Jef D. Boeke ( ) is an American

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...

who is currently the founding director of the Institute for Systems Genetics at

NYU Langone Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an integrated Health system, academic health system located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NY ...

. From 1986 to 2014 he was on the faculty of The

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

, where he was the founding director of the High Throughput (HiT) Center. He is a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

as well as the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. Boeke received a Bachelor's degree summa cum laude in Biochemistry in 1976 from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

. He is a member of the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

chapter at Bowdoin. He then received a PhD in Molecular Biology from

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 ...

in 1982, where he worked with Peter Model and

Norton Zinder Norton David Zinder (November 7, 1928 – February 3, 2012) was an American biologist famous for his discovery of genetic transduction. Zinder was born in New York City, received his A.B. from Columbia University in 1947, Ph.D. from the Univers ...

on the genetics of the

filamentous phage Filamentous bacteriophages are a family of viruses (''Inoviridae'') that infect bacteria, or bacteriophages. They are named for their filamentous shape, a worm-like chain (long, thin, and flexible, reminiscent of a length of cooked spaghetti), a ...

. He did his postdoctoral work at The Whitehead Institute of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

as a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow with

Gerald Fink Gerald Ralph Fink (born July 1, 1940) is an American biologist, who was Director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT from 1990 to 2001. He graduated from Amherst College in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1965, having elucidate ...

. Boeke is primarily known for his pioneering fundamental genetic and biochemical work on understanding the mechanisms of DNA transposition. He along with Gerald Fink discovered the mechanism by which yeast Ty1 transposable elements move via an RNA intermediate. He coined the term "

retrotransposon Retrotransposons (also called Class I transposable elements) are mobile elements which move in the host genome by converting their transcribed RNA into DNA through reverse transcription. Thus, they differ from Class II transposable elements, or ...

" to describe transposable elements that move via this process. These retrotransposons are distantly related to

retroviruses A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. After invading a host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase ...

such as

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

. Boeke is currently leading an international team of collaborators in an effort to construct a synthetic version of the entire genome of Baker's Yeast,

Saccharomyces cerevisiae ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungal microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have be ...

. It was reported in March 2014, that Boeke along with this team had synthesized the third smallest chromosome, chromosome III. The synthetic chromosome was designed to be shorter and more stable than the original. The effort to complete all 16 chromosomes of ''S. cerevisiae'' is currently underway and is reportedly half complete. He is one of the co-founders of

Genome Project-Write A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

aiming at synthesis of human genome, and leader of the “Dark Matter Project” to begin parsing the function of

non-coding DNA Non-coding DNA (ncDNA) sequences are components of an organism's DNA that do not encode protein sequences. Some non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g. transfer RNA, microRNA, piRNA, ribosomal RNA, and reg ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boeke, Jef Living people American geneticists Bowdoin College alumni Rockefeller University alumni 1954 births Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology