# Laura Landweber

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**Laura Faye Landweber** is an American [evolutionary biologist](/source/Evolutionary_biology). As of 2016, she is a professor of [biochemistry](/source/Biochemistry) and [molecular biophysics](/source/Molecular_biophysics) and of [biological sciences](/source/Biological_sciences) at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University). Previously, she was a professor of [ecology](/source/Ecology) and [evolutionary biology](/source/Evolutionary_biology) at [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University). She specializes in RNA-mediated [epigenetic](/source/Epigenetics) inheritance and [molecular evolution](/source/Molecular_evolution).

## Education

Landweber graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in molecular biology from [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University) in 1989 after completing a 50-page-long senior thesis titled "A Method for Evolutionary [Sequence Analysis](/source/Sequence_analysis) of [Genes](/source/Gene) and [Pseudogenes](/source/Pseudogene) Using the [Polymerase Chain Reaction](/source/Polymerase_chain_reaction): Applications to the [Mouse](/source/Mouse) [Tcp-1 Gene](/source/T-complex_1)" in which she described linear PCR.[2]

She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) in 1991 and 1993, respectively. Her doctoral dissertation is titled "RNA editing and the evolution of mitochondrial DNA in kinetoplastid protozoa."[3]

## Research career

In 1994, Landweber became a faculty member of Princeton University at the age of 26.

In a 2000 paper published in the *[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America](/source/Proceedings_of_the_National_Academy_of_Sciences_of_the_United_States_of_America)* on [biocomputers](/source/Biocomputer), Landweber solved chess's knights problem, where one determines how many non-attacking knights can be placed on a chessboard, using a test tube of RNA,[4] a breakthrough in [DNA computing](/source/DNA_computing).

Laura Landweber has also studied the evolution of the [genetic code](/source/Genetic_code)[5] and the scrambled genomes of [ciliates](/source/Ciliate) such as [Oxytricha](/source/Oxytricha).[6] Her laboratory has supported the notion that the code was no accident but arose from affinities between the nucleic acid [codons](/source/Codons) and their cognate [amino acids](/source/Amino_acid).[5] Her studies of the massive rearrangements of the [genome](/source/Genome) in the [micronucleus](/source/Micronucleus) of Oxytricha showed an unsuspected role for [non-coding RNA](/source/Non-coding_RNA) in directing the process [epigenetically.](/source/Epigenetics)[7]

## Publications (books)

- DNA Based Computers II (1998), Landweber, L. and Baum, E., eds, American Mathematicsl Society
- Genetics and the Extinction of Species: DNA and the Conservation of Biodiversity (1999), Landweber, L. F. and Dobson, A. P., eds, Princeton University Press
- Evolution as Computation (2003), Landweber, L. F. and Winfree, E., eds, Springer Verlag[8][3]

## Awards and honors

- 1999 – [Sigma Xi](/source/Sigma_Xi) Young Investigator Award[9]
- 2001 - Tulip Award for DNA Computing[10]
- 2005 - [American Association for the Advancement of Science](/source/American_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Science) Fellow[11]
- 2008 - Regional Award Winner, [Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists](/source/Blavatnik_Awards_for_Young_Scientists), The New York Academy of Sciences[12]
- 2012 - [Guggenheim Fellow](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowship)[13]
- 2014 - Division R Lecturer, American Society for Microbiology[3]
- 2017 - President, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution[14]

## Personal life

Laura Landweber was married to physicist [Steven Gubser](/source/Steven_Gubser)[1] and has three daughters.[1][15]

## References

1. McClain, Dylan Loeb (September 6, 2019). ["Steven Gubser, a Bright Star in the Physics Universe, Dies at 47"](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/science/steven-gubser-dead.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved September 7, 2019.

1. Landweber, Laura Faye (1989). ["A Method for Evolutionary Sequence Analysis of Genes and Pseudogenes Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction: Applications to the Mouse Tcp-1 Gene"](http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01j9602255j). Princeton University. Department of Molecular Biology (ed.)

1. ["Laura Landweber"](https://www.princeton.edu/~lfl/LandweberCV.pdf). *Princeton University*. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. Hopkin, Karen (November 1, 2006). ["The Fast Track to Success"](http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/24429/title/The-Fast-Track-to-Success/). *The Scientist*

1. Knight, Robin D & Landweber, Laura F (June 2000). "The Early Evolution of the Genetic Code". *Cell*. **101** (6): 569–572. [doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80866-1](https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80866-1). [PMID 10892641](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10892641)

1. Landweber, LF (19 October 2007). "Genetics. Why genomes in pieces?". *Science*. **318** (5849): 405–7. [doi:10.1126/science.1150280](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150280). [PMID 17947572](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17947572). [S2CID 86023076](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:86023076)

1. Nowacki, M; Vijayan, V; Zhou, Y; Schotanus, K; Doak, TG; Landweber, LF (10 January 2008). "RNA-mediated epigenetic programming of a genome-rearrangement pathway". *Nature*. **451** (7175): 153–8. [Bibcode:2008Natur.451..153N](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008Natur.451..153N). [doi:10.1038/nature06452](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06452). [PMC 2647009](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2647009). [PMID 18046331](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18046331)

1. ["The Landweber Lab: Publications"](https://www.princeton.edu/~lfl/publications.htm). *Princeton University*. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. ["Laura F. Landweber"](https://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/prizes-awards/william-procter/award-winner/laura-f.-landweber). Sigma Xi. Retrieved 27 November 2015.

1. ["List of Award Winners"](http://www.dna-computing.org/award.html). *International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming*. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. ["AAAS Fellows"](https://web.archive.org/web/20161113035051/https://www.aaas.org/content/landweber-laura). *AAAS*. Archived from [the original](https://www.aaas.org/content/landweber-laura) on November 13, 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. ["Laura Landweber"](http://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/profile/laura-landweber/). *Blavatnik Awards*. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. ["Laura Landweber"](http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/laura-landweber/). *John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation*. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

1. [Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution](/source/Society_for_Molecular_Biology_and_Evolution)

1. Jeffries, Abigail (2008). ["Ingenious, Innovative, and Interdisciplinary!"](https://web.archive.org/web/20200922054312/https://www.nyas.org/magazines/autumn-2008/ingenious-innovative-and-interdisciplinary/). *The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine*. No. 2, *Autumn 2008*. pp. 11–18. Archived from [the original](https://www.nyas.org/magazines/autumn-2008/ingenious-innovative-and-interdisciplinary/) on September 22, 2020. Retrieved September 7, 2019.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Laura Landweber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Landweber) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Landweber?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.