David Sanders (biologist)
David Sanders is an associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University. He was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, and grew up there. He attended Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale College.
For his PhD in Biochemistry, Sanders studied at the University of California, Berkeley, with Daniel E. Koshland Jr. He showed that the response regulators in two-component regulatory systems are phosphorylated on an aspartate residue and act as protein phosphatases with a covalent intermediate.
In 1995 Sanders joined Purdue’s Markey Center for Structural Biology, where he led the Molecular Virology program and was a member of the Cancer Center. He spent time as a visiting scientist at UCSF and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute (affiliated with MIT). There he began studying how viruses enter cells, aiming to block infection and explore gene-therapy uses. He discovered a thiol–disulfide exchange step involved in the entry of some retroviruses and holds two U.S. patents on gene-delivery techniques. His Ebola work led to involvement in a Defense Threat Reduction Agency program to prevent the spread of biological weapons, including inspecting the Vector laboratory in Siberia.
Sanders has studied virus transmission from animals to humans and speaks publicly on ethics, biodefense, evolution, gene therapy, vaccination, and influenza. He received an NSF CAREER Award for work on an enzyme that produces methane and is an American Cancer Society Research Scholar. He did a sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute in Israel in 2003.
In public science, Sanders criticized a 2010 Science article about arsenic-based life and argued for retraction due to data problems; the paper was retracted in 2025. His Ebola research drew media attention during the 2014 outbreak. He said the personal risk in the U.S. was low and that panic could be worse than the disease, and he urged focus on regional treatment centers and on doctors knowing patients’ travel histories. He opposed mandatory quarantines for asymptomatic exposed people. He has written about his media experiences and about science communication.
During the COVID-19 era, Sanders commented on public policy and criticized the use of chloroquine as a treatment. He has written on keeping up with current literature and on teaching graduate students to write scientific reviews. He published a biographical memoir of his doctoral advisor, Daniel E. Koshland Jr., with the National Academy of Sciences.
Sanders is active in scientific ethics, arguing that plagiarism is a serious issue. He contacted journals to report problems in papers by Carlo M. Croce; Croce sued him for defamation in 2017, and Sanders won the case in 2020. An appeals court later noted many problems in Croce’s papers.
In politics, Sanders was elected West Lafayette City Councilor at large in 2015, taking office in 2016, and was re-elected in 2019, serving until 2022. He supported a sanctuary-like resolution for immigrants in West Lafayette and spoke on civil rights and free speech. He sponsored measures to reduce plastic waste and, in 2021, tried to restrict conversion therapy (the measure was withdrawn due to potential lawsuits). He also backed privacy protections such as a ban on facial-recognition technology, which the mayor vetoed. He questioned tax abatements for Rolls-Royce and criticized past bribery penalties. He helped form the Stop the Water Steal group to oppose a major water-pumping project.
In 2022 Sanders announced a bid for Indiana State Senate District 23.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:08 (CET).