Jeffery A. Lowell, M.D. champions organ donation awareness		Search View past issues

Welfare use more common than many think Many Americans believe that welfare use happens to someone else, to people outside of mainstream society. But a study published in a recent issue of Social Work casts considerable doubt on that notion, finding that nearly two-thirds of all Americans between 20 and 65 will at some point turn to a public assistance program. Full story More Stories
				Johnston, Wilson receive genetics appointments By Darrell E. Ward H. Mark Johnston, Ph.D., professor of genetics, has been named interim head of the Department of Genetics in the School of Medicine, and Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics and of molecular microbiology, has been named director of the Genome Sequencing Center. Johnston and Wilson will succeed Robert H. Waterston, M.D., Ph.D., who will head the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. A search committee will be appointed to seek Waterston's permanent replacement as head of the Department of Genetics. Johnston's appointment was announced by William A. Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. Mark Johnston "Mark Johnston is an excellent scientist and teacher who has the personal qualities of leadership," Peck said. "I have every confidence that he will do a fine job leading the Department of Genetics during this very important transition period." In 1996, Johnston led a team of University investigators as part of an international effort to decipher the genetic structure, or genome, of baker's yeast. The work was done in collaboration with the medical school's Genome Sequencing Center and was the largest sequencing project up to that time. The team later sequenced the genomes of five species of yeast and compared their genetic makeup to that of baker's yeast. The study's goal was to identify the regions of genes that are retained by all six species and therefore are probably involved in regulating gene activity. Johnston also uses yeast as a model to understand how cells sense the presence of glucose and how that signal is passed from the surface to the interior of the cell, where it turns genes on and off. This work could lead to a better understanding of the same process in humans, both those who are healthy and those with diabetes. Peck also announced Wilson's appointment. "Rick Wilson is an experienced leader in genome research and has demonstrated ability as an administrator," Peck said. "I am pleased that he will be directing the Genome Sequencing Center in this era of applied genomics, and I am certain he will continue its record of outstanding achievement." Rick Wilson Wilson joined the University in 1990. He played a significant role in the mapping and sequencing of the human genome, and in the mapping of the mouse genome completed earlier this year. He also led the team that sequenced and mapped the genome for the bacterium Salmonella typhimuriam, a leading cause of food poisoning. In addition, he led the University's team in the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, an international multicenter effort to decipher the DNA structure of the flowering mustard, Arabidopsis thaliana, the first plant genome to be mapped. In 1998, Wilson and colleagues, including John D. McPherson, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics, founded Orion Genomics, an agricultural research company specializing in isolating plant genes of research interest. He currently leads University teams that are finishing the sequences of human chromosomes 2, 4, 7 and Y. Waterston joined the University in 1976 and later founded and directed the medical school's Genome Sequencing Center, building it into one of the world's leading DNA sequencing centers. He co-led the sequencing of the genome of the scientifically important roundworm, Caenorhabdtis elegans, an accomplishment that paved the way for the international Human Genome Project, which Waterston also helped lead.

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