George M. Church
Biographical Sketch (131 words):
George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Director of PersonalGenomes.org,
providing the world's only open-access information on human Genomic,
Environmental & Trait data (GET).
His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing,
molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These lead to the first commercial genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994 .
His innovations in "next generation" genome sequencing and synthesis & cell/tissue engineering resulted in 12 companies spanning fields including medical genomics ( Knome,
Alacris,
AbVitro,
GoodStart,
Pathogenica ) and
synthetic biology ( LS9,
Joule ,
Gen9,
Warp Drive ) as well as new privacy,
biosafety & biosecurity policies. He is director of the NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. His honors include election to
NAS & NAE and Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science.