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David B. Wilson obtained his BA in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University in 1961 and his PhD at Stanford Medical School in the Department of Biochemistry with Dr David Hogness in 1996, He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical School working with Dr Howard Dintzis from 1966 to 1967. He joined the Cornell University Section of Biochemistry as an Assistant Professor in 1967, became an Associate professor in 1973 and a full professor in 1984. He started studying the cellulases produced by the bacterium, Thermobifidia fusca in 1980. He purified and characterized six T. fusca cellulases: Cel5A an endocellulase, Cel6A an endocellulase, Cel6B an exocellulase, Cel9A a novel processive endocellulase, Cel 9B an unusual endocellulase and Cel48A an exocellulase. He collaborated with the DOE Joint Genome institute which determined the sequence of the T. fusca genome [1]. In 1999, he and Ed Bayer organized the first "Cellulases and Cellulosomes" Gordon Research Conference, which continues every other year.

Selected publications

1. Lykidis A, Mavromatis K, Ivanova N, Anderson I, Land M, DiBartolo G, Martinez M, Lapidus A, Lucas S, Copeland A, Richardson P, Wilson DB, and Kyrpides N. Genome sequence and analysis of the soil cellulolytic actinomycete Thermobifida fusca YX. J Bacteriol 2007 Mar; 189(6) 2477-86. doi:10.1128/JB.01899-06 pmid:17209016. PubMed HubMed [TfuscaGenome2007]
2. Vuong TV and Wilson DB. Processivity, synergism, and substrate specificity of Thermobifida fusca Cel6B. Appl Environ Microbiol 2009 Nov; 75(21) 6655-61. doi:10.1128/AEM.01260-09 pmid:19734341. PubMed HubMed [VuongWilson2009]
3. Wilson DB. Cellulases and biofuels. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2009 Jun; 20(3) 295-9. doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2009.05.007 pmid:19502046. PubMed HubMed [WilsonCurrOpinBiotechnol2009]
4. Wilson DB. Studies of Thermobifida fusca plant cell wall degrading enzymes. Chem Rec 2004; 4(2) 72-82. doi:10.1002/tcr.20002 pmid:15073875. PubMed HubMed [WilsonChemRec2004]
5. Irwin D, Shin DH, Zhang S, Barr BK, Sakon J, Karplus PA, and Wilson DB. Roles of the catalytic domain and two cellulose binding domains of Thermomonospora fusca E4 in cellulose hydrolysis. J Bacteriol 1998 Apr; 180(7) 1709-14. pmid:9537366. PubMed HubMed [Irwin1998]
6. Sakon J, Irwin D, Wilson DB, and Karplus PA. Structure and mechanism of endo/exocellulase E4 from Thermomonospora fusca. Nat Struct Biol 1997 Oct; 4(10) 810-8. pmid:9334746. PubMed HubMed [SakonNSB1997]
7. Barr BK, Hsieh YL, Ganem B, and Wilson DB. Identification of two functionally different classes of exocellulases. Biochemistry 1996 Jan 16; 35(2) 586-92. doi:10.1021/bi9520388 pmid:8555231. PubMed HubMed [Barr1996]