Daniel Kirschner, PhD

Daniel Kirschner, PhD is a Professor of Biology at Boston College. Dr. Kirschner obtained his B.A. in Biology and Physics from Western Reserve University in 1966, and his PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University in 1972. His postdoctoral fellowships were spent at Children's Hospital and Brandeis University from 1971-1974 as a postdoctoral fellow of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Following Research Associate positions at Brandeis University, Dr. Kirschner was an Assistant Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School from 1979-1984, an Associate Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School from 1984-1989, an Associate Professor of Neurology (Neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School from 1989-1996, an Associate Professor of Biology at Boston College from 1996-2001, and a Professor of Biology from 2001-present. Dr Kirschner has a continued interest in the application of biophysical techniques to problems in biology, especially as it pertains to human disease. Hence, his double undergraduate degree in Biology and Physics, and his graduate degree in Biophysics. After undertaking PhD dissertation studies on the structure of the nerve myelin sheath, he has maintained that particular area of research effort for over 30 years, most recently by developing collaborative studies with scientists in Cleveland and Milan to develop transgenic mouse models of human peripheral demyelinating diseases. About 20 years ago, when supervising an electron microscope facility at Boston Children's Hospital, he convinced one of the users to subject samples he had purified from an Alzheimer's disease brain to x-ray diffraction analysis. Dr. Kirschner's pioneering use of this technique to study pathological accumulations in AD led to his continued interest in amyloid assemblies, and resulted in the current proposal to use x-ray diffraction and electron microscopy to elucidate the molecular basis of amyloid inhibitors.