REVISED

I think the novelty I would bring to the yeast course now would be to focus on several medically important problems such as malaria vaccines. There were other industrial purposes that were not obvious at the time we taught the course, but now technology has gotten to the point where I can see yeast as being the forerunner for not only vaccine production, but for various antibiotic productions. Finally, as a model for trying to get a good fungal antibiotic. There is no satisfactory antibiotic for serious fungal infections not one of the major biotech companies has a fungal effort. There hasn't been a new, effective fungal antibiotic for over 30 years and fungal disease is still a serious medical problem One of the things I have tried to do over the years is find a good fungal antibiotic by founding two companies each with approaching the problem from a new angle. They ran up against the same problems that discouraged Merck, Pfizer and the others. I think focusing on the possibilities for anti-fungal agents offered by a course at a place like Cold Spring Harbor could actually change that.

Gerald Fink, geneticist, changed the field of molecular yeast biology. He is a professor of genetics at MIT, a founding member of both the Whitehead Institute and the American Cancer Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1981). After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University, he was a part of the Cornell faculty for fifteen years and also served as president of the Genetics Society of America.

In 1976, Fink’s lab succeeded in performing yeast transformation. Gerald Fink currently researches baker's yeast and explores critical pathways in cell growth and metabolism; applications include cancer research and the development of new anti-fungal drugs. He also directs a plant research group heralded for new insights into root growth and salt metabolism.

Although Fink grew up on Long Island, it was not until he attended the 1966 Symposium that he visited Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 1970, he began teaching the CSHL course on yeast molecular biology and continued doing so for 17 years. In 1999, he received the first honorary doctorate awarded by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.