Dr. Richard Myers, president and director of the HudsonAlpha Institute for biotechnology and a College alumnus, will present the next ALLELE Lecture, “Large-scale Genomic Analyses to Study Biology and Pathobiology” on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building Auditorium.

The Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution Series is an interdisciplinary lecture series organized by the Evolution Working Group at The University of Alabama, and all lectures are free and open to the public.

Myers, who also serves as a University of Alabama faculty investigator, has worked at the HudsonAlpha Institute since 2008. The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, is the cornerstone of the Cummings Research Park Biotechnology Campus, the nation’s second largest research park for life sciences. HudsonAlpha has a three-fold mission of genomic research, economic development and educational outreach.

Myers research is focused on human genetics and genomics and ahs lead to the identification of genes involved in inherited diseases. His genome center contributed more than 10 percent of the data for the public Human Genome Project. His lab uses genomics tools and genetics to understand how genes interacting with the environment contribute to human diseases and other traits.

Myers received his bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama in 1977 and a doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley. After postdoctoral work at Harvard University, his first faculty position was at the University of California San Francisco in 1986, then Stanford University in 1993. At Stanford, Myers served as chair of the department of genetics and director of the Stanford Human Genome Center.

In 2011, Myers was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAS) for his contributions in the area of human genomics, research, technology development and administration at the national and local levels.