George Church

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George Church

Church with a molecular model at TED 2010
Born August 28, 1954 (1954-08-28) (age 57)[1]
MacDill Air Force Base, Florida[1]
Residence Boston, Massachusetts
Citizenship U.S.
Nationality U.S.
Fields Genetics
Institutions Harvard, MIT
Alma mater Duke, Harvard

George Church (August 28, 1954- ) is an American molecular geneticist. He is currently Professor of Genetics[2] at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology[3] at Harvard and MIT, and a core faculty member[4] at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.[5][6]

With Walter Gilbert he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984[7] and helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984[8] while he was a Research Scientist at newly formed Biogen Inc. He invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags,[9] homologous recombination methods,[10] 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.[11]

He initiated the Personal Genome Project (PGP)[12] in 2005, and, in 2007, he founded the U.S. personal genomics company Knome[13] (with Jorge Conde and Sundar Subramaniam). He does research on synthetic biology and is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT[14] and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard.[15]

He has been advisor to 22 companies,[16] co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices, a biotech startup dedicated to synthetic biology, which produces DNA sequences to order.[17] With Chris Somerville, Jay Keasling, Noubar Afeyan, and David Berry he founded LS9, which is focused on biofuels or renewable petroleum technologies.[18]

In 2009 he founded Pathogenica, with Yemi Adesokan, in order to pioneer commercial applications for pathogen sequencing technology.[19]

In September 2010, Dr. Church was honored for his work in Genetics with the Mass High Tech All-Star Award.[20] He is a senior editor[21] for Molecular Systems Biology.

In 2011 he was awarded the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science of the Franklin Institute[22] and elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[23] In 2012, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.[24]

According to Forbes, Church suffers from narcolepsy.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Church, George". Biography Reference Bank. The H. W. Wilson Company. 2010. http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.sl.nsw.gov.au/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e9b4787916d5cb638db430fac44221005966e991f36e092d9756832a6b10ea83adcfbc6c5aef084ad&fmt=C. Retrieved 2011-12-10. 
  2. ^ HMS Genetics Faculty
  3. ^ HST
  4. ^ Wyss Institute Core Faculty
  5. ^ "Harvard Molecular Technology Group & Lipper Center for Computational Genetics". http://arep.med.harvard.edu/. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  6. ^ "George M. Church Personal History & Interests (Unauthorized autobiography & Infrequently Asked Questions)". http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/pers.html. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  7. ^ Church, G.; Gilbert, W. (1984). "Genomic sequencing". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 81 (7): 1991–1995. doi:10.1073/pnas.81.7.1991. PMC 345422. PMID 6326095. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=345422.  edit
  8. ^ Cook-Deegan, R. M. (1989). "The Alta summit, December 1984". Genomics 5 (3): 661–663. doi:10.1016/0888-7543(89)90042-6. PMID 2613249.  edit
  9. ^ Church, G.; Kieffer-Higgins, S. (1988). "Multiplex DNA sequencing". Science 240 (4849): 185–188. doi:10.1126/science.3353714. PMID 3353714.  edit
  10. ^ Link, A. J.; Phillips, D.; Church, G. M. (1997). "Methods for generating precise deletions and insertions in the genome of wild-type Escherichia coli: Application to open reading frame characterization". Journal of bacteriology 179 (20): 6228–6237. PMC 179534. PMID 9335267. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=179534.  edit
  11. ^ "Capitalizing on the genome". Nature Genetics 13 (1): 1–5. 1996. doi:10.1038/ng0596-1. PMID 8673083.  edit
  12. ^ Church, G. M. (2005). "The Personal Genome Project". Molecular Systems Biology 1 (1): E1–E3. doi:10.1038/msb4100040. PMC 1681452. PMID 16729065. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1681452.  edit
  13. ^ Dickinson, Boonsri (2010-06-10). "Geneticist George Church: Sequencing human genome ‘high priority’ for China". Smart Planet. http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/geneticist-george-church-sequencing-human-genome-high-priority-for-china/2350/. Retrieved 2010-08-18. 
  14. ^ DOE Genomes to Life Center
  15. ^ Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science Awards
  16. ^ Duncan, David (2010-06-07). "Scientist at Work: George M. Church - On a Mission to Sequence the Genomes of 100,000 People". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08church.html?_r=1. Retrieved 2010-08-18. 
  17. ^ Herper M (2006). "Photoshop For DNA". Forbes. [1]
  18. ^ San Francisco Business Times - March 12, 2007
  19. ^ "Pathogenica Bets on Next-Gen Sequencing for Fast, Multiplexed Pathogen Detection". GenomeWeb. 2010-07-06. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08church.html?_r=1. Retrieved 2011-09-06. 
  20. ^ "All-Star Awards". Mass High Tech. 2010-09-08. http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/event/26971. Retrieved 2010-09-08. 
  21. ^ "About the editors: Molecular Systems Biology". http://www.nature.com/msb/about/about_eds.html. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  22. ^ "Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science". Franklin Institute. 2011. http://www.fi.edu/franklinawards/11/bowersci.html. Retrieved December 23, 2011 (2011-12-23). 
  23. ^ "National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected". National Academies. 2011. http://nas.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=News_May_3_2011_member_election. Retrieved February 17, 2012 (2012-02-17). 
  24. ^ "National Academy of Engineering Elects 66 Members and 10 Foreign Associates". National Academies. 2012. http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=02092012. Retrieved February 17, 2012 (2012-02-17). 

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