NHGRI Director Eric Green to Give Watson Lecture

Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), presented the Jean Mitchell Watson Lecture at the University of Chicago on Oct. 29. The lecture honors the mother of James Dewey Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA in 1953, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 and founder of NHGRI and the Human Genome Project. Dr. Watson will be present at the event.

Dr. Green's presentation, Fulfilling the Promise of a Sequenced Human Genome, focuses on the current state of genomics research and the future of genomic medicine, whose ultimate goal is finding new treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Green has been extensively involved in efforts to map, sequence and understand the human genome for more than 20 years. Prior to his appointment as the NHGRI director on Dec. 1, 2009, he served as the NHGRI scientific director guiding the growth and diversification of the institute's intramural research program. Some of his notable contributions include founding and directing the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center (NISC) for more than a decade, establishing the Social and Behavioral Research Branch and the NIH Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health and helping to launch innovative programs such as the Undiagnosed Diseases Program.

Dr. Green has received numerous awards, including induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2002 and into the America Association of Physicians in 2007. He is an author on more than 240 scientific papers, a founding editor of Genome Research in 1995, edited the series Genome Analysis: A Laboratory Manual, and, since 2005, has been co-editor of the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics.

About the Jean Mitchell Watson Lecture

The Jean Mitchell Watson Lecture is an annual evolutionary biology lecture that was endowed by James D. Watson in honor of his mother, Jean Mitchell Wat­son, a student at the university, and a staff member in the Housing Office and the Office of Admissions.

The lecture was held at 3 p.m. at Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center, 924 East 57th Street, Room 109 in Chicago. For more information, please contact Amy J. Berk, 773-702-1988, ajberk@uchicago.edu.