Background
He grew up in Portugal and Macao.
director professor Professor of Biostatistics
He grew up in Portugal and Macao.
After learning computer programming in a high school club, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of Leeds in 1997, working with Mary Anne Shaw, and a Doctorate. Philosophy in human genetics from the University of Oxford in 2001, working with William Cookson and Lon Cardon.
He leads a group at the Center for Statistical Genetics in the Department of Biostatistics, where he is also the Felix East. Moore Collegiate Professor of Biostatistics and director of the Michigan Genomic Initiative. His group develops statistical tools to analyze the genetics of human disease. Abecasis is the oldest of 12 children in his family, born in Moura to José Manuel and Maria Teresa.
Abecasis works on statistical and computational approaches to human genetic disease, including psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases.
His group develops tools to analyze and visualize biomedical data, often using C++. He first applied his programming knowledge during his Doctor of Philosophy studies to develop tools to analyze the data on asthma susceptibility that his project was generating.
He continued as a biostatistician when he moved to Michigan in 2001, where he was recruited and mentored by Michael Boehnke. He is a proponent of data sharing.
His work has included the 1000 Genomes Project and a collaboration with Oxford researchers.