Euan A. Ashley

Biography

Born in Scotland, Dr. Ashley graduated with 1st class Honors in Physiology and Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He completed medical residency and a PhD in molecular physiology at the University of Oxford before moving to Stanford University where he trained in cardiology and advanced heart failure, joining the faculty in 2006. His group is focused on the science of precision medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome. The paper published in the Lancet was the focus of over 300 news stories, became one of the most cited articles in clinical medicine that year, and was featured in the Genome Exhibition at the Smithsonian in DC. The team extended the approach in 2011 to a family of four and now routinely applies genome sequencing to the diagnosis of patients at Stanford hospital where Dr Ashley directs the Clinical Genome Service and the Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Dr Ashley was the first co-chair of the steering committee of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network. He was a recipient of the National Innovation Award from the American Heart Association as well as the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He is Senior Associate Editor of Circulation Cardiovascular Genetics.Dr Ashley is Principal Investigator of the MyHeart Counts study, developed in collaboration with Apple Inc in 2015, and one of the fastest recruiting studies ever launched. In 2016, he was part of the winning team of the $75m One Brave Idea competition. He is co-founder of Personalis Inc, a genome scale genetic diagnostics company and advises many other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. In 2013, Dr Ashley was recognized by the Obama White House for his contributions to Personalized Medicine. Father to three young Americans, in his ‘spare’ time, he tries to understand American football, plays the saxophone, and conducts research on the health benefits of single malt Scotch whisky.

Research Interest

The Ashley lab is focused on precision medicine. We develop methods for the interpretation of whole genome sequencing data to improve diagnosis of genetic disease and to personalize the practice of medicine. We love big data questions and are obsessed with systems approaches to biology especially analysis of network graphs. The wet bench is where we test causality of key genes and investigate the biology of network modules. It is also the focus of our translational efforts. Therapeutic development is a near term goal and several of our discoveries are the focus of patents or are being actively pursued by pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.