Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, not-for-profit research and education institution at the forefront of efforts in molecular biology and genetics to generate knowledge that will yield better diagnostics and treatments for cancer, neurological diseases and other major causes of human suffering.

Home to eight Nobelists, the Laboratory was founded in 1890 as one of the first institutions in the world to specialize in genetics research. CSHL has played a pivotal role in the emergence of molecular genetics, the scientific foundation of the contemporary revolution in biology and biotechnology. At the CSHL Symposium in 1953, James D. Watson presented his first public lecture on his and Francis Crick’s discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA, for which each later won a Nobel Prize. As director and then president of the Laboratory from 1968 to 2003, Watson was instrumental in developing CSHL into one of the world’s most unique and influential institutions of education and research in life science.

Today, CSHL President Bruce Stillman leads more than 400 scientists who are pioneering the frontiers of biomedical research. A designated Center of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, CSHL has broken new ground in the study of cancer-causing genes and signaling pathways implicated in their activation. Key findings on mutations and structural variations of the human genome have been important in this work and in the Laboratory’s efforts to understand what causes devastating neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative illnesses such as autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. CSHL is also a global leader in plant genetics and an innovative force in the emerging discipline of quantitative biology.