Dr. John D. York was a professor of biochemistry and pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center. He is also an invesigator for the non-profit medical research organization Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At Duke, York studied biology and enzyme regulation of inositol cellular signal transduction pathways, and the mechanisms of lithium action as it pertains to treatment of bipolar disorder. In 2012, he became the chair of Vanderbilt University's Dept. of Biochemistry.