George Church

George Church is Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Computational Genetics. 1984 Harvard PhD included the first direct genomic sequencing method and molecular multiplexing tags, which lead to automation & software used at Genome Therapeutics Corp for the first commercial genome sequence---of the pathogen, Helicobacter in 1994. This multiplex solid-phase sequencing evolved into Polonies (1999), ABI-SOLiD (2005) & open-source Polonator.org (2007). Innovations in homologous recombination and second-generation DNA reading & writing lead to current research in Personal Genomics (PersonalGenomes.org, 23andme, Complete Genomics, Knome) & Synthetic Biology (SynBERC, Joule Biotech, LS9) and new ethics/safety strategies for each.