George M. Church attended high school at the preparatory boarding school Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1968 to 1972.
College/University
Gallery of George Church
He studied at Duke University, completing a bachelor's degree in zoology and chemistry in two years.
Gallery of George Church
Church then applied to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was accepted in 1977. In 1984, Church completed a PhD at Harvard in molecular biology while developing a direct genome sequencing technique as a part of his dissertation.
Career
Gallery of George Church
2017
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
Gallery of George Church
2017
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images North America)
Gallery of George Church
2017
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA
Biologist Ting Wu (L) and geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images North America)
Gallery of George Church
2017
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Jemal Countess/Getty Images North America)
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images North America)
Biologist Ting Wu (L) and geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images North America)
Geneticist George M. Church attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.
(April 24, 2017 - Source: Jemal Countess/Getty Images North America)
Church then applied to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was accepted in 1977. In 1984, Church completed a PhD at Harvard in molecular biology while developing a direct genome sequencing technique as a part of his dissertation.
George McDonald Church is an American geneticist, molecular engineer, and chemist. As of 2015, he is Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, and was a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. As of March 2017, Church serves as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Board of Sponsors.
Background
George McDonald Church was born on August 28, 1954 on MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida, and grew up in nearby Clearwater. His father was a lieutenant in the United States Air Force, and Church was born on MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa Bay, Florida. When Church was three-years-old, his parents allowed Peyton Jordan to adopt Church. In 1963, Church was again put up for adoption. This time, Gaylord Church adopted and raised Church.
Education
George M. Church completed high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He then completed undergraduate degrees in zoology and chemistry in 1974 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in two years. He pursued his doctoral degree in biochemistry from Duke, but he was expelled due to failing grades in 1976.
Church then applied to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was accepted in 1977. In 1984, Church completed a PhD at Harvard in molecular biology while developing a direct genome sequencing technique as a part of his dissertation.
At Harvard, Nobel Prize recipient Walter Gilbert advised his dissertation research. At that time, researchers described the sequence of nucleotides in strands of DNA, a process called sequencing, by using bacteria. They used the bacteria to replicate one strand of DNA into many strands with the same nucleotides, but the process lost genetic information. Researchers injected DNA into bacteria and allowed the bacterial cell to replicate the DNA, sometimes causing errors in replication. Church and Gilbert developed a technique that ameliorated some of those errors.
Church continued to develop new sequencing methods. In 1984, The Human Genome Project consulted Church about gene sequencing. In 1986, Church became an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massacussetts. While at Harvard in 1988, Church developed the method of multiplex DNA sequencing. Multiplex sequencing takes strands of DNA and gives them chemical tags and then sends them through an automated DNA sequencing machine. The machine can sequence multiple strands of DNA simultaneously, due to the chemical tags that the researcher attached. Multiplex DNA sequencing enabled a greater volume of sequences to be decoded in a shorter amount of time, making the Human Genome Project feasible.
In the 1990s, Church assisted in the development of another sequencing technique, called nanopore sequencing. For this technique researchers measure the change in electrical current at a nanopore, which is one nanometer in diameter, as each successive nucleotide on a DNA strand passed through it. Each kind of nucleotide registers a different voltage. In 1998 Harvard promoted Church to full professor in the medical school.
Polony sequencing further enabled researchers to use machines to automate the process of DNA sequencing. In conjunction, Church developed a commercially available sequencing machine, the Polonator G.007, which made DNA sequencing about one hundred times less expensive than it had been. Polony sequencing led Church to establish in 2005 the Personal Genome Project, an open source, open access genome bank. Scientists used the information stored in such a bank to study genomic interactions with the environment, traits that the genes express, and to better describe and explain the links between genes and disease.
In 2012, Church published a book with Ed Regis about synthetic life and biology titled Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. By 2014, Church and Robert Lanza, of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., in Malborough, Massachusetts, had begun a project to resurrect from cloned DNA sequences the extinct passenger pigeon.
By 2015, Church had published greater than 400 scientific articles and dozens of patents. Church's work spawned twelve commercial enterprises using synthetic biology to produce, among other things, bio-fuels, synthetic photo-synthesizers, and pharmaceuticals.
Church has received accolades including election to the National Academy of Sciences (in 2011), and the National Academy of Engineering (in 2012). George McDonald Church is a member of the Research Advisory Board of SENS Research Foundation.
National Academy of Sciences
2011
National Academy of Engineering
2012
SENS Research Foundation
Personality
Church has been outspoken in his support of following a vegan lifestyle, for reasons concerned with health, and with environmental and moral issues. When asked about his dietary choice, Church replied, "I've been vegan off-and-on since 1974 when I was inspired by participating in an MIT nutritional study, and quite strictly since 2004." He goes on to elaborate 4 reasons:
"Medical (cholesterol in fish & dairy), energy conservation (up to 20-fold impact), cruelty ("organic" animals are deprived of medicines that humans use), and risks of spreading pathogens (not just the flu)… (noting that) veganism is an issue for which personal and global love of life, health and wealth align. It's a pity to lose parts of our humanity and planet just due to a lack of recipes."
Physical Characteristics:
Hair Color - White
Eye Color - Blue
In the context of the Personal Genome Project, journalists at Forbes and Wired have noted Church's openness about his health issues, including dyslexia, narcolepsy, and high cholesterol (one of the motivations for his vegan diet).
Connections
Church is married to fellow Harvard Medical School faculty member in genetics Ting Wu.