Barbara J. Wold

Barbara J. Wold is the Bren Professor of Molecular Biology, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the principal investigator of the Functional Genomics Resource Center at the Beckman Institute at Caltech. Wold was director of the Beckman Institute at Caltech from 2001 to 2011. She was appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1978.

Wold helped to found the L. K. Whittier Gene Expression Center at Caltech in 1999, with Stephen Quake and Mel Simon, collaborating with the Human Genome Project. She has also been involved in establishing the Center for Biological Circuit Design at Caltech. She has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy in the area of genomics.

Wold was director of the Beckman Institute at Caltech from 2001 to 2011, succeeding founding director Harry B. Gray. As of January 30, 2012, she was succeeded as director by David A. Tirrell.

Wold was the director of the Merkin Institute from 2019 to 2023.

Research “It’s important to appreciate that discovery is often a lengthy process, requiring much persistence.” Barbara Wold has published more than sixty papers in the areas of developmental biology and genetics.

Beginning with undifferentiated precursor cells, Wold and her lab have focused particularly on transitions from mesodermal cells in early development to fully developed skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle in animals, primarily through the use of mouse models. In addition, she is interested in the transitions in cell development which lead to tumorigenesis.

Wold and her lab have used various techniques, to computationally model the inputs and outputs of gene networks. She studies embryonic development and regeneration in vertebrates, examining transcriptional networks and using comparative genomics to model mouse, human and dog genomes. This work is leading to increased understanding of direct transcriptional regulation and of post-transcriptional and translational mechanisms and their mediation by microRNAs. Wold's goal is a deep understanding of biological circuit design and the mechanisms of genetics and cell development. 2014, School of Life Sciences (SOLS) Distinguished Alumni Award, Arizona State University 1983, Searle Scholars Program 1983, Rita Allen Foundation Scholar

Selected publications