Stanford professor appointed director of genomics institute

Renowned geneticist David Botstein was announced yesterday afternoon as the new director of the University's new genomics institute.

Botstein will replace molecular biology professor James Broach, who has been the institute's interim director since the first director Shirley Tilghman became University president.

Botstein, a genetics professor at Stanford University, will start July 1. Until then, he will continue his research at Stanford.

"Everyone's planning ahead a little bit, getting the agenda ready," Botstein said in an interview yesterday.

And there is much to do on the agenda. Botstein said he plans to establish teaching and research programs at the institute.

He also wants to incorporate an undergraduate program in the newly formed institute.

"One of the proposals which I made . . . [includes] a major emphasis on undergraduate teaching," he said. "I thought it was a great opportunity."

Tilghman said yesterday she was excited about Botstein's plans for the institute.

The Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics is a new life sciences program, which will explore novel approaches to the study of biology in a post-genomic era at the University.

The institute was conceived so that all kinds of scientists could interact with one another to progress in this interdisciplinary research.

"There are things going on in science where the progress is going to be made when the sciences come together," Tilghman said.

Botstein noted that his position will not entail solely administrative duties.

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"This is not such a large institution that it needs a full time bureaucrat," he said. "My expectation is that I will be doing research and teaching. This is why I came here, so I could be doing some kind of interdisciplinary teaching and research."

The institute, located in the newly constructed Carl Icahn '57 Laboratory near Jadwin and Scully halls, is scheduled to open in November.

Classes and an undergraduate program will probably be available to students in the fall of 2004, Tilghman said.

There is a need at the University for the establishment of an interdisciplinary center like the Lewis-Sigler Institute, Botstein said, describing the genomics institute as "bilingual" — combining the areas of biology and computer science, among other studies.

"There is very substantial amount of evidence that as we go into the new post-genome era," we need the kind of education that will grow with the developing sciences, Botstein said.

Botstein has made key contributions to modern genetics. In 1980, he and three colleagues proposed a method for mapping genes, establishing the groundwork for the Human Genome Project. Botstein also led the mapping and sequencing of the yeast genome, the first large eukaryotic genome to be sequenced, in 1996.

He also served with Tilghman on a National Research Council committee that recommended the start of the Human Genome Project and on a second committee that served as an advisory council for the project.

"I am just simply delighted at this appointment," Tilghman said. "I have known him for a very long time . . . I know him extraordinarily well.

"He is a world class scientist," Tilghman continued. "He knows the field of genomics inside and out. He's just a towering figure in the field."

Moreover, Tilghman said, Botstein is a wonderful teacher.

"He wants to get back to a place that is really engaged serious in education," she said, specifically undergraduate education.

Botstein received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University and doctorate from the University of Michigan.

He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1967 to 1988 and served as vice president for science at Genentech, a biotechnology company, for two years, before joining the faculty at the Stanford School of Medicine.