Bio
Born in Scotland, Dr. Ashley graduated with 1st class Honors in Physiology and Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He completed medical residency and a PhD at the University of Oxford before moving to Stanford University where he trained in cardiology and advanced heart failure, joining the faculty in 2006. His group is focused on the science of precision medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome. The article became one of the most cited in clinical medicine that year and was later featured in The Smithsonian in DC. Over the following years, the team extended the approach to the first whole genome molecular autopsy, the first family to be sequenced on the Illumina platform, and to a series of patients in primary care. The team now routinely applies genome sequencing to the diagnosis of patients at Stanford hospitals where Dr Ashley chairs the Clinical Genomics Advisory Committee and directs the Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Dr Ashley was the first co-chair of the steering committee of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network. He was a recipient of the National Innovation Award from the American Heart Association and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He was recognized by the Obama White House for his contributions to Personalized Medicine. In 2018, he was awarded the American Heart Association Medal of Honor for Genomic and Precision Medicine. He was appointed Stanford Associate Dean in 2019 and became the inaugural holder of the Roger and Joelle Burnell Chair in Genomics and Precision Health in 2021. He is co-founder of three companies: Personalis ($PSNL), Deepcell, and Svexa. His first book The Genome Odyssey - Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them was released in 2021 and has been translated into multiple languages and distributed around the world. Father to three young-ish Americans, in his spare time, he pilots planes, tries to understand American football, plays jazz saxophone, and conducts research on the health benefits of single malt Scotch whisky.
