Our Science – Gold Website

Bert Gold, Ph.D., FACMG

Laboratory of Experimental Immunology Human Genetics Section Staff Scientist NCI-Frederick Building 559, Room 8 Frederick, MD 21702 Phone:   301-846-5098 Fax:   301-846-7042 E-Mail:   goldb@ncifcrf.gov

Biography

Bert Gold is a graduate of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis (1976) and did graduate studies at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts on mouse spermatogenesis (Ph.D., 1981). Initial postdoctoral studies were with William Haseltine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and with Lawrence Bogorad (now deceased) at The Biological Laboratories at Harvard. After several positions in industry and academia, Dr. Gold obtained a fellowship to complete his formal studies in human genetics. In 1996, he became Board Certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics after completing a program at UMDNJ and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Gold was Research Manager and Clinical Scientist at SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories and Quest Diagnostics in Van Nuys, California (1997-2000) and came to the National Cancer Institute in 2000.

Research

My research is mainly geared toward understanding the genetic basis of common disease. Common diseases are often described as 'complex' in genetic circles because numerous factors, both genetic and environmental, contribute to their causation. Sorting out how much of the basis of common disease is genetic and how much is environmental is a central task for biology in the 21st century.

Cancer provides an excellent model for a common disease with a genetic basis because it is both common, and is known to have a genetic basis in two senses: First, many cancers are heritable, and cluster in families and ethnic groups. Second, even cancers that are not heritable (called sporadic or idiopathic), are often characterized by changes in the genetic material of transformed cells.

My group studies a number of common diseases known to have a genetic basis. These include breast and prostate cancer, some skin cancers, some cardiovascular diseases, some psychiatric disorders, a few metabolic diseases, some lung disease, and finally, some ocular diseases.

During 2006, my group was privileged to participate in the discovery that Complement gene variations contribute to a model complex disease: Age Related Macular Degeneration. This discovery has been widely heralded as permitting an assessment, perhaps for the first time, of how much gene variation may contribute to a complex disorder.

This page was last updated on 10/14/2008.