Peter Little on Changes in Genomics
  Peter Little     Biography    
Recorded: 30 May 2003

Genomics has moved, and it’s really moved from being a very, you know, it’s a very small scaled operation, different research to do. It gradually moved through an area where people are really excited at the technology. And then it moved on from just taking the excitement of technology to realizing that we actually, yes, we can sequence the genome. And that just then picked up a momentum, which is extraordinary. It’s now going to be very interesting to see what happens next because we have the information. Now the biology starts to become dominant again. So these meetings will change again as we use the information or exploit the information instead of just listening to people saying how they’re going to generate the information.

Peter Little is a bioinformatics researcher, professor of medical biochemistry and the head of the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He received his Ph.D. working with recombinant DNA under Ed Southern and Peter Walker at Edinburgh University. In 1976, Little cloned a human gene – the second time this was ever accomplished.

Little’s laboratory studies the genetic basis of gene expression, and genetic variation as it pertains to the regulatory regions of the genes. He has hypothesized that there are two types of genetic variation that alter gene expression. His lab has also created advanced techniques for testing genetically influenced transcript variations.

He comes to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory regularly for genome meetings and symposia.