Huntington F. Willard
Genome Medical, Inc.
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Primary Section: 41, Medical Genetics, Hematology, and Oncology Secondary Section: 26, Genetics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2013)
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Biosketch
Huntington F. Willard has held research and leadership positions at universities, medical centers, and health systems, including Duke, Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Stanford, University of Toronto, University of Chicago, and Geisinger Health. He is a human geneticist known for his research in genome and chromosome biology, as well as the genome sciences and their broad implications for medicine and society. He is known particularly for discovery of the XIST gene, a non-coding RNA gene critical in mammalian X chromosome inactivation, and for elucidation of satellite DNA sequences involved in specification of normal centromeres in complex genomes. Born in Boston, he graduated from Harvard College with a degree in biology and received his doctorate in human genetics from Yale University. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific publications and is co-editor of the Genomic and Precision Medicine book series and co-author of the textbook Genetics in Medicine. He is a past president of the American Society of Human Genetics. In addition to the NAS, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Research Interests
Research in the Willard group has used cytological, molecular, genomic and computational approaches to examine the nature of genome organization and its impact on gene expression and genome biology, relying extensively on genetic material and samples from human patients and model organisms. Willard and his laboratory have been engaged in projects exploring complex genome sequences, their evolution, their packaging in various types of chromatin, and their effects on diverse phenomena such as centromere function, dosage compensation, and gene silencing, in genomes ranging from human to other primates and mammals to yeast. In addition, they have always maintained an interest in the impact of findings in genetics and genomics on society, public policy, and individual health, with projects focused on translational genomics, personal genomics, and genomic and personalized health.
