Dr. Richard Myers

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama alumnus and geneticist Dr. Richard Myers, researcher with the Human Genome Project, will return to his alma mater to speak on “The next 100 years: How the sequence of the Human Genome will affect biology, medicine and our lives.”

Myers will deliver the 2003 Bloom Undergraduate Initiative Lecture. It will be held Monday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater on the UA campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Endowed by Star and Stan Bloom of Tuscaloosa, the lectureship is designed to bring prominent scholars, researchers and writers to the University as part of the Blount Undergraduate Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For the past two decades, Myers and other researchers have performed extensive research in human genetics as part of the Human Genome Project. The project was begun in the mid-1980s for the purpose of identifying and labeling every gene in the human body.

By sequencing genes, scientists are able to develop treatment and cures for genetic diseases. Myers and other researchers announced the culmination of the first major goal of the Human Genome Project, the determination of the complete DNA sequence of the human genome, in April 2003.

Myers lecture will focus on the outcome of the project as well as future implications of gene sequencing. He will also discuss popular misconceptions about how genetics are interpreted and used.

Myers, a Tuscaloosa native, is professor and chair of the department of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also director of the Stanford Human Genome Center. His current research includes a wide variety of areas in human genetics such as neurological diseases, studies of gene clusters and the genome-wide analysis of transcriptional regulation.

Myers received his bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama in 1977, majoring in special studies/biochemistry in the UA’s College of Arts and Sciences.

He earned his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982 and performed post-doctoral work at Harvard University from 1982-1985.

Created at UA in 1999, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative is a four-year program that affirms the value of a liberal arts education based on classical traditions. The program is designed to offer a challenging environment of a small, liberal arts college in the heart of a comprehensive research university.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 320 faculty and 6,000 students.