Tara Matise is an American geneticist at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. Since 2018, she has served as chair of the Department of Genetics. Her research interests span computational genetics,

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

, and

human genetics Human genetics is the study of inheritance as it occurs in Human, human beings. Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, populatio ...

. She is co-director of the Rutgers University Genetics Coordinating Center.

Early life and education

A native of Buffalo, New York, Matise attended high school at

The Buffalo Seminary Buffalo Seminary (SEM) is an independent, private, college preparatory day and boarding school for girls in Buffalo, New York. Accreditations and memberships SEM is an accredited member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the ...

, a private secular school for girls, graduating in 1982, after which she attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with a concentration in genetics. She went on to earn a master’s degree in

Genetic Counseling Genetic counseling is the process of investigating individuals and families affected by or at risk of genetic disorders to help them understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease. ...

in 1988 from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, and a doctorate in 1992 in

from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health under the direction of Aravinda Chakravarti. Matise then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

. At Rockefeller, Matise worked under the supervision of Jürg Ott.

Research and career

Matise moved to Rutgers University in 2000. She was appointed Head of the Computational Genetics Program in the Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey in 2014. In 2021, Matise was elected as a fellow in the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. Matise began her career using genetic linkage to identify genes for genetic diseases. Her contribution to the identification of the

cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a membrane protein and anion channel in vertebrates that is encoded by the ''CFTR'' gene. Geneticist Lap-Chee Tsui and his team identified the ''CFTR'' gene in 1989 as the gene lin ...

(CFTR) gene was honored by the

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States established to provide the means to cure cystic fibrosis (CF) and ensure that those living with CF live long and productive lives. The Foundation pro ...

in 1990. Matise was the creator of MultiMap, a computer program that automated the construction of genetic linkage maps of the human genome. Her work facilitated the development of several genome-wide gene maps in humans and other organisms, and led to the development of the Rutgers Maps, which contain over 28,000 markers and provide an interpolated position for all human markers, the largest linkage map of human polymorphic markers. In 2008, Matise, as co-director of the Rutgers University Genetics Coordinating Center (RUGCC), was funded to lead a coordinating center for the multi-center Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Funded by the

National Human Genome Research Institute The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland. NHGRI began as the Office of Human Genome Research in The Office of the Director in 1988. This Office transi ...

(NHGRI) at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

(NIH), the PAGE consortium was a pioneer in its approach to performing globally representative epidemiological genomics. The RUGCC was responsible for data quality control and dissemination, and study logistics. Matise, as co-lead of the RUGCC, was funded to direct the coordinating center for the

(NHGRI) Genome Sequencing Program in 2015. The program made use of genome sequencing to understand the genes that underpin inherited disease.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matise, Tara Human Genome Project scientists Rutgers University faculty American geneticists Cornell University alumni American women scientists Rockefeller University people Columbia University faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people)