The number of notable scientists who have spent a portion of their careers in the Demerec Laboratory is striking. Some have continued their research at CSHL and have become the driving force behind much of the research here. Bruce Stillman, CSHL President and Professor, began working in Demerec as a Staff Investigator in 1979 and continues to lead groundbreaking Cell Cycle and DNA replication research with his lab in James Laboratory. He was appointed Director of CSHL in 1994 and has served as President since 2004.

Mike Wigler arrived at Demerec in 1978 and by 1981 was one of three independent researchers in the U.S. to discover the first human oncogene. In the early 2000s, he and Rob Lucito developed a powerful technology called ROMA. It is a high-resolution DNA microarray technology used to develop better methods to diagnose and treat cancer and neurological diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. After spending over 30 years in Demerec, he recently moved his 29-member lab to the Hillside Campus, where he currently studies human genetic disorders and cancer genomics.

Tom Maniatis, co-author of a well-known laboratory manual on molecular cloning, worked here in the 1970s.

Other scientists who worked in the Demerec Laboratory during the 1970s and 1980s include: David Beach, Tom Broker, Ahmad Bukhari, Louise Chow, Ray Gesteland, Tom Gingeras, Carol Greider, Adrian Krainer, Mike Mathews, Robert Pollack, Denise Roberts, Rich Roberts, Klaus Weber, Mary Osborn Weber, and David Zipser.