George Church

George Church, Ph.D., is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics. With degrees from Duke University in Chemistry and Zoology, he co-authored research on 3D-software & RNA structure with Sung-Hou Kim. His 1984 Ph.D. from Harvard in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology with Wally Gilbert included the first direct genomic sequencing method. He co-initiated the Human Genome Project a few months later as a Research Scientist at newly formed Biogen Inc. and was a Monsanto Life Sciences Research Fellow at UCSF. He invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods and array DNA synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing and software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori, 1994). He has served in advisory roles for 12 journals, five granting agencies and 22 biotechnology companies. His current research focuses on integrating biosystems-modeling with personal genomics and synthetic biology.