Tom Maniatis

Tom Maniatis (born May 8, 1943), is an American professor of molecular and cellular biology.

Maniatis is a graduate of the University of Colorado. He received a PhD in Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University, working with Professor Leonard Lerman. Maniatis has also received Honorary PhDs from the University of Athens, and the Watson School of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Maniatis carried out postdoctoral studies with Professor Mark Ptashne at Harvard University and with Dr. Fred Sanger at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. Maniatis has held faculty positions at Harvard University, The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, and Columbia University.

As a postdoctoral fellow with Mark Ptashne at Harvard University, Maniatis studied the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in bacteriophage lambda. He identified multiple bacteriophage lambda repressor binding sites in the operators of the virus, and determined their DNA sequences while working in Fred Sanger's lab at the MRC in Cambridge, England. Maniatis was appointed to the position of assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1975, but carried out his research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory because the moratorium on recombinant DNA research in Cambridge, MA prevented his work on cDNA cloning at Harvard. In 1977, Maniatis moved to the California Institute of Technology, where his laboratory generated the first human genomic DNA library, and cloned the human beta-globin gene cluster. In 1981 Maniatis returned to Harvard where he applied molecular cloning methods to the study of the mechanisms of RNA transcription and splicing in eukaryotes. Maniatis moved to Columbia University in 2009 where he serves as the Isidore Edelman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. His laboratory currently studies the role of single cell diversity in brain wiring, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms of the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).

In 1982, Maniatis, along with Joe Sambrook and Edward Fritsch, wrote Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, which has had an enormous impact on life sciences. This laboratory manual made the newly emerging gene cloning technology accessible to a wide range of disciplines in the life sciences, and became the definitive technical source for over 20 years.

Maniatis has served on the Board of Trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, The Jackson Laboratory, and The Rockefeller University. In 2011, Maniatis cofounded the New York Genome Center and currently serves as Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Maniatis is also a pioneer in the biotechnology industry, having cofounded Genetics Institute, Inc. in 1980, ProScript Pharma in 1994, Acceleron Pharma in 2004, and Kallyope Pharma in 2016. He has served on the Board of Directors of Genetics Institute and currently serves on the boards of Acceleron Pharma, Constellation Pharma, and Kallyope Pharma. His pioneering contributions to biotechnology were recognized by the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, in 1999.

Maniatis' research contributions have been recognized by numerous awards including the 1981 Eli Lilly Research Award in Microbiology and Immunology from the American Society of Microbiology, the 1985 Richard Lounsbery Award for Biology and the 1998 Novartis Drew Award in Biomedical Research, the 2000 AMA Scientific Achievement Award, the 2001 Pasarow Award in Cancer Research from the Pasarow Foundation and the 2012 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science. Maniatis was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985.