Len A. Pennacchio
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Len A. Pennacchio is an American
molecular biologist Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...
, the head of the Genetic Analysis Program and the Genomic Technologies Program at the Joint Genome Institute in
Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland, California, Oakland. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per t ...
.JGI – Len A. Pennacchio
, retrieved 2011-04-04.
Pennacchio did his undergraduate studies at
Sonoma State University Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Sonoma County, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Sonoma State offers 92 bachelor's degree programs, 19 master's de ...
and then went on to graduate studies at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, receiving a Ph.D. in genetics in 1998. He became a research scientist at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
in 1999, and joined the Joint Genome Institute in 2003. He retains his Lawrence Berkeley affiliation as well. Pennacchio contributed to 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 ...
with an analysis of human chromosome 16. His research has also explored
gene regulation Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA). Sophisticated programs of gene expression are wide ...
, the genetic basis of differences in
body shape Human body shape is a complex phenomenon with sophisticated detail and function. The general shape or figure of a person is defined mainly by the molding of skeletal structures, as well as the distribution of muscles and adipose tissue, fat. Ske ...
between different individuals,
conserved sequence In evolutionary biology, conserved sequences are identical or similar sequences in nucleic acids ( DNA and RNA) or proteins across species ( orthologous sequences), or within a genome ( paralogous sequences), or between donor and receptor taxa ...
s in the
genome 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 ...
, and connections between junk DNA and
heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...
.. In 2008, ''Genome Technology'' magazine named him as one of 30 promising young researchers in their annual "Tomorrow's PIs" edition..


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennacchio, Len A. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American biologists American molecular biologists Sonoma State University alumni Stanford University alumni Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers