Stephen Sligar

Stephen Sligar

Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry

Areas of Research

Biochemistry, Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer

Research Program and Theme

Cancer Engineering and Biological Systems | Anticancer Chemistry

Research Focus

Stephen Sligar has spent his professional career focused on the discovery, development, and use of chemical and biophysical tools to understand fundamental problems in biochemistry. Sligar’s lab developed the Nanodisc platform, which allows for the generation of a soluble discoidal bilayer that that can be used for presenting a membrane surface of defined composition and stability. With this technology, signaling proteins and macromolecular complexes that rely on a membrane for protein-protein and protein-lipid recognition events can be studied with a plethora of biophysical tools to reveal the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms involved in signal transduction.

Education

  • Ph.D., Physics, University of Illinois, 1975

Campus Affiliations

Select Honors and Recognitions

  • NAS Member, 2024
  • Christian B. Anfinsen Award, 2020
  • AAAS Fellow, 1993
  • Fulbright Scholar Award, 1989
  • Herbert A. Sober Lectureship, 2016