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Genetics
Research interests in the Washington University Department of Genetics include the basic molecular and developmental genetics of model eukaryotic systems, as well as the mapping and identification of genes responsible for important human hereditary diseases.
Genome research is a major focus of the Department. One of the largest genome centers in the world, the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center, is part of the Department.
The department is strongly interdisciplinary, with expertise that ranges from molecular biology and classical genetics, to the engineering of new tools and machines for genome analysis, to the development of computer algorithms and software for analyzing DNA and protein sequences.
Most graduate students in the Department are admitted through the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. Some students may also be admitted through the Biomedical Engineering Program in the School of Engineering.
| News Stories & Tip Sheets: |
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Human Microbiome Project
$19 million to WU scientists to decode microbe DNA and explore links to disease
June 23,
2009 --
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| Image courtesy of United States Department of Agriculture |
| Human gut bacterium Enterococcus faecalis |
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis four grants totaling $19 million to explore the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body and determine how they contribute to good health and disease. The grants are part of the Human Microbiome Project, an ongoing, ambitious effort to catalog the bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms that naturally coexist in or on the body.
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What separates men from mice?
Of Mice and Men: Scientists unveil complete genome sequence of the mouse
May 29,
2009 -- Genetically speaking, what distinguishes a man from a mouse? U.S. and European scientists provide the answer in this week's PLoS Biology. They have described the finished genome sequence of the mouse, which, after the human, is only the second mammal to have its complete genome decoded.
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'Nurture, sustain a culture of scientific innovation'
Obama names WUSTL biologist to his science advisory council
May 7,
2009 --
President Obama has appointed Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and vice president of the National Academy of Sciences, to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
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| Faculty Experts: |
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David Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D.
Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology
Gutmann is the founder and director of the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Program, which is dedicated to treating the common inherited tumor predisposition syndrome, neurofibromatosis (NF). Individuals with NF have an increased risk of developing brain tumors and other cancers. As national leader in the ...
Expertise: Brain tumors, cancer genetics, neurofibromatosis, molecular genetics, neurosciences, neurology
Media assistance: (314) 286-0122 / purdym@wustl.edu
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Alan Templeton
Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences
Templeton applies molecular genetic techniques and statistical population genetics to a variety of problems in evolutionary and conservation biology. He explores natural selection in various species, genetic variability, the role of lipid metabolic genes in coronary artery disease in humans, and the ...
Expertise: evolution of HIV, evolutionary and conservation biology, genetic variability, lipid metabolic genes, molecular genetics, natural selection
Direct contact: (314) 935-6868
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temple_a@biology.wustl.edu
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Alison M. Goate
Professor of Genetics and Psychiatry
A professor of genetics in psychiatry, Alison Goate is a molecular geneticist who discovered the first genetic mutation that causes a form of Alzheimer's disease.
Expertise: Alzheimer's disease, amyloid, genetics, psychiatry, genetic mutation, amyloid-beta, disease-causing mutations
Media assistance: (314) 286-0110 / jdryden@wustl.edu
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Paul Goodfellow
Professor of Surgery
The Goodfellow laboratory is investigating the genetic alterations that underlie development of uterine endometrial cancers. Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States. Like many cancers, uterine endometrial cancers are hormonally- responsive tumors. The genetic ...
Expertise: Cancer genetics, cancer, DNA, genetics, gene expression
Media assistance: (314) 286-0141 / ericsong@wustl.edu
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Howard McLeod
director of the pharmacology core at the Siteman Cancer Center
There is a high degree of variation in patient response to medicines. The McLeod laboratory uses genetic tools to perform in vitro, ex vivo, and clinical evaluations to discover, validate, and apply molecular predictors of therapeutic outcome. This includes candidate gene and genome-wide human association ...
Expertise: pharmacogenetics, pharmacology, translational research, tumor markers, chemotherapy
Media assistance: (314) 286-0141 / ericsong@wustl.edu
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Elaine Mardis and Richard Wilson: Taking Cancer's Genetic Measure
U.S. News & World Report online
July 1,
2009 -- WUSTL biochemists Elaine Mardis and Richard Wilson helped decode the human genome and are now working to find genetic mutations associated with acute myeloid leukemia.
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Study: 'Depression Gene' Doesn't Predict the Blues
Time.com
June 17,
2009 -- Are some people hardwired to get the blues? Scientists have long believed that a tendency toward melancholy runs in families. A new study published on June 16 in JAMA now threatens to send researchers back to the drawing board. The meta-analysis of 14 prior studies concludes that the so-called depression gene may not be associated with an elevated risk for depression, as many researchers had believed. WUSTL psychiatric geneticist Alexandre Todorov, whose 2007 peer-reviewed study was included in the JAMA piece, comments.
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Black churches help enlist first-time blood donors
Reuters Health Medical News
and 4 others
Dec. 29,
2008 -- Black churches that hold blood drives after informing parishioners about the importance of blood donations for children with sickle cell disease will get a big upsurge in first-time donors, new research shows. WUSTL School of Medicine sickle cell researcher Michael DeBaun comments.
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Experts Decode Cancer Patient's Genes, Seeking Treatment Clues
The New York Times
and 57 others
Nov. 6,
2008 -- For the first time, researchers have decoded all the genes of a person with cancer and found a set of mutations that might have caused the disease or aided its progression. Includes comments by Richard Wilson, senior study author and director of WUSTL's Genome Sequencing Center, and WUSTL hematologist Timothy Ley, director of the study.
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Closest look yet at lung cancer genes
Science News Web edition
Oct. 23,
2008 -- A large probe of lung tumors sheds light on the mutations that tend to underlie cancer in a new study conducted by researchers from Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. The study also identifies new cellular pathways that can trigger these malignancies.
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