Robert A. Martienssen

Biography

Dr. Martienssen is a scientific co-founder of the company and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (HHMI-GBMF) Investigator and Professor of Plant Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York where he leads the plant biology group. As well as developing strategies to exploit methylation in genome sequencing, Dr. Martienssen has also investigated the link between DNA methylation, histone methylation, and RNA interference in plants and yeast. His work, along with that of his colleagues, was awarded the "Breakthrough of the Year" by the journal, Science, in 2002. Dr. Martienssen was a co-recipient of the Kumho International Science Award in 2001 and was the 2003 recipient of the Newcomb Cleveland Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Martienssen received his B.A. in Natural Sciences (Genetics) from Cambridge University, England and his Ph.D. from the Plant Breeding Institute and Cambridge University. He completed postdoctoral studies at Berkeley, and has been on the faculty at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory since 1989. Dr. Martienssen was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006, and an associate member of EMBO in 2011. He was Fellow in Residence at Institut Pasteur in 2007, and holds an International Chaire Blaise Pascal in Paris from 2011-2013.

Research Interest

 Genomics