George Church, PhD

George Church is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of  PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental and Trait data (GET). His 1984 Harvard Ph.D. included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing and barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994. His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This, plus his lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering, resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics (Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, AbVitro/Juno, Genos, Veritas Genetics) and synthetic biology/therapeutics (Joule, Gen9, Editas, Egenesis, enEvolv, WarpDrive). He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental and biosecurity policies. He is director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and U.S. National Institutes of Health Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. His honors include election to U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has co-authored 537 papers, 156 patent publications and one book, “Regenesis.”