David Sanders

David Sanders is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University. His expertise concerns gene therapy, cancer research, biodefense, and pandemic influenza. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Yale College in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He conducted graduate research with Dr. Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., who was then editor of the journal Science, at the University of California at Berkeley. His Biochemistry Ph.D. thesis described his discovery of a critical biochemical reaction that bacteria use to sense and respond to changes in their environments, . He also originated the idea for a "Molecule of the Year" feature in Science. Following a position as a Visiting Scientist at the University of California at San Francisco, where he studied signal-transducing GTPases , he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, which is affiliated with M.I.T. It was there that he began his studies on the entry of viruses into cells with a focus on the inhibition of infection and applications to gene therapy. He joined the Markey Center for Structural Biology at Purdue in 1995, where he is also a member of the Cancer Center. Dr. Sanders was the discoverer of a biochemical reaction that leads to the entry of cancer-causing retroviruses into cells. He has a patent on a new type of virus for gene therapy. Professor Sanders has been advocating for some years a new approach to vaccination against influenza viruses and preparation for an influenza pandemic. His work on the Ebola virus led to his participation in the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Biological Weapons Proliferation Prevention Program, a product of the Nunn-Lugar legislation. His responsibilities included inspecting the Vector laboratory in Siberia, which was the site of biological-weapons development in the era of the Soviet Union. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.

Professor Sanders was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Indiana's 4th congressional district in 2004 and 2006 having won contested primaries by large margins . He ran against Steve Buyer in 2004 and in 2006. With strong support from U.S. military veterans , Sanders increased his percentage of the vote in the 2006 general election by 10% to 38% in a highly gerrymandered district.

Professor Sanders was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq since before its inception and has been a strong advocate for the environment. He took a leading role in the successful protest against Defense Threat Reduction Agency plans to deploy a massive explosion, "Divine Strake" in a quarry near Bedford, Indiana .