George Church

GEORGE CHURCH

• George church is an American molecular geneticist. • Currently Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT. • Senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology. • Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Centre on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Centre of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard.

WORKS • Developed the first genomic sequencing method with Walter Gilbert (1984). • He helped initiate the Human Genome Project (1984). • Research scientist at Biogen. Inc. • He invented the concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, DNA array synthesisers. • Initiated the personal genome project (2005). • He founded the U.S. personal genomics company called KNOME (2007). • Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Centre on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Centre of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard. • Advisor to 22 companies, co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices (now called Gen9 Inc.), a biotech startup dedicated to synthetic biology, which produces DNA sequences to order. • With Chris Somerville he founded LS9, which is focused on biofuels or renewable petroleum technologies.

COLLABORATIONS • He is involved with — LS9 (bio fuels), Knome (personal genomes), Alacris Pharmaceuticals (cancer) and Joule Unlimited (photosynthesis).

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: • Personal Genome Project. • Mirror Project. • Studying interactions between genes and environmental components.

FUTURE GOALS: • To sequence the entire genomes of 100,000 people — nearly every one of the six billion As, Cs, Gs and Ts that occur in a human. • Creating DNA and cells that are exact opposites of their natural versions — and to have a functioning mirror cell that serves some function in about two years (Mirror Project).

LINKS:

Genomic Sequencing: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC345422/?tool=pmcentrez

Human Genome Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project

Biogen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogen

Multiplex DNA sequencing: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/240/4849/185

Homologous Recombination Methods: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC179534/?tool=pmcentrez

Genome Therapeutics Corp: http://www.genomecorp.com/

Personal Genome Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Genome_Project

Knome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knome

Molecular Systems Biology: http://www.nature.com/msb/index.html

LS9: http://www.ls9.com/

Alacris Pharmaceuticals: http://www.alacrispharma.com/