George Church (geneticist)

George Church
Church in April 2023
Born
George McDonald Church

(1954-08-28) August 28, 1954 (age 70)[6]
MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida, U.S.[6]
Alma mater
Known forSynthetic Biology, Woolly Mammoth Revival Project $
SpouseTing Wu
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry[2]
Institutions
ThesisGenetic Elements within Yeast Mitochondrial and Mouse Immunoglobulin Introns (1984)
Doctoral advisorWalter Gilbert[3]
Doctoral students
Other notable students
Websitearep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/

George McDonald Church (born August 28, 1954) is an American geneticist, molecular engineer, chemist, serial entrepreneur, and pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology.[7] He is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.[8][2][9]

Through his Harvard lab Church has co-founded around 50 biotech companies.[10][11][12] In 2018, the Church lab at Harvard spun off 16 biotech companies in one year.[11] The Church lab works on research projects that are distributed in diverse areas of modern biology like developmental biology, neurobiology, info processing, medical genetics, aging, genomics, gene therapy, diagnostics, chemistry & bioengineering, space biology & space genetics, and ecosystem.[13] Research and technology developments at the Church lab have impacted or made direct contributions to nearly all "next-generation sequencing (NGS)" methods and companies.[14]

In 2017, Time magazine listed him in Time 100, the list of 100 most influential people in the world.[15][16][17] In 2022, he was featured among the most influential people in biopharma by Fierce Pharma.[18] As of January 2023, Church serves as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Board of Sponsors.[19]

  1. ^ "Bower Laureates". February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  2. ^ a b George Church publications indexed by Google Scholar
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference churchphd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Multiplex genome sequencing and analysis". ProQuest 305001213.
  5. ^ Cohen, Jon (October 7, 2020). "CRISPR, the revolutionary genetic 'scissors,' honored by Chemistry Nobel". Science | AAAS. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Church, George". Biography Reference Bank. The H. W. Wilson Company. 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2011. [permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "The Future of Synthetic Biology with Prof. George Church". Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs. September 20, 2020. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference NairNASbio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ George Church's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  10. ^ "Newcos GClab". Harvard Molecular Technologies. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  11. ^ a b DeFrancesco, Laura (January 1, 2020). "One year, 1 lab, 16 spinouts". Nature Biotechnology. 38 (1): 9–13. doi:10.1038/s41587-019-0369-7. ISSN 1546-1696. PMID 31873218. S2CID 209461325.
  12. ^ Church, George M.; Philippidis, Alex; Davies, Kevin (April 2022). "Thirty-Eight Special: George Church Pushes the Biotech Envelope". Gen Biotechnology. 1 (2): 127–132. doi:10.1089/genbio.2022.29021.gch. S2CID 248305602.
  13. ^ "GC-Main". Harvard Molecular Technologies. August 11, 2021. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  14. ^ "George M. Church, Ph.D." National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists. July 20, 2022. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  15. ^ "George Church: The World's 100 Most Influential People".
  16. ^ "Harvard Geneticist George Church Gives Moving Toast At 2017 Time 100 Gala | Time 100 | Time". YouTube. April 26, 2017.
  17. ^ "George Church Toasts the 2017 Time 100 Gala".
  18. ^ "Most influential people in biopharma—the scientists". May 9, 2022.
  19. ^ "Board of Sponsors". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. March 30, 2017. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.