Brent R Stockwell, PhD
- William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences
- Professor of Chemistry
- Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology
On the web
Overview
Brent R. Stockwell, PhD, is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, Columbia University, and Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His research involves the discovery of small molecules that can be used to understand and treat cancer and neurodegeneration, with a focus on biochemical mechanisms governing cell death.
In a series of papers from 2003-2012, Dr. Stockwell discovered compounds that activate a previously unrecognized form of cell death that he termed ferroptosis. His lab defined key mechanisms governing ferroptosis, its therapeutic implications, and key reagents for studying this new form of cell death.
Dr. Stockwell has received numerous awards, including being elected to the US National Academy of Medicine, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award, the BioAccelerate NYC Prize, the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, the Great Teacher of Columbia College Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, and an NCI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.
He has been in the top one percent of highly cited researchers the last four years and was named as one of the 50 most influential life science individuals in New York. He has published over 190 scientific articles, been awarded 23 US patents, and received over 50 research grants for over $40 million.
Academic Appointments
- William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences
- Professor of Chemistry
- Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology
Administrative Titles
- Chair, Department of Biological Sciences
- Director, HICCC's Proteomics and Macromolecular Crystallography Shared Resource
- Director, Columbia NYSTEM Chemical Probe Synthesis (CPS) Facility
- Co-Director, HICCC's Computational and Experimental Protein Structure and Function Initiative
Credentials & Experience
Education & Training
- PhD, Chemistry, Harvard University
- MS, Chemistry, Harvard University
- AB, Chemistry; Economics, Cornell Unviversity
Honors & Awards
- The 2024 Cell Death and Differentiation (CDD) Award for “pioneering studies defining key components of the ferroptosis pathways and of cancer progression” (CDD Press and SpringerNature)
- Inaugural 2024 UMass Metabolic Network Pioneer in Metabolism Award (UMass Worcester)
- Member of the US National Academy of Medicine (2023-present)
- Dean Peter Awn Commitment to the LGBTQ Community Faculty Award (2022)
- Selected as one of the City & State Life Sciences Power 50, recognizing the most notable individuals making strides in the life sciences in New York (2021)
- 2016-2023 National Cancer Institute R35 Outstanding Investigator Award ($600K/yr direct costs)
- 2015 Great Teacher of Columbia College Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates
- Recipient of the 2014 Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, for teaching and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students (2014)
- 2010 BioAccelerate NYC Prize of the NYC Investment Fund and NYC Economic Development Corp.
- Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2010-2016)
- Beckman Young Investigator Award, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation (2007-2010)
- Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface (2002-2006)
- Synlett and Synthesis Journal Awardee, one of 30 worldwide investigators selected (2006)
Research
Brent Stockwell's research group, which works at the interface of chemistry and biology, uses small organic molecules in a systematic way to perturb cellular processes and discover their underlying mechanisms. Stockwell’s approach is interdisciplinary, combining chemical design and synthesis with genomics, computational chemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology, with the ultimate goal of revealing new basic biological mechanisms and disease pathophysiology. The small organic molecules he uses are complementary to genetic tools, because such compounds act rapidly and conditionally, can target multiple paralogous proteins simultaneously, and can be readily combined for multi-dimensional manipulations of biochemical networks.
His laboratory is particularly interested in understanding cell death mechanisms in mammalian systems, and how they intersect with disease mechanisms in cancer and neurodegeneration.
Research Interests
- Ferroptosis; metabolism; cell death; liver cancer; glioma; lymphoma; drug discovery; chemical biology; spatial biology; single-cell biology; multi-omics
Selected Publications
- Rajbhandari P, Neelakantan TV, Hosny N, Stockwell BR (2023) Spatial pharmacology using mass spectrometry imaging.Trends in Pharmacology, Dec 15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2023.11.003
- Stockwell BR (2022) Ferroptosis turns 10: Emerging mechanisms, physiological functions, and therapeutic applications. Cell. Jul 7;185(14):2401-2421. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.003. PMID: 35803244 PMCID: PMC9273022
- Qiu B, Zandkarimi F, Bezjian CT, Reznik E, Son RK, Gu W, Jiang X, Stockwell BR* (2024) Phospholipids with two polyunsaturated fatty acyl tails promote ferroptosis. Cell, 187, 1–14.
- Yang WS, SriRamaratnam R, Welsch ME, Shimada K, Skouta R, Viswanathan VS, Cheah JH, Clemons PA, Shamji AF, Clish CB, Brown LM, Girotti AW, Cornish VW, Schreiber SL, Stockwell BR (2014) Regulation of ferroptotic cancer cell death by Gpx4. Cell, 156 (1-2) 317-331. PMID: 24439385, PMCID: PMC4076414, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.12.010.
- Dixon SJ, Lemberg KM, Lamprecht MR, Skouta R, Zaitsev E, Gleason CE, Patel D, Bauer AJ, Cantley A, Yang WS, Morrison B, Stockwell BR (2012) Ferroptosis: an iron-dependent form of nonapoptotic cell death. Cell, 149, 1060-1072. PMCID: PMC3367386. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.03.042