Recorded: 14 May 2004
I think it’s going to be a success. And what’s going to happen is that it will directly lead to a small number of disease gene discoveries. And that, in itself, will justify the project.
But really in itself it is a foundation, so we’ll expand and enrich the genetic data for the power of the HapMap project. And make a set of genetic resources that are tools that will really enable any investigator to really simply and straightforwardly look at the genetic architecture of the disorder that they are interested in. We’ll just see just these rounds and rounds of discovery. That will all be linked directly or indirectly back to this HapMap project.
Richard A. Gibbs is currently the Director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the Wofford Cain Professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Radiation Biology in 1985 at the University of Melbourne in Australia. In 1990 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, studying the molecular basis of human X-linked diseases and developing technologies for rapid genetic analysis. He developed several fundamental technologies for nucleic acid analysis. In 1991, he joined the BCM faculty and played a key role in the early planning and development phases of the Human Genome Project. In 1996, he established the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center when Baylor was chosen as one of six programs to complete the final phase of the Human Genome Project. Dr. Gibbs has also made significant contributions to the deciphering of the fly, mouse, dictyostelium, and rat genomes. Among the numerous awards and honors received by Dr. Gibbs, he was awarded the Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award in 2000.