Mark Bender Gerstein is an American scientist working in bioinformatics and Data Science. , he is co-director of the

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program. Mark Gerstein is Albert L. Williams

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Biomedical Informatics, Professor of Molecular Biophysics &

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

, Professor of Statistics & Data Science, and Professor of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. In 2018, Gerstein was named co-director of th
Yale Center for Biomedical Data Science.

Education

After graduating from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

summa cum laude with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1989, Gerstein did a PhD co-supervised by Ruth Lynden-Bell at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and Cyrus Chothia at the

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

on conformational change in proteins, graduating in 1993. He then went on to

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

in bioinformatics at Stanford University from 1993 to 1996 supervised by Nobel-laureate

Michael Levitt Michael Levitt, ( he, מיכאל לויט; born 9 May 1947) is a South African-born biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Levitt received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistr ...

Research

Gerstein does research in the field of bioinformatics. This involves applying a range of computational approaches to problems in

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, including data mining and machine learning, molecular simulation, and database design. His research group has a number of foci including annotating the human genome,Gina Kolata, (Sept. 5, 2012)
Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From Junk, Play Crucial Role
' NY Times

personal genomics Personal genomics or consumer genetics is the branch of genomics concerned with the sequencing, analysis and interpretation of the genome of an individual. The genotyping stage employs different techniques, including single-nucleotide polymorphi ...

, cancer genomics, building tools in support of genome technologies (such as next-generation sequencing), analyzing molecular networks, and simulating macromolecular motions. Notable databases and tools that the group has developed include the Database of Macromolecular Motions, which categorizes

macromolecular A macromolecule is a very large molecule important to biophysical processes, such as a protein or nucleic acid. It is composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms. Many macromolecules are polymers of smaller molecules called monomers. The ...

conformational change; tYNA, which helps analyze molecular networks; PubNet, which analyzes publication networks; PeakSeq, which identifies regions in the genome bound by particular transcription factors; and CNVnator, which categorizes block variants in the genome. Gerstein has also written extensively on how general issues in data science impact on genomics—in particular, in relation to privacy and to structuring scientific communication. Gerstein's work has been published in

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

ed scientific journals and non-scientific publications in more popular forums. His work has been highly cited, with an H greater than 100. He serves on a number of editorial and advisory boards, including those of '' PLoS Computational Biology'', ''

Genome Research ''Genome Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Disregarding review journals, Genome Research ranks 2nd in the category 'Genetics and Genomics' after Nature Genetics. The focus of the jo ...

'', '' Genome Biology'', and '' Molecular Systems Biology''. He has been quoted in the New York Times, including on the front page, and in other major newspapers.

Awards and honors

In addition to a W. M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholars award, Gerstein has received awards from the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, IBM,

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA, pronounced ), formerly known as the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, is a trade group representing companies in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States. Founded in 195 ...

, and th
Donaghue Foundation
He is a

Fellow of the AAAS Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are electe ...

. Other awards include a Herchel-Smith Scholarship supporting his doctoral work at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. He is a contributor to a number of scientific consortia including

ENCODE The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) is a public research project which aims to identify functional elements in the human genome. ENCODE also supports further biomedical research by "generating community resources of genomics data, software ...

, modENCODE,

1000 Genomes Project The 1000 Genomes Project (abbreviated as 1KGP), launched in January 2008, was an international research effort to establish by far the most detailed catalogue of human genetic variation. Scientists planned to sequence the genomes of at least one th ...

Brainspan
an
DOE Kbase
He was made a Fellow of the

International Society for Computational Biology The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a scholarly society for researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics. The society was founded in 1997 to provide a stable financial home for the Intelligent Systems for Mole ...

in 2015.

References

External links

Mark Gerstein Laboratory
at Yale

at Yale Computer Science
Mark Gerstein
at Yale School of Medicine *
Mark Gerstein publications on ResearchGate
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerstein, Mark Bender 21st-century American biologists American bioinformaticians Harvard College alumni Stanford University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Yale University faculty Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Yale Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry faculty