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Richard Gibbs Baylor College of Medicine Department: Molecular & Human Genetics Address: HGSC, Room N1519.04 One Baylor Plaza Houston, TX 77030 Phone: 713-798-6539 Fax: 713-798-5741 Email: agibbs@bcm.tmc.edu Web: www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu/

Education

B.Sc., University of Melbourne (1979)
Ph.D., University of Melbourne (1985)
Postdoc, Baylor College of Medicine (1990)

Honors

Wofford Cain Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics
Director, Baylor College of Medicine - Human Genome Sequencing Center

Research Topic

The Human Genome Project; molecular basis of human genetic diseases; molecular evolution.

Research Description

Richard Gibbs received a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Radiation Biology in 1986 at 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 X-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 BCM and played a key role the early planning and development phases of the human genome project. In 1996, he established the Human Genome Sequencing Center when Baylor was chosen as one of six programs to complete the final phase of the human genome project. He current holds the rank of Director and Professor.

The BCM-HGSC is an academic group in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. The Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center occupies more than 36,000 square feet, employs over 200 staff, including nine faculty, and is one of three National Institutes of Health funded Genome Centers that were involved in the completion of the first Human Genome Sequence. In addition to sequencing more than 300 megabases of human genomic DNA from Chromosomes 3, 12, and X, the BCM-HGSC has collaborated with researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and Celera Genomics to sequence the first fruit fly species, Drosophila melanogaster.

The current major sequencing focus is producing a draft sequence of the rat genome within two years. This project is being performed in collaboration with Celera Genomics, and Genome Therapeutics Corporation.

The BCM-HGSC is also sequencing the genomes of other important organisms. These include the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, and a number of bacteria that cause serious infections (Rickettsia typhi, Enterococcus faecium, Mannheimia haemolytica and Fusobacterium nucleatum. In addition to these whole genome projects, a number of smaller sequencing projects are underway, targeting key genetic regions in primates, cattle, and the mouse. The BCM-HGSC is also actively engaged in a program to sequence all human cDNAs.

Additional Research projects within the BCM-HGSC include the investigation of new molecular technologies for mapping and sequencing, the exploration of novel chemistries for DNA tagging, development of instrumentation for DNA manipulation and building new computer programs for genomic data analysis. We are also studying the genes expressed in childhood leukemias, the genomic differences that lead to evolutionary changes, the role of host genetic variation in the course of infectious disease and the molecular basis of specific genetic diseases.

