NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Abecasis To Give Sayer Lecture, June 28

Dr. Gonçalo Abecasis
Dr. Gonçalo Abecasis

Dr. Gonçalo Abecasis will give the 9th Sayer Vision Research Lecture on Tuesday, June 28 at 2 p.m. at Natcher Conference Center. In his talk, “Sequencing Tens of Thousands of Human Genomes: Analytical Challenges and Opportunities,” he will discuss plans to analyze more than 50,000 deeply sequenced human genomes, corresponding to roughly 5 million billion bases of raw sequence data.

Abecasis, the Felix E. Moore collegiate professor of biostatistics at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, is a world-renowned leader in the design of statistical tools for analyzing enormous quantities of genetic data. His algorithms help geneticists realize the full potential of high-throughput technologies that are accelerating the pace of human genome sequencing.

Several hundred gene-mapping projects worldwide rely on software developed by Abecasis and his colleagues at Michigan’s Center for Statistical Genetics to better understand the role of complex disease susceptibility genes associated with a range of disorders from age-related macular degeneration to cardiovascular disease.

The Sayer Vision Research Lecture Series is given by a scientist of prominence in a discipline with relevance to vision research and is cohosted by NEI and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. The series is supported by the Sayer Vision Research Fund, established by Dr. Jane M. Sayer, a scientist with NIDDK, to honor her parents, Winthrop and Laura Sayer. The fund incorporates Sayer’s desire to contribute to groundbreaking medical research at NIH while raising the profile of vision research.

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Assistant Editor: Eric Bock
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Staff Writer: Amber Snyder
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