The new face of genomics

Prominent US genomics Robert L. Strausberg, who directs the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Cancer Genomics office, has been named as vice president for research at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR).

Strausberg has played a signficant role in the development of tools and technologies for genome research, both at the NCI - where he helped devise new ways to collect and apply genomic information that is important to cancer research - and previously at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Human Genome Research, where he headed the Sequencing Technology Branch from 1994 to 1996.

"Bob Strausberg clearly understands the big picture - how large-scale approaches can transform biological studies in many areas,"​ said TIGR's president, Claire M. Fraser.

TIGR's founder and board chairman, J. Craig Venter, said: "From his early leadership role at NIH on the human genome project through his current position as director of the NCI Cancer Genomics Office, Bob has been a catalytic force for rapid advancement of genomic research and applications of this data."​

Strausberg has directed the NCI's Cancer Genomics Office since 1999. In that position, he has led the planning and implementation of research programmes linking genomics to cancer research. He is director of the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project, the NIH's Mammalian Gene Collection Program, and the NCI Initiative in Chemical Genetics Program. He is also a member of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force.

Strausberg commented : "Genomics has a tremendous positive potential to help transform not only medicine, but many other fields, including agriculture, biodefense, the environment and energy."​

Founded in 1992, TIGR, a not-profit research institute, gained international attention in 1995 when it became the first lab to publish the complete genome sequence of a free-living organism.