Newswise — Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health, will be the featured speaker at Virginia Commonwealth University's 2009 spring commencement.
Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, a complex multidisciplinary enterprise that resulted in 2003 in the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. Collins, who left his director position in 2008 after 15 years, spearheaded the effort to ensure that the new trove of sequence data would be used to advance biological knowledge and improve human health.
Collins' research has led to the identification of genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes and the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a form of premature aging. In 2007, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
Commencement exercises take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 16, at the Richmond Coliseum.
RSS