Biosketch

Jay Shendure is a geneticist recognized for his development and application of genomic technologies to outstanding challenges in genetics, molecular biology and developmental biology. Shendure was born and raised in northeastern Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1996 with a degree in molecular biology and from Harvard Medical School in 2007 with an M.D. and Ph.D. in genetics. He joined the faculty of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington in 2007 and has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2015. Shendure directs both the Allen Discovery Center for Lineage Tracing and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. He is a recipient of the 2012 Curt Stern Award (American Society of Human Genetics), the 2013 FEDERAprijs, a 2013 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the 2019 Richard Lounsbery Award (National Academy of Sciences), and the 2022 Mendel Lectureship (European Society of Human Genetics). He currently or previously has served as an advisor to the NIH Director, the US Precision Medicine Initiative, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Allen Institute. Shendure is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.

Research Interests

Jay Shendure's research group is broadly interested in the development and application of novel genomic methods to outstanding challenges in genetics, molecular biology and developmental biology. His 2005 doctoral thesis with George Church included one of the first successful reductions to practice of next generation DNA sequencing. Shendure's research group in Seattle pioneered exome sequencing and its earliest applications to gene discovery for Mendelian disorders and autism; cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer and reproductive medicine; massively parallel reporter assays; saturation genome editing; whole organism lineage tracing; and massively parallel molecular profiling of single cells. His research group's ongoing work includes: 1) the construction and exploration of rich atlases of the embryonic development of key model organisms; 2) the development and application of systematic methods for deciphering the grammar of mammalian gene regulation, particularly during early development; 3) the development of new methods for recording and reconstructing dense histories of cell lineage, cell signaling and other molecular phenomena, and their application to in vitro and in vivo models of mammalian development.

Membership Type

Member

Election Year

2022

Primary Section

Section 26: Genetics

Secondary Section

Section 22: Cellular and Developmental Biology