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Robert Hugh "Bob" Waterston, (born September 17, 1943) is an American biologist. He is best known for his work on the
Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
, for which he was a pioneer along with
John Sulston Sir John Edward Sulston (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' in 2002 with ...
.


Education

Waterston attended Princeton as an undergraduate where he majored in engineering; he wrote his senior dissertation on the plays of Eugene O'Neill. While on a visit to Germany he took courses in biology – in German – and returned to take up a place at the school of medicine of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. In 1972, he acquired both MD and PhD degrees, with his thesis focusing on
immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...
.


Career

Following a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of
Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to wo ...
at the
MRC 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 ...
(LMB) in Cambridge, he joined the
Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a ca ...
as assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology in 1976. A few years later, he switched to the Department of Genetics, where by 1991 he became chair. In the mid-1980s he made a sabbatical visit to the LMB, ostensibly to continue his work with Brenner. However, the only space available was in the room where
John Sulston Sir John Edward Sulston (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' in 2002 with ...
and Alan Coulson were beginning to map the genome of the nematode worm ''C. elegans''. Waterston joined them, and after his return to St. Louis, the worm map became a collaborative project between the two labs. In 1989, one of the first
Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
grants went to Waterston and Sulston to begin the sequencing of the worm genome. They were so successful that at the same time that the
Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...
established the Sanger Centre (now the
Wellcome Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...
) with Sulston at its head, Waterston received funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute to undertake large-scale human sequencing at his Washington University lab. The partnership became the first to complete the sequence of a multicellular organism when the worm genome was published in December 1998. The partnership went on have leading roles in the sequencing of both the mouse and chimpanzee genomes. In January 2003, Waterston moved from St. Louis to become the new William Gates III Endowed Chair in Biomedical Science, Professor and Chair of the Department of Genome Sciences, at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
. Waterston served in his position as chair of Genome Sciences until 2018. Waterston has always been committed to the free release of scientific information, and was an influential voice in establishing the Bermuda Principles on the public release of DNA sequence data in 1996.


Awards and honors

Waterston and Sulston have jointly won numerous awards for their scientific work and their support for the scientific community, including the Gairdner Award, the General Motors prize, the Alfred P. Sloan Award, the Dan David Prize and the George W. Beadle Award of the Genetics Society of America. In 2005, Waterston received the
Gruber Prize in Genetics The Gruber Prize in Genetics, established in 2001, is one of three international awards worth US$500,000 made by the Gruber Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The Genetics Prize honors lead ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterston, Bob Living people 1943 births Scientists from Detroit Human Genome Project scientists 21st-century American biologists Pritzker School of Medicine alumni University of Washington faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine faculty Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni