Richard Gibbs, Ph.D.
Director, Human Genome Sequencing Center
Wofford Cain Professor, Department of Molecular & Human Genetics

Dr. Gibbs received a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Radiation Biology in 1986 from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia. He subsequently moved to Houston as a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine to study the molecular basis of human-linked diseases and to develop technologies for rapid genetic analysis. During this period he also developed several fundamental technologies for nucleic acid analysis.

In 1991 he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and played a key role in the early planning and development phases of the Human Genome Project. In 1996, he established the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center when the College was chosen as one of six programs to complete the final phase of the Human Genome Project. He currently holds the rank of Director and Professor.

In addition to his work on the Human Genome Project, Dr. Gibbs also has made significant contributions to the deciphering of the fly, mouse, dictyostelium, and rat genomes. Dr. Gibbs has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award in 2000.

George Weinstock, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Human Genome Sequencing Center
Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics

Dr. Weinstock received his Ph.D. from the Biology Department at MIT and postdoctoral training in the Biochemistry Department, Stanford University Medical School. Following four years at the Frederick Cancer Research Facility, where he headed the DNA Metabolism Section, Laboratory of Genetics and Recombinant DNA, he moved to Houston.

Weinstock has worked extensively on DNA recombination, repair, and gene expression in E.coli. Since 1985, he also has been studying the molecular basis of infectious diseases, studying difficult pathogens using molecular and genomic approaches. He began a project to sequence the genome of the Treponema pallidum, causative agent of syphilis, in 1988 that reached a successful conclusion 10 years later. During this period, he was involved in the rapid growth of the microbial genomics field.

He became Co-Director of the BCM-HGSC in 1998, when acceleration of the NIH Human Genome Project began, and helped lead an order of magnitude scale-up at the BCM-HGSC. Currently, his work involves post-sequencing functional genomics and informatics, as well as genome sequencing projects on human, rat, and microbes.