Richard K. Wilson

Who is Richard K. Wilson?

Richard K. Wilson is an American Professor of Genetics and Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University in St. Louis and Director of The Genome Institute. He is an expert in molecular genetics and large-scale DNA sequence analysis. His laboratory at the Washington University School of Medicine has sequenced and analyzed bases of DNA from the genomes of bacteria, yeast, roundworms, plants, vertebrates, primates and humans. He and his colleagues at The Genome Institute sequenced the first animal genome - that of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans - and contributed substantially to the sequencing and analysis of the human genome. More recently, his laboratory was the first to sequence the genome of a cancer patient and discover genetic signatures relevant to the pathogenesis of the disease.

Building upon this achievement, Dr. Wilson's laboratory has sequenced the genomes of several hundred patients in an effort to discover clues that will facilitate more effective diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other human diseases. This includes participation in the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project and The Cancer Genome Atlas.