Matthew P. Scott is an American biologist who was the tenth president of the Carnegie Institution for Science. While at Stanford University, Scott studied how embryonic and later development is governed by proteins that control gene activity and cell signaling processes. He co- discovered homeobox genes in Drosophila melanogaster working with Amy J. Weiner at Indiana University. Among his laboratory's discoveries, he is recognized for the cloning of the patched gene family and demonstration that a human homolog PTCH1 is a key tumor suppressor gene for the Hedgehog signaling pathway as well as the causative gene for the nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, or Gorlin syndrome.

Education

Scott completed a B.S. in 1975 and Ph.D. in Biology in 1980, both at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career and research

Scott served on the faculty of the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado starting in 1983. He moved to Stanford University in 1990 to join the faculty of the Department of Developmental Biology and the Department of Genetics. From 2002-2007 he served as Chair of Bio-X, Stanford's interdisciplinary biosciences program.

Awards and honors

Personal life

He is married to Stanford developmental geneticist Margaret T. Fuller.