Presenter: Lynn Jorde, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine
Title: “Genetic Variation and Disease: Focusing the NextGen Lens”
Bio: Dr. Lynn Jorde has been on the faculty of the University of Utah School of Medicine since 1979 and holds the Mark and Kathie Miller Presidential Endowed Chair in Human Genetics. He was appointed Chair of the Department of Human Genetics in September 2009. Dr. Jorde’s laboratory has published more than 230 peer-reviewed scientific articles on human genetic variation, high-altitude adaptation, the genetic basis of human limb malformations, and the genetics of common diseases such as hypertension, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Dr. Jorde is the lead author of Medical Genetics, a textbook that is now in its 5th edition and translated into multiple foreign languages. He has received 12 teaching awards at the University of Utah School of Medicine, including the Outstanding Pre-Clinical Professor Awards from the graduating medical classes of 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005; the Leonard W. Jarcho Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003; and the University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006. He is the co-recipient of the 2008 Award for Excellence in Education from the American Society of Human Genetics. During his career, Dr. Jorde has taught more than 3,000 medical students and hundreds of graduate students, residents, and fellows at the University of Utah.
Dr. Jorde has served on numerous advisory panels for the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He served two 3-year terms on the Board of Directors of the 8,000-member American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), and in 2011 he was elected as president of the ASHG. In 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the Executive Director of the Utah Genome Project, a large-scale multidisciplinary effort in which thousands of members of Utah pedigrees are undergoing whole-genome DNA sequencing to discover disease-causing genes and to develop more effective treatments for disease.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Jorde is an avid hiker and cross-country skier, and he enjoys photography, gardening, traveling, and playing the piano. He has the peculiar distinction of once having been invited to appear on the Jerry Springer Show.
1:00 to 2:00 this afternoon
The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine Leo Holt Conference Room
Host: Dr. Christine Beck
For more information, contact: Miriam Rodriguez at miriam.rodriguez@jax.org