George Church

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(1954- ) is an American molecular geneticist. He is perhaps one of the most influential scientist in genomics if not the most.

He is currently Professor of Genetics [1] at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences & Technology [2] at Harvard and MIT. With Walter Gilbert he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984[3] and helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 [4] while he was a Research Scientist at newly-formed Biogen Inc. He invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags[5], homologous recombination methods [6], and DNA array synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing & software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence, (the human pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994 [7]. He initiated the Personal Genome Project (PGP) [8] in 2005 and research on synthetic biology. He is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT [9] and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard, MIT & Washington University [10]. He has been advisor to 22 companies, most recently co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices, a biotech startup dedicated to synthetic biology[11] and (with Chris Somerville) founding LS9, which is focused on biofuels [12]. He is a senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology. 

See also
Personal Genome Project

External links

References

  1. ^ HMS Genetics Faculty
  2. ^ HST
  3. ^ Church GM, Gilbert W (1984). "Genomic Sequencing". Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 81: 1991-5. PMID 6326095.
  4. ^ Cook-Deegan RM (1989). "The Alta summit, December 1984". Genomics 5: 661-3. PMID 2613249.
  5. ^ Church GM, Kieffer-Higgins S. (1984). "Multiplex Sequencing". Science 240: 185-8. PMID 3353714.
  6. ^ Link AJ, Phillips D, Church GM (1997). "Methods for generating precise deletions and insertions in the genome of wild-type Escherichia coli: application to open reading frame characterization". J Bacteriol. 179: 6228-37. PMID 9335267.
  7. ^ (1996) "Capitalizing on the genome". Nature Genetics 13: 1. PMID 8673083.[1]
  8. ^ Church GM (2005). "The personal genome project". Mol Syst Biol. 1: 0030. PMID 16729065.
  9. ^ DOE Genomes to Life Center
  10. ^ Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science Awards
  11. ^ Herper M (2006). "Photoshop For DNA". Forbes.[2]
  12. ^ San Francisco Business Times - March 12, 2007