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Investigators Patricia Janak, Ph.D Raymond L. White, Ph.D., Director
Investigators Patricia Janak, Ph.D Raymond L. White, Ph.D., Director
| Raymond L. White, Ph.D., Director |
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Raymond
White is a pioneer in developing the molecular tools for construction
of a map of genetic markers for the human genome. He was one of the
first to recognize that the emerging advances in DNA technology were
making it possible to directly detect base-pair changes in human DNA,
and that these could be used as a large source of genetic markers. The
human marker map and its markers have made it possible to pinpoint
chromosomal locations of a number of genes that are responsible for
inherited diseases. Hundreds of these genes have now been isolated
following the paradigm of "positional cloning". He and his laboratory
played key roles in the identification of the Neurofibromatosis Type I
gene and the gene for familial polyposis, an inherited form of colon
cancer. White’s laboratory also used the mapped genetic markers to
examine the genetic events of tumorigenesis in retinoblastoma, showing
that one copy of the "retinoblastoma gene" is often lost during tumor
development. This led to the realization that many of the most
important cancer genes act as tumor suppressors, where both copies of
the gene must be inactivated, often by a chromosomal rearrangement. In
2002, Dr. White became the Director of the Ernest Gallo Clinic and
Research Center, and in 2003 he was appointed Professor and Vice Chair
of the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San
Francisco (UCSF). Dr. White was honored with the Rudi Schmid
Distinguished Professor Endowed Chair at UCSF in 2004. He is a member
of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
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