The Basic Biology of Aging at the University of Washington
Stan Fields, Ph.D.

Biosketch Information
Email: fields@u.washington.edu

The Fields laboratory has been using the simple eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model to analyze proteins and processes implicated in human diseases. Proteins expressed in this yeast include those associated with Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative diseases caused by an expansion of a polyglutamine repeat tract. In the latter case, polyglutamine expansions result in protein aggregates similar to those observed in mammalian cells, and transcriptional effects occur in yeast that are analogous to those observed in the disease process. We are also interested in using yeast to study the process of aging itself in a single-celled organism to identify mechanisms that may be conserved in more complex organisms.

Dr. Fields is Professor of Genetics and Medicine and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At present, he is Professor and Acting Chair, Department of Genome Sciences. Among his many honors and awards, he is a Fellow, Research American Academy of Microbiology, and Member, National Academy of Sciences. He served in 1998 and 2000 on the NIH Study Section, Genome, and as Ad hoc reviewer, NIH Genetic Sciences Integrated Review Group.

Selected Relevant Publications
Martzen MR, McCraith SM, Spinelli SL, Torres FM, Fields S, Grayhack EJ, Phizicky EM. A biochemical genomics approach for identifying genes by the activity of their products. Science 286:1153-1155, 1999.

Sengupta DJ, Wickens M, Fields S. Identification of RNAs that bind to a specific protein using the yeast three-hybrid system. RNA 5:596-601, 1999.

Schwikowski B, Uetz P, Fields S. A network of protein-protein interactions in yeast. Nat Biotechnol 18:1257-1261, 2000.

Fields S, Kohara Y, Lockhart DJ. Functional genomics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 96:8825-8826, 1999.

Johnston M, Fields S. Grass-roots genomics. Nat Genet 24:5-6, 2000.

Cagney G, Uetz P, Fields S. Two-hybrid analysis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae 26S proteasome. Physiol Genomics 7:27-34, 2001.

Fields S. The interplay of biology and technology. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:10051-10054, 2001.

Hazbun TR, Fields S. Networking proteins in yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:4277-4278, 2001.

Tucker CL, Fields S. A yeast sensor of ligand binding. Nat Biotechnol 19:1042-1046, 2001.

Fields S. Proteomics in genomeland. Science 291:1221-1224, 2001.