Frederick W. Alt is an American geneticist. He is a member of the Immunology

Immunology

Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...

 section of the National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Sciences commonly refers to the academy in the United States of America.National Academy of Sciences may also refer to :* National Academy of Sciences of Argentina* Armenian National Academy of Sciences...

 and a Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics

Pediatrics

Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

, and Professor of Genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 at Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

. He is also President of the Immune Disease Institute and Directory of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine of Children's Hospital Boston

Children's Hospital Boston

Children's Hospital Boston is a 396-licensed bed children's hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts.At 300 Longwood Avenue, Children's is adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical School, and to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...

.

He received a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1977, under th research direction of Robert Schimke, followed by postdoctoral work in in David Baltimore

David Baltimore

David Baltimore is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech...

's laboratory at MIT. From 1982-91 he was on the faculty of at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

  and then moved to Harvard Medical School.

His research interest is in maintenance of genome stability in cells of the mammalian immunological system, particularly antigen receptor variable region gene assembly in developing B and T lymphocytes, immunoglobulin heavy chain class switch recombination (CSR), and somatic hypermutation

Somatic hypermutation

Somatic hypermutation is a mechanism inside cells that is part of the way the immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it . SHM diversifies the receptors used by the immune system to recognize foreign elements and allows the immune system to adapt its response to new threats...

 in activated mature B lymphocytes.

memberships and honors

Alt is a member of:

• U.S. National Academy of Sciences,
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
  
  ,
• American Academy of Microbiology,

He has received the following awards:

• Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association of Cancer Research
• Rabbi Shai Shacknai Prize from The Hebrew University
• Pasarow Foundation Prize for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society de Villiers International Achievement Award
• Irvington Institute Immunology Award,
• National Cancer Institute
  National Cancer Institute
  The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
  
   Alfred K. Knudson Award for pioneering contributions that have revolutionized the field of Cancer Genetics
• American Association of Immunologists AAI-Huang Meritorious Career Award
• William B. Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute
• Novartis
  Novartis
  Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
  
  Basic Immunology Prize for his discoveries on B cell development and antigen responses.
• American Association of Immunologists Excellence in Mentoring Award.

The Cancer Research Institute of New York gives an annual prize in his honor, the Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology.

External links

• Official page at Harvard