Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D, is a developmental and evolutionary biologist. After completing his doctoral studies and postdoctoral fellowships, Dr. Newman was an instructor in anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting professor at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, the Centre à l'Energie Atomique-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the University of Tokyo, Komaba, and Monash University, Australia. Dr. Newman was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and of the editorial board of the Journal of Biosciences (Bangalore) and serves on the advisory board of the Alliance for Human Biotechnology (Berkeley, Cal.) Dr. Newman is currently a member of the External Faculty of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg, Austria and in 2015 was appointed editor-in-chief of the KLI’s philosophy of biology journal Biological Theory.

Dr. Newman's work in developmental biology includes a proposed mechanism for patterning of the vertebrate limb skeleton based on the self-organization of embryonic tissues. His work in evolutionary biology includes a theory for the origination of animal phyla based on physical effects in cell aggregates mobilized by products of the developmental toolkit genes. He has also advanced new hypotheses for the evolution of cell differentiation and the origin of birds.

Dr. Newman is co-author (with Gabor Forgacs) of Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and (with Tina Stevens) of Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial Bioscience (Routledge, 2019). He is co-editor of Cartilage: Molecular Aspects (CRC Press, 1981), Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology (MIT, 2003), Multiscale Models of Developmental Systems (Elsevier, 2008), and Multicellularity: Origins and Evolution (MIT, 2016).

Areas of Expertise

• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate limb development
• Physical mechanisms of morphogenesis
• Evolution of developmental mechanisms
• Protein structure-function relationships
• Social and cultural aspects of biological research and technology

Education

• A.B., Columbia University
• Ph.D., Chemical Physics, University of Chicago       
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Chicago
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex

Honors and Awards

• 1994, Dean's Distinguished Research Award 
• 1989, Fogarty Senior International Fellowship

Publications

• Newman SA. "Form, function, mind: What doesn't compute (and what might)." Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 721(), (2024) 150141. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.150141
• Ebright RH, MacIntyre R, Dudley JP, et. al. "Implementing governmental oversight of enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research." Journal of virology, 98(4), (2024) e0023724. doi: 10.1128/jvi.00237-24
• Cabello FC, Embers ME, Newman SA, et. al. "Reply to Luger, "Why Is It So Hard to Find Persistent Borreliella burgdorferi?"." mBio, 13(5), (2022) e0216922. doi: 10.1128/mbio.02169-22
• Cabello FC, Embers ME, Newman SA, et. al. "Borreliella burgdorferi Antimicrobial-Tolerant Persistence in Lyme Disease and Posttreatment Lyme Disease Syndromes." mBio, 13(3), (2022) e0344021. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03440-21
• Newman SA, Bhat R, Glimm T, et. al. "Spatial waves and temporal oscillations in vertebrate limb development." Bio Systems, 208(), (2021) 104502. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104502
• Arias Del Angel JA, Nanjundiah V, Benítez M, et. al. "Interplay of mesoscale physics and agent-like behaviors in the parallel evolution of aggregative multicellularity." EvoDevo, 11(), (2020) 21. doi: 10.1186/s13227-020-00165-8
• King J, Chalfie M, Chomsky N, et. al. "Uphold the nuclear weapons test moratorium." Science (New York, N.Y.), 369(6501), (2020) 262. doi: 10.1126/science.abd3313

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Professional Service

• School of Medicine Committee on Admissions
• Institutional Biosafety Committee
• Faculty Senate of School of Medicine and F.S. Grievance Committee (Chair)
• Medical Student Leave of Absence and LOA Return Committee

Teaching Responsibilities

• Histology and Cell Biology (SOM)
• Histology (GSBMS)