Genomics and technology development expert Lars Steinmetz now leads Stanford Medicine’s genetics department.
July 25, 2024 - By Hanae Armitage
Lars Steinmetz, PhD, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation Endowed Professor, has assumed the role of chair of the genetics department at the Stanford School of Medicine. His appointment began July 1.
Steinmetz succeeds Michael Snyder, PhD, the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS Professor in Genetics, who led the department for 15 years.
“I’m delighted to see Lars lead the department of genetics,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs for Stanford University. “He is a highly productive leader of laboratories here and in Europe who has led innovative and influential genetics research. His strong ability to facilitate productive collaborations across sites and disciplines will be an outstanding asset for the department.”
After Steinmetz completed his undergraduate work at Yale University, where he studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he began a doctoral program at Stanford Medicine, studying genetics under Ronald Davis, PhD, professor of biochemistry and of genetics.
In 2003, Steinmetz joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, leading his own group and co-founding the institution’s first genome biology unit. During this time, he kept ties with Stanford Medicine as a visiting scholar at the Stanford Genome Technology Center and was appointed as a professor of genetics a decade later, in 2013.
“It was always my dream to come back to Stanford as a faculty member,” he said. “Now to chair the department, it’s definitely an honor.”
Maintaining labs in both Germany and Palo Alto has been a defining and stimulating part of Steinmetz’s career. “The science never sleeps that way,” he said. “One lab goes to bed, the other lab gets up, and you can build a nice synergy with that.”
Steinmetz has focused his research predominately on the discovery of new biology with implications for systems genetics and precision health. To that end, his lab invents and applies genome analysis technologies, which power advanced sequencing and parsing of human genomes to better pinpoint the genetic roots of disease. “Technology is usually the limiting factor to discovery, so we invent what we need to derive biological insights,” said Steinmetz.
These technologies allow his lab to resolve previously unanswerable questions about biological problems. “That’s one of the reasons my lab is so diverse in topic areas — these technologies are universal and can connect different fields of biology to answer new questions,” he said.
He points to a recent paper he and collaborators wrote about the genetic foundation of a type of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart that impedes its ability to pump. Using a variety of genome analysis technologies, the team was able to home in on the specific gene causing the patient’s disease, pinpoint the mutation and suggest targeted therapeutic strategies.
More broadly, Steinmetz envisions a flow of curiosity-driven basic science that also fuels more precise and effective decision making in the clinic. “We’re already doing this, but I think the department will continue to improve its integration of new omics technologies to investigate fundamental research, then use that information to enhance patient care,” he said.
About Stanford Medicine
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