Noted Geneticist, UA Alumnus to Discuss Pathobiology in ALLELE Lecture

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Richard Myers, president and director of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and an alumnus of The University of Alabama, will present an Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution Lecture, “Large-scale Genomic Analyses to Study Biology and Pathobiology,” Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building Auditorium on the UA campus.

The ALLELE series is an interdisciplinary lecture series organized by the Evolution Working Group at The University of Alabama, and all lectures are free and open to the public.

Myers has worked at the HudsonAlpha Institute since 2008. The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville is the cornerstone of the Cummings Research Park Biotechnology Campus, the nation’s second largest research park for life sciences. HudsonAlpha has a three-fold mission of genomic research, economic development and educational outreach.

Myers’ research is focused on human genetics and genomics and has led to the identification of genes involved in inherited diseases. His lab uses genomics tools and genetics to understand how genes interacting with the environment contribute to human diseases and other traits.

Myers received his bachelor’s degree from UA 1977 and a doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley. After postdoctoral work at Harvard University, his first faculty position was at the University of California San Francisco in 1986, then Stanford University in 1993. At Stanford, Myers served as chair of the department of genetics and director of the Stanford Human Genome Center, which contributed more than 10 percent of the data for the public Human Genome Project.

In 2011, Myers was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, for his contributions in the area of human genomics, research, technology development and administration at the national and local levels.

While on campus, Myers will also give a talk as part of UA’s Honors College Book Club Series. Myers will present, “A Genetic Journey: From HeLa Cells to the Genome Revolution,” on Monday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in Room 38 Lloyd Hall on the UA campus. That talk is also free and open to the public. For more information on this event, contact tonya.nelson@ua.edu.

The 2012-2013 ALLELE series is supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, New College, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology and Counseling, and the departments of anthropology, biology, chemistry, English, gender and race studies, geological sciences, history, philosophy, psychology, and telecommunications and film.

The ALLELE lecture series is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.