Stephen C. Harrison
Harvard University
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Primary Section: 29, Biophysics and Computational Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1991)
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Biosketch
Stephen C. Harrison, Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Professor in Basic Biomedical Science at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. B.A., Harvard, 1963, and Ph.D. (Biophysics) , Harvard, 1968. Member of the Harvard faculty since 1971. From 1972-2001, his research laboratory was linked closely with that of the late Don C. Wiley. Harrison's important contributions to structural and cellular biology include determining and analyzing the structures of viruses and viral proteins, crystallographic studies of protein/DNA complexes, and structural studies of protein-kinase switching mechanisms. The initiator of high-resolution virus crystallography (1978), Harrison's more recent work has included the capsid of human papillomavirus, the envelope of dengue virus, and several components of HIV. He has also analyzed yet more complex assemblies, such as clathrin coated vesicles and kinetochores. His current work on influenza virus immunology centers on molecular and structural analysis of antibody affinity maturation and its implications for immunogen design. Dr. Harrison is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a foreign member of EMBO and of the Royal Society (London).
Research Interests
The molecular, structural and mechanistic foundations of biological function. (a) Structural virology, especially molecular representations of viral entry, beginning with high resolution structures and capitalizing on technical advances in three areas -- cryo-EM, live-cell imaging, and single-molecule methods. (b) Humoral immune response to viral antigens, with particular focus on the dynamics of affinity maturation in the response to influenza virus. (c) Kinetochore structure, especially an effort to construct a three-dimensional picture of a yeast kinetochore from crystallographic and cryo-EM studies of large subassemblies.
