Steven Block
Encyclopedia
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...
with a joint appointment in the departments of Biological Sciences and Applied Physics. In addition, he is a member of the scientific advisory group JASON
Jason
Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...
, a senior fellow of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and an amateur bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
musician. Block received his B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(2007) and the 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...
(2000), and is a winner of the Max Delbruck Prize
Max Delbruck Prize
The Max Delbruck Prize, formerly known as the Biological physics prize, is awarded by the Division of Biological Physics of the American Physical Society, to recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in biological physics research. The prize was established in 1981, and renamed for Max...
http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/delbruck.cfm of the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
(2008), as well as the Single Molecule Biophysics Prize of the Biophysical Society
Biophysical Society
The Biophysical Society is an organization consisting of over 9,000 researchers in academia, government, and industry. Based in the USA, its international membership has grown to about 1/3 of the total. Founded in 1957 by Ernest C...
(2007). He served as President of the Biophysical Society during 2005-6. His graduate work was completed in the laboratory of Howard Berg
Howard Berg
Howard Curtis Berg teaches biophysics at Harvard University and studies motility of E. coli. He has been a member of the molecular and cellular biology department since 1986 and a member of the physics department since 1997...
at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
and Caltech. He received his Ph.D. in 1983 and went on to do postdoctoral research at Stanford. Since that time, Block has held positions at the Rowland Institute for Science
Rowland Institute for Science
The Rowland Institute for Science was founded by Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, as a nonprofit basic research organization in 1980. The Rowland, as it is commonly referred to, is dedicated to experimental science across a wide range of disciplines...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
before returning to Stanford in 1999.
As a graduate student, Block picked apart the adaptation
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
kinetics
Chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the study of rates of chemical processes. Chemical kinetics includes investigations of how different experimental conditions can influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition...
involved in bacterial chemotaxis
Chemotaxis
Chemotaxis is the phenomenon in which somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food by swimming towards the highest concentration of food molecules,...
. As an independent scientist, Block has pioneered the use of optical tweezers
Optical tweezers
Optical tweezers are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force , depending on the refractive index mismatch to physically hold and move microscopic dielectric objects...
, a technique developed by Arthur Ashkin
Arthur Ashkin
Arthur Ashkin is a retired scientist who worked at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. He has started his work on manipulation of microparticles with laser light in the late 60s which has resulted in the invention of optical tweezers in 1986. He has pioneered the optical trapping process...
, to study biological enzymes and polymers at the single-molecule level. Work in his lab has led to the direct observation of the 8 nm steps taken by kinesin
Kinesin
A kinesin is a protein belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule filaments, and are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP . The active movement of kinesins supports several cellular functions including mitosis, meiosis and transport of cellular...
and the sub-nanometer stepping motions of RNA polymerase
RNA polymerase
RNA polymerase is an enzyme that produces RNA. In cells, RNAP is needed for constructing RNA chains from DNA genes as templates, a process called transcription. RNA polymerase enzymes are essential to life and are found in all organisms and many viruses...
on a DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
template. While consulting for the United States government through JASON
Jason
Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...
, Block has researched the many threats associated with bioterrorism and headed influential studies on how advances in genetic engineering have impacted biological warfare.
Work in his lab has led to the direct observation of the 8 nm steps taken by kinesin [3] and the demonstration that these steps consume as fuel only a single molecule of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
up to applied loads on the motor enzyme of several picoNewtons (pN) [4].