We are deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of David Botstein, a towering figure in modern genetics and a foundational force behind the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD). SGD began in the early 1990s in David’s lab at Stanford University, and his vision for a rigorously curated, community-centered resource set the course for what SGD is today. His belief that carefully organized, interoperable data would accelerate discovery has guided our work from the start and continues to shape our mission.
David’s scientific impact is vast and enduring. He co-authored the landmark 1980 paper introducing the use of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) for human genetic mapping, a conceptual breakthrough that opened the door to finding disease genes well before whole-genome sequencing was possible. He later helped usher in the era of genome-wide expression analysis, demonstrating how systematic measurement and clustering of gene expression could illuminate cellular pathways, regulatory programs, and physiological states. Across decades, his work, leadership, and mentorship helped define the fields of genetics and genomics.
Yeast, and the global community that studies it, benefited enormously from David’s clarity of thought and sense of purpose. He championed model organisms as engines of insight, insisting that fundamental principles uncovered in yeast could illuminate biology more broadly. From the beginning, he advocated for standards, reproducibility, and open data, principles that remain at the heart of SGD. Many of the practices we still rely on, including careful literature-based curation, genotype-to-phenotype integration, and community engagement, grew directly from his vision.
David was also a gifted mentor and collaborator. He trained and inspired generations of scientists, curators, engineers, and students, encouraging bold ideas and rigorous tests of those ideas. Those who worked with him remember his incisive questions, his generosity with time and credit, and his unwavering commitment to getting the science right. His influence extends through the many people he mentored and the communities and institutes he helped build at MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and beyond.
To the SGD team, David’s legacy is personal. We are honored to steward a resource he helped bring into being, and we remain committed to the principles he championed: accuracy, openness, and service to the community. As we continue to evolve SGD in a multi-omic, data-rich era, we do so with gratitude for the foundation he laid and the example he set.
We extend our deepest condolences to David’s family, friends, colleagues, and the many people around the world who learned from and were inspired by him.