Dr. Brent Stockwell is a distinguished leader in chemical biology whose interdisciplinary research has reshaped our understanding of cellular processes and death mechanisms. He currently serves as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, while also holding appointments as Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences and Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. After earning his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University, he established his independent research career as a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute from 1999 to 2003, where he began his pioneering work at the chemistry-biology interface. His leadership extends to serving as Director of the Chemical Probe Synthesis Facility and Co-director of High-Throughput Screening at Columbia Genome Center, demonstrating his commitment to advancing research infrastructure.
Dr. Stockwell is internationally renowned for discovering and characterizing ferroptosis, a previously unrecognized form of regulated cell death driven by iron and lipid peroxidation, through a landmark series of publications between 2003 and 2012. His laboratory's identification of the compound erastin and subsequent elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying ferroptosis has opened entirely new avenues for understanding cellular demise in both health and disease contexts. With over 130,000 citations, his work has demonstrated how ferroptosis intersects with metabolic pathways including lipid, iron, and glutathione metabolism, revealing its critical role in cancer cell vulnerability, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity, and ischemic injury. This groundbreaking research has generated more than 160 scientific publications and 23 U.S. patents, establishing ferroptosis as a fundamental cellular process that has become a major focus of biomedical research worldwide.
Beyond his transformative research, Dr. Stockwell has profoundly impacted the scientific community through his extensive mentorship of more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students who have gone on to distinguished careers across academia and industry. His leadership in the field has been recognized through prestigious awards including the Beckman Young Investigator Award, Burroughs Wellcome Career Award, and NCI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, which support his continued innovation in chemical biology. He remains actively engaged in expanding the understanding of ferroptosis through the development of novel chemical tools that precisely manipulate cell death pathways, with significant implications for both cancer therapeutics and neurodegenerative disease interventions. Looking forward, his laboratory continues to pioneer approaches at the intersection of chemistry and biology, driving discoveries that bridge fundamental mechanisms with potential therapeutic applications.