Selected Publications

• Qiu, J., Gunaratne, P., Peterson, L.E., Khurana, D., Walsham, N., Loulseged, H., Karni, R.J., Roussel, E., Gibbs, R.A., Margolin, J.F. and Gingras, M.C. (2003). Novel potential ALL low-risk markers revealed by gene expression profiling with new high-throughput SSH-CCS-PCR. Leukemia 17: 1891-1900.
• Hattori, E., Liu, C., Badner, J.A., Bonner, T.I., Christian, S.L., Maheshwari, M., Detera-Wadleigh, S.D., Gibbs, R.A. and Gershon, E.S. (2003). Polymorphisms at the G72/G30 gene locus, on 13q33, are associated with bipolar disorder in two independent pedigree series. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72: 1131-1140.
• The International Human Genome Mapping Consortium. (2001). A physical map of the human genome. Nature 409:934-941.
• International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium. (2001). Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome. Nature 409:860-921.
• Chen, R., Bouck, J.B. and Gibbs, R. (2001). Comparing vertebrate whole-genome shotgun reads to the human genome. Genome Res. 11:1807-1816.
• Cai, W., Chen, R., Gibbs, R. and Bradley, A. (2001). A clone-array pool shotgun strategy for sequencing large genomes. Genome Res. 11:1619-1623.
• Bouck, J.B., Metzker, M.L. and Gibbs, R.A. (2000). Shotgun sample sequence comparisons between mouse and human genomes. Nat Genet. 25:31-33.
• Scott, S., Zhang, Z., Frazer, K.A., Smit, A., Reimer, C., Bouck, J., Gibbs, R., Hardison, R., Miller, W. and Gibbs, R.A. (2000). Pipmaker - A Web saver for Aligning Two Genomic DNA Sequences. Genome Res. 10:577-586.
• Durfee, T, Nelson, R, Baldwin, S, Plunkett, G, Burland, V, Mau, B, Petrosino, JF, Qin, X, Muzny, DM et al. The complete genome sequence of Escherichia coli DH10B: insights into the biology of a laboratory workhorse. J. Bacteriol. 2008 Apr; 190(7):2597-606.
• Wheeler, DA, Srinivasan, M, Egholm, M, Shen, Y, Chen, L, McGuire, A, He, W, Chen, YJ, Makhijani, V et al. The complete genome of an individual by massively parallel DNA sequencing. Nature 2008 Apr 17; 452(7189):872-6.
• Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium, Richards, S, Gibbs, RA, Weinstock, GM, Brown, SJ, Denell, R, Beeman, RW, Gibbs, R, Beeman, RW et al. The genome of the model beetle and pest Tribolium castaneum. Nature 2008 Apr 24; 452(7190):949-55.
• Gu, P, Reid, JG, Gao, X, Shaw, CA, Creighton, C, Tran, PL, Zhou, X, Drabek, RB, Steffen, DL et al. Novel microRNA candidates and miRNA-mRNA pairs in embryonic stem (ES) cells. PLoS ONE 2008; 3(7):e2548.
• Liu, S, Ballian, N, Belaguli, NS, Patel, S, Li, M, Templeton, NS, Gingras, MC, Gibbs, R, Fisher, W et al. PDX-1 acts as a potential molecular target for treatment of human pancreatic cancer. Pancreas 2008 Aug; 37(2):210-20.
• Srivatsan, A, Han, Y, Peng, J, Tehranchi, AK, Gibbs, R, Wang, JD, Chen, R. High-precision, whole-genome sequencing of laboratory strains facilitates genetic studies. PLoS Genet. 2008; 4(8):e1000139.
• Li, Y, Wang, H, Peng, J, Gibbs, RA, Lewis, RA, Lupski, JR, Mardon, G, Chen, R. Mutation Survey of Known LCA Genes and Loci in the Saudi Arabian Population. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2008 Oct 20; .
• Hampton, OA, Den Hollander, P, Miller, CA, Delgado, DA, Li, J, Coarfa, C, Harris, RA, Richards, S, Scherer, SE et al. A sequence-level map of chromosomal breakpoints in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line yields insights into the evolution of a cancer genome. Genome Res. 2008 Dec 3; .
• Petrosino, JF, Highlander, S, Luna, RA, Gibbs, RA, Versalovic, J. Metagenomic Pyrosequencing and Microbial Identification. Clin. Chem. 2009 Mar 5; .
• Bovine HapMap Consortium, Gibbs, RA, Taylor, JF, Van Tassell, CP, Barendse, W, Eversole, KA, Gill, CA, Green, RD, Hamernik, DL et al. Genome-wide survey of SNP variation uncovers the genetic structure of cattle breeds. Science 2009 Apr 24; 324(5926):528-32.
• Bovine Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, Elsik, CG, Tellam, RL, Worley, KC, Gibbs, RA, Muzny, DM, Weinstock, GM, Adelson, DL, Eichler, EE et al. The genome sequence of taurine cattle: a window to ruminant biology and evolution. Science 2009 Apr 24; 324(5926):522-8.
• Liu, Y, Qin, X, Song, XZ, Jiang, H, Shen, Y, Durbin, KJ, Lien, S, Kent, MP, Sodeland, M et al. Bos taurus genome assembly. BMC Genomics 2009; 10():180.

Lab Members

Lab Photos

Last edited on: December 15, 2003