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Frederick Alt
Frederick Alt
Other names	Fred Alt
Education	Brandeis University; Stanford University;
Children	J. Kenji López-Alt
	Scientific career
Institutions	Harvard Medical School; Columbia University; Boston Children's Hospital;
Doctoral advisor	Robert Schimke
Other academic advisors	David Baltimore
Doctoral students	Karen M. Frank

Frederick W. Alt is an American geneticist. He is a member of the immunology section of the National Academy of Sciences and a Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.^[1] He is the Director of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital.^[2] He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, since 1987.

Career

Alt completed his undergraduate studies at Brandeis University, graduating in 1971.^[3] He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University in 1977 while under the research direction of Robert Schimke. He performed his postdoctoral work in David Baltimore's laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).^[4] From 1982 to 1991 he was on the faculty at Columbia University and then moved to Harvard Medical School.^[5]

Alt's research interest is in maintenance of genome stability in cells of the mammalian immunological system, particularly antigen receptor variable region gene assembly in developing B and T lymphocytes, immunoglobulin heavy chain class switch recombination (CSR), and somatic hypermutation in activated mature B lymphocytes.^[1]

Personal life

Alt is the son-in-law of organic chemist Koji Nakanishi, former Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University.^[6]

Alt is also the father of the chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt.^[7]

Awards, memberships and honors

He has received many awards, this is a select list:

Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research
Rabbi Shai Shacknai Prize from The Hebrew University
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society de Villiers International Achievement Award
Irvington Institute Immunology Award
National Cancer Institute Alfred K. Knudson Award for pioneering contributions that have revolutionized the field of Cancer Genetics
AAI-Huang Meritorious Career Award, American Association of Immunologists
Excellence in Mentoring Award, American Association of Immunologists.
2004 – Pasarow Foundation Prize for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research
2007 – Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology for his discoveries on B cell development and antigen responses^[8]
2009 – William B. Coley Award for New Discoveries in Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute^[9]
2014 – 44th annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research^[3]
2015 – Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, from the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR)^[10]
2019 – BioLegend Herzenberg Award, for "exemplary research contributions to the field of B cell biology", American Association of Immunologists.^[11]^[12]
2023 – Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize^[13]