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Genome research institute director is part of St. Louis' first family of science

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 5, 2010 - Maurice Green, a prominent Saint Louis University virologist, went out of his way not to push his children toward medical careers. But it didn't take long for him to realize that the younger generation had inherited his interest in science.

Green's oldest child, Michael, asked for a microscope around his 10th birthday and later worked at his father's laboratory at SLU School of Medicine. His youngest, Eric, was in preschool when he began accompanying the elder Green to his lab on weekends.

"He came on his own volition and was very excited to be there," Maurice remembers of Eric's visits. "He would discuss surgery procedures and help with experiments. Everyone told me he was quite an asset in the lab."

Maurice Green, 84, marvels at how his children, spread across the country, all chose careers in the sciences. Michael is a molecular biologist. His sister, Wendy Lee, is a pediatrician.

And then there's Eric, now 50, who has given his father the latest reason to boast: He became director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health less than a year ago. From his Bethesda, Md., office on the sprawling NIH campus, Green is developing a master plan for the future of genomic medicine, which, among other things, involves looking at the ways in which doctors can personalize medical treatments by looking at an individual's unique genetic makeup.

And on Saturday, Green will be in St. Louis to accept a distinguished alumni award from Washington University.

"My interest in science is deeply imbedded; I'm a science brat," Green said. "I come from a power-science family, which is embarrassing in some ways and is a source of incredible pride in other ways."

A Start in St. Louis

Green was born at Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine, where he would later spend much of his time as a student. Green lived 31 of his first 35 years in St. Louis, leaving only to attend college at the University of Wisconsin, where his father earned his Ph.D. and where both older siblings went as undergraduates.

He returned to St. Louis to receive both his M.D. and his Ph.D. (in cell biology) at Washington University School of Medicine. Then he stayed on for his residency in clinical pathology and post-doctoral research training in genomics. (Michael Green also received combined M.D.-Ph.D. degrees from Washington U.)

Oddly, Green had no significant training in genetics, the study of individual genes and their inheritance, or genomics, the study of the entire genome (including all genes and the elements that regulate them) and how the genome interacts with the environment.

His first foray into genomics came as a post-doctoral fellow at Washington U., where he worked on ways to build maps of genomes.

"I could see a future where DNA analysis would become a more central part of pathology and a central part of diagnostics," Green said. "I heard about rumblings about genomics and the discussion of a genome project, and I entered this lab at Washington University thinking this was a very young, evolving field that sounded like it would eventually have some medical relevance."

At Washington U., Green worked in one of the first genome centers funded to complete the goals of the Human Genome Project, an international research effort to determine the DNA sequence of the human genome. Green helped with this mapping and sequencing effort, which spanned more than a decade and was completed in 2003.

The project helped launch the field of genomics, and the result -- a roadmap of the genetic makeup of humans -- has allowed doctors to better determine the genetic basis of diseases such as cancer.

"The question was how would this ever really be possible if every single time we went to study some part of the genome we got to a point and then had to figure out what is the sequence of that part," he said. "It was so inefficient to have thousands of people across the world just trying to get this fundamental information. Now when doctors go to look at cancer, they can explore the cancer genome and compare it to the normal genome and know what they're talking about."

Rising Through the Ranks at Wash U. and NIH

Green rose to become an assistant professor of pathology, genetics and internal medicine at Washington U. He was also a co-investigator in the school's Human Genome Center. Two years after his faculty appointment, Green took a position at the National Institutes of Health in 1994.

He began working at what now is called the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of 27 institutes at the nation's medical research agency. He arrived as the institute was just starting a research program. Eight years later, Green became director of the institute's intramural research program.

Green's laboratory at NIH, heavily involved in mapping the human genome during the Human Genome Project, subsequently turned to comparative genomics, which involves sequencing other species' genomes and comparing them to humans to help understand how the human genome functions. He also studied the ways in which genetic mutations cause rare and common genomic diseases.

Last December, Green was named the third-ever director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. He now leads the largest organization in the world dedicated to the funding of genomics research.

Green is phasing out his own research and focusing on finalizing a plan for the institute that lays out the direction of genomic medicine.

"We've spent all this time figuring out how the human genome works, and now the goal is to get to the bedside of patients and change the way that medicine is practiced," Green said. "Much of the way we've practiced has been a one-size-fits-all model, when in fact so many aspects of medicine -- what treatments to give patients, what preventative measures should be employed, what diagnostics to use -- need to be individualized.

"Instead of blanket labels of cancer we'll have a molecular understanding so that based on the DNA sequence of this tumor from this patient we now know that is not just this generic kind of breast cancer but it is this specific kind of breast cancer that we know responds best to this type of medicine, chemotherapy or radiation."

Green said physicians have long known that only a subset of patients will respond positively to certain medications. Having a better understanding of the genetic basis for how the body metabolizes these drugs will help doctors prescribe treatments. Such DNA tests are increasingly common before a patient settles on a treatment plan.

But the tests are also controversial. One concern is privacy -- patients' genetic information, if mistakenly released, could lead to job discrimination or denial of health insurance. Green said he's confident that the genetic information can remain private and that people will continue to take part in genetic research.

Genomics Research at Washington U.

Washington University, a major participant in the Human Genome Project, remains heavily involved in genomics research. Its Genome Center, founded in 1993, is one of the largest NIH-funded genome sequencing centers in the country.

The center has a staff of 300 people and an operating budget of roughly $70 million -- about 60 percent of which comes from the NIH.

The Genome Center has four main areas of focus: cancer, other genetic diseases, microbial genomics (bacterial and other microorganisms) and de novo genetics (sequencing other animal genomes).

Its research on cancer is largely concentrated on leukemia, breast and lung cancer -- enabling analysis of a large sample of patients. One major initiative involved sequencing the genomes of 150 patients, the majority of whom have one of these types of cancer. The center also researches childhood cancers.

Richard K. Wilson, director of the center and a professor of genomics at Washington University, said that the idea is to change the way oncologists care for patients.

"Our goal is to better diagnose individual cases," he said. "The way we take care of people with illnesses has improved substantially. But it can get better. If you think about leukemia patients 10, 20, 30 years ago, all comers got the same type of treatment. Some did well and some didn't. If you can learn more about why they got the disease and see the differences from patient to patient, that improves the chances of being effective in treating cases."

Wilson said he's thrilled to have a former Washington U. student and faculty member running the institute that helps determine the future of genomic medicine. "I'm still trying to figure out how big an advantage it is to have a former lab neighbor in charge," he said. (While a postdoctoral student, Green had a lab next door to Wilson). "It's been fun to watch him grow and have a successful career."

Green said he feels fortunate to have found a medical field that was emerging as he started his career.

"I got on the human genome elevator on day one and have ridden it ever since," he said. "It's treated me very well, and I have a strong interest in seeing this field thrive."

Elia Powers, a former Beacon staffer, is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park. 

Elia Powers
Elia Powers is a Freelance Writer in St. Louis. He worked on several stories for the STL Beacon.