Fink is also the American Cancer Society Professor of Genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a long association with Cornell, joining the faculty in 1967 as an assistant professor of genetics, serving as a professor of genetics from 1976 to 1979 and as professor of biochemistry from 1979 to 1982. His current interest is in the field of infectious disease research.
Fink is a leader in the understanding of the forces that mold the genome.
His laboratory was the first to demonstrate the heritable transformation of yeast by naked DNA and to show that segments of DNA called retrotransposons could move around the genome via an RNA intermediate. His work on baker's yeast has established this organism as a model for fungal infection. Fungi have emerged as increasingly frequent agents of life-threatening infections. However, there are no effective fungal antibiotics. Fink is exploiting the field of genomics to identify potential targets for new anti-fungal compounds.