets to be true and now many laboratories worldwide have turned their focus onto “replication timing.
In addition to managing a team of lab techs and postdoctoral students, he is tasked with securing extramural research funding for the lab. Prior to joining the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute, David M. Gilbert spent nearly 15 years as a distinguished professor of molecular biology at Florida State University (FSU). Before FSU, he held roles with the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, and Centre National Recherche Scientifique in France.
David Gilbert received his bachelor of arts in Biochemistry and Cell Biology with a minor in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego, in 1982. Prior to graduating from Stanford University with his Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics, he published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals, with subjects ranging from autonomous replication of DNA in mouse cells to the life cycle of the bovine papilloma virus, all in search of systems in which to study the mechanism and significance of what he called “The Replication Timing Program”.
Dr. Gilbert’s professional associations include the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the Epigenetics Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he was elected in 2008 as amongst the prestigious group of AAAS Honorable Fellows. In the past, he has engaged with organizations like the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).
During graduate school, Dr. Gilbert made many friends who were not scientists and to distinguish him from the many Daves of the world, he acquired the nickname “DNA DAVE”, which became his vehicle license plate from 1984 to present (CA, NY, FL, CA). With those friends, he founded a non-profit music production company “Eyes of the World” that raised money through music production and donated the profits to the East Palo Alto Community Center, a safe place for children with broken homes to go after school. It was also during graduate school that Dr. Gilbert acquired his other great passion: sailing. While as a child growing up in New England his family were power boaters, he learned to sail on the San Francisco bay and lived on two different sailboats during graduate school. After 30 years of marriage and raising 3 children, he is returning to that passion now. He finds that sailing is the one thing he can do without striving for perfection or some unattainable goal – while others get in their trains, planes, automobiles or power boats with the goal of arriving at some destination as quickly as possible, with sailing, as soon as the sails are set and the engine is off, one has already arrived, or as Dr. Gilbert says: “The Voyage is the Destination”.
The Gilbert Laboratory 