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Honors & Awards
Title
Organization
Date(s)
Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters
University of Alabama
December 2005
Wills Foundation Award
The Wills Foundation
1986-2005
Pritzker Foundation Award
Pritzker Foundation
April 2002
Blount Initiative Award
University of Alabama
October 2003
Searle Scholar
The Searle Scholar Program
1987-1990
7 honors and awards: view full list
Administrative Appointments
Title
Organization
Start Year
End Year
Chairman
Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
2002
-
Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Genetics
Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
2003
-
Director, Stanford Human Genome Center
Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
1993
-
Professional Education
Degree
Awarding Institution
Field of Study
Year of Graduation
Ph.D.
Univ California Berkeley
Biochemistry
1982
B.S.
University of Alabama
Biochemistry
1977
Postdoctoral Advisees
Timothy Reddy
Web Site Links
Research/Lab website:
Myers Lab Site
Research Interests
My laboratory studies the human genome, with interests in understanding how allelic variation and gene expression changes contribute to understanding human traits, including diseases, behaviors and other phenotypes. We use high-throughput genomic methods, including DNA sequencing, genotyping, chromatin immunoprecipitation, mRNA expression profiling, transcriptional promoter and methylation measurements, and computational and statistical tools to identify, characterize and understand the functional elements encoded in our genomes.
In our human genetics work, we study brain and cardiovascular phenotypes, including Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, bipolar disease, insulin resistance and atherosclerosis, as well as cancer and population genetics. With the Pritzker Consortium, we study mood disorders with genetic approaches and by assessing gene expression patterns in brains of people with the disease. We are part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Project, where we are using genome-wide genotyping to measure structural genomic variation associated with a variety of tumors. We are using similar approaches to measure genetic diversity in human populations, including 51 populations from around the world.
The Stanford Human Genome Center was established in 1990 as one of the first genome centers of the Human Genome Project. We collaborated with the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek on the public effort to sequence the human genome. Our groups contributed 11% of the sequence (chromosomes 5, 16 and 19). We continue to work with the JGI and have sequenced the genomes of more than 40 organisms, mostly concerned with bioenergy, agricultural and environmental problems. We are engaged in other sequencing projects, including sequencing full-length cDNAs, projects with David Kingsley to use stickleback fish to study vertebrate diversity, and a variety of positional cloning projects.
Another major interest of our group is functional genomics. We use high-throughput methods, including ChIP, mRNA profiling, transcriptional promoter and methylation assays, and computational and statistical tools to study human biology. We are part of the ENCODE Consortium, which has the goal of identifying and understanding all the functional elements in the human genome. With Dr. Barbara Wold and her lab at Caltech, we developed ChIPSeq, a method that uses ultra-high throughput sequencing to identify sites in the genome bound by transcription factors in living cells. We are using a similar approach to measure the methylation status at almost every CpG island in the human genome. We collaborate with Dr. Wold’s lab on networks of factors to study interesting human biological problems, including NRSF, GABP, SRF and FoxP2.
In addition to research, I participate in a variety of teaching, educational outreach, and institutional and national service activities. I teach in several courses in genetics and genomics to undergraduate, medical and graduate students, and I have a special interest in teaching science to non-science majors. I helped established a partnership between the Department of Genetics and the San Jose Tech Museum (“Stanford at the Tech”), which develops exhibits and trains graduate students in the art of teaching to the public. I am particularly interested in increasing and nurturing diversity in the scientific community, and I am active in several programs involved with under-represented groups at the graduate school level and earlier. I am an Associate Editor of Genome Research and serve on advisory panels for the National Human Genome Research Institute and the US Department of Energy.
In our human genetics work, we study brain and cardiovascular phenotypes, including Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, bipolar disease, insulin resistance and atherosclerosis, as well as cancer and population genetics. With the Pritzker Consortium, we study mood disorders with genetic approaches and by assessing gene expression patterns in brains of people with the disease. We are part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Project, where we are using genome-wide genotyping to measure structural genomic variation associated with a variety of tumors. We are using similar approaches to measure genetic diversity in human populations, including 51 populations from around the world.
The Stanford Human Genome Center was established in 1990 as one of the first genome centers of the Human Genome Project. We collaborated with the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek on the public effort to sequence the human genome. Our groups contributed 11% of the sequence (chromosomes 5, 16 and 19). We continue to work with the JGI and have sequenced the genomes of more than 40 organisms, mostly concerned with bioenergy, agricultural and environmental problems. We are engaged in other sequencing projects, including sequencing full-length cDNAs, projects with David Kingsley to use stickleback fish to study vertebrate diversity, and a variety of positional cloning projects.
Another major interest of our group is functional genomics. We use high-throughput methods, including ChIP, mRNA profiling, transcriptional promoter and methylation assays, and computational and statistical tools to study human biology. We are part of the ENCODE Consortium, which has the goal of identifying and understanding all the functional elements in the human genome. With Dr. Barbara Wold and her lab at Caltech, we developed ChIPSeq, a method that uses ultra-high throughput sequencing to identify sites in the genome bound by transcription factors in living cells. We are using a similar approach to measure the methylation status at almost every CpG island in the human genome. We collaborate with Dr. Wold’s lab on networks of factors to study interesting human biological problems, including NRSF, GABP, SRF and FoxP2.
In addition to research, I participate in a variety of teaching, educational outreach, and institutional and national service activities. I teach in several courses in genetics and genomics to undergraduate, medical and graduate students, and I have a special interest in teaching science to non-science majors. I helped established a partnership between the Department of Genetics and the San Jose Tech Museum (“Stanford at the Tech”), which develops exhibits and trains graduate students in the art of teaching to the public. I am particularly interested in increasing and nurturing diversity in the scientific community, and I am active in several programs involved with under-represented groups at the graduate school level and earlier. I am an Associate Editor of Genome Research and serve on advisory panels for the National Human Genome Research Institute and the US Department of Energy.
Community and International Work
- Stanford Genetics San Jose Tech Museum Partnership, San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation More »
- Education outreach, Department of Genetics and Stanford Human Genome Center More »
- Editor, Genome Research More »
Publications
- Li JZ, Absher DM, Tang H, Southwick AM, Casto AM, Ramachandran S, Cann HM, Barsh GS, Feldman M, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Myers RM "Worldwide human relationships inferred from genome-wide patterns of variation." Science 2008; 319: 5866: 1100-4 More »
- Schroeder DI, Myers RM "Multiple transcription start sites for FOXP2 with varying cellular specificities." Gene 2008; More »
- The ENCODE Project Consortium, "Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project." Nature 2007; 447: 799-816 More »
- Watson, J. D., Caudy, A. A., Myers, R. M. and Witkowski, J. A. "Recombinant DNA: Genes and Genomes, 3rd Edition." W. H. Freeman Press. ISBN 0-7167-2866-4. 2007; More »
- Li JZ, Meng F, Tsavaler L, Evans SJ, Choudary PV, Tomita H, Vawter MP, Walsh D, Shokoohi V, Chung T, Bunney WE, Jones EG, Akil H, Watson SJ, Myers RM "Sample matching by inferred agonal stress in gene expression analyses of the brain." BMC Genomics 2007; 8: 1: 336 More »
163 publications: view full list
