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The Impact of the Human Genome Project on Public Health and Environmental Protection
[06/22/06]

Speaker biographies and presentation abstracts

Of People, Patterns, and Pathology: What Are We Learning From the Human Genome Project?

Dr. Richard M. Myers [photo], Professor and Director
Stanford Human Genome Center
Stanford University

Dr. Richard Myers is Professor and Chair of Genetics and Director of the Stanford Human Genome Center. He served on the faculty at the University of California at San Francisco and moved to the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993. Dr. Myers's laboratory uses classical and molecular genetics, genomics, cell biological and computational methods to understand the roles that genes play in a wide range of human traits, including diseases, behaviors and other phenotypes. In addition, since the beginning of the Human Genome Project, he has participated in the large-scale mapping and sequencing of the human genome, and, more recently, in genomic and gene sequencing of the genomes of other organisms.

Dr. Myers is a member of numerous committees concerned with human genetic diseases and the Human Genome Project including the Genome Resources and Sequencing Prioritization Panel (GRASPP) and is Chair of the Genome Research Review Committee of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the Biology and Biotechnology Program Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dr. Myers has received numerous awards including the Pritzker Foundation Award in 2002, the Darden Lecture Award from the University of Alabama, 2002, the Wills Foundation Award (1986-2001) and was a Searle Scholar (1987-1990).

Dr. Myers received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 1977 and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982; he then performed postdoctoral work at Harvard University with Tom Maniatis.


From Gene Discovery to the Treatment and Prevention of Disease

Dr. Paula W. Yoon [photo], Epidemiologist
Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Paula Yoon is an epidemiologist in the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention (OGDP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Since joining OGDP in 2000, Dr. Yoon's primary activities have been: 1) developing pilot projects to assess genetic testing in the U.S., 2) developing a research agenda to address the validity and utility of using family medical history for preventive medicine, 3) assisting other CDC programs with integrating genetics into their epidemiological research, and 4) creating a web-based genomics and health information system.

Dr. Yoon joined CDC in 1994 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in the Birth Defects and Genetic Diseases Branch. There she was the principal investigator of an eight-state study of genetic and environmental causes of birth defects. Prior to CDC, Dr. Yoon worked with the World Health Organization, the International Labour Office, the United Nations Subcommittee on Nutrition, and the Institute for International Programs.

Dr. Yoon received her MPH in 1987 and her ScD in 1993 from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.


Chipping Away at Risk Assessment: Gene Chips and Computer Chips Changing the Face of Risk Assessment

Dr. Christopher J. Portier [photo], Director
Environmental Toxicology Program
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Portier is Director of the Environmental Toxicology Program and Chief of the Laboratory of Computational Biology and Risk Analysis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). His group uses computer science, toxicokinetics, theoretical biology, statistical analysis, and mechanistic modeling to study toxicology survival analysis, and to develop cancer models and environmental risk assessments based on the emerging field of toxicogenomics. He joined the Statistics and Biomathematics Branch of NIEHS in 1981 as a Mathematical Statistician and moved up to Section Head, Associate Director, and then Director in 2000.

Dr. Portier is a member of many national and international committees dealing with risk assessment issues including a permanent membership on the EPA FIFRA Science Advisory Panel. He is the Scientific Coordinator for courses in quantitative risk assessment for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Dr. Portier has received numerous awards including the James E. Grizzle Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of North Carolina, 1991; he was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, 1992 and received the Spiegelman Award in 1995 for the most outstanding public health statistician under the age of 40.

Dr. Portier received his B.S. in Mathematics from Nicholls State University (1977) and his M.S. (1979) and Ph.D. (1981) in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.


Converting Crops Into Biological Factories: The Potential of the Plant Genome Project

Dr. Daphne Preuss [photo], Professor
Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Chicago

Daphne Preuss is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago and an Assistant Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She also has appointments at the University's Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, and the Committees on Genetics and Developmental Biology.

Dr. Preuss' work focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of inheritance in the flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. During the past decade, she has identified genes that enable plants to interact with pollen of the most appropriate species. She has also studied the DNA sequences, known as centromeres, which allow chromosomes to be inherited following cell division. As part of the latter project, she has served as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative - a multinational, multiagency project that recently announced the complete DNA sequencing of the first plant genome.

Dr. Preuss is a David and Lucile Packard Fellow, a Searle Scholar, received the Women in Cell Biology Junior Award from the American Society for Cell Biology (1998), was listed by Discover Magazine as one of twenty outstanding young American scientists (2000), and was this year's recipient of the American Society of Cell Biology - Promega Early Career Life Scientist Award. She serves on many scientific advisory boards and panels, is on the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America, and on the editorial board of several scientific journals.

Dr. Preuss has recently addressed the controversy surrounding the development of genetically modified foods by drafting policy statements on behalf of the Genetics Society and American Society for Cell Biology, by addressing the US House of Representatives Biomedical Caucus, and by serving as an advisor to The Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts.

Dr. Preuss attended the University of Denver where she received B.S. degrees in Biology and Chemistry (1985). She received her Ph.D. from MIT (1990) under the supervision of Dr. David Botstein; her postdoctoral research was performed at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Ronald Davis. She has been on The University of Chicago faculty since 1995.

 
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