ENCODE Project Telebriefing Participant Bios
ENCODE Telebriefing, September 5, 2012
Ewan Birney, Ph.D.
Ewan Birney, Ph.D. Dr. Birney is associate director of EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute). He developed a number of databases (such as Ensembl), and worked on specific genomics projects, ranging from sequencing for the Human Genome Project in 2000 through to the ENCODE project. For ENCODE he coordinated the analysis for both the 1% ENCODE Pilot Project (published in 2007) and the scale-up now published in 2012. As associate director, Dr Birney takes a strategic oversight role of the EBI services ranging from genome sequences through proteins, small molecules, macromolecular structures to networks, pathways and systems.
Elise Feingold, Ph.D.
Elise Feingold, Ph.D.is a program director in Genome Analysis at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). She led the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and the related project in model organisms (modENCODE) to identify all of the functional elements in the human, and the
D. melanogaster and
C. elegans genomes, respectively. In addition, Dr. Feingold manages a portfolio of research grants in functional genomics including several Centers of Excellence in Genomic Sciences (CEGS). Dr. Feingold also serves on the NIH Common Fund Epigenomics and High Risk - High Reward working groups.
Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D.
Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., is director of NHGRI, the largest organization in the world solely dedicated to genomic research. For two decades, Dr. Green has been at the forefront of efforts to map, sequence, and understand the genomes of eukaryotes - organisms with membrane-bound nuclei, including significant, start-to-finish involvement in the Human Genome Project. He earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in cell biology from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Rick Myers, Ph.D.
Richard Myers, Ph.D. is the president, director and a faculty investigator of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. His research program is focused on human genetics and genomics. Work in his laboratory has led to the identification of genes involved in several inherited diseases, and his genome center contributed more than 10 percent of the data in the public Human Genome Project's efforts to sequence the human genome. His lab continues to use genomics tools and genetics to understand how genes interacting with the environment contribute to human diseases and other traits.
Magdalena Skipper, Ph.D.
Magdalena Skipper, Ph.D. has a broad developmental genetics background. She obtained her Ph.D. from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where she studied
C. elegans sex determination in Jonathan Hodgkin's lab. During her postdoc in Julian Lewis's lab at the ICRF she worked with zebrafish, chick and mouse focusing on vertebrate gut development. Her
Nature magazine responsibilities inlcude: co-editor of editorials, editorial content and management, and long-term quality of all
Nature publications.
Michael Snyder, Ph.D.
Michael Snyder, Ph.D. is the Stanford Ascherman Professor and Chair of Genetics and the director of the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine and is a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics. His laboratory study was the first to perform a large-scale functional genomics project in any organism, and currently carries out a variety of projects in the areas of genomics and proteomics both in yeast and humans. These include the large-scale analysis of proteins using protein microarrays and the global mapping of the binding sites of chromosomal proteins. His laboratory built the first proteome chip for any organism and the first high resolution tiling array for the entire human genome.
John Stamatoyannopoulos, M.D., Ph.D.
John Stamatoyannopoulos, M.D., Ph.D. attended Stanford University where he graduated with degrees in Symbolic Systems, Biology, and Classics. He received his M.D. from the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed specialty and subspecialty training at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests include analyzing gene regulation on a global scale, from regulatory elements encoded by the primary DNA sequence to nuclear architecture and ultimately the networks of genes and proteins that define the interface between the genome, the cell and the organism.
Larry J. Thompson, M.S., M.F.A.
Larry J. Thompson, M.S., M.F.A., is chief of the Communications and Public Liaison Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). His team manages media relations and creates a wide range of communications products, including websites, multimedia presentations and documentaries. He co-founded the
Washington Post's Health section and the
San Jose Mercury News' Science and Medicine section. He holds an M.S. in molecular biology from Lehigh University and an M.F.A. in film and electronic media from American University.
