Eric S. Lander (b. February 3, 1957) is a Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), a member of the Whitehead institute and director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Centre for Genome Research (WICGR), founder director of the Broad institute of MIT and Harvard Broad Institute aimed at realizing the promise of the human genome for medicine.
He began an academic career as a mathematician, graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 1974, At the age of seventeen he wrote a paper on quasi perfect numbers for which he won the Westinghouse Prize and wrote a doctorate on symmetric designs at Oxford University. He was all set for a career in mathematics but he described this as "a monastic lifestyle" so he decided to change careers. He then spent some years at Harvard Business School.
While working here his brother Adam Lander introduced him to some mathematical neurobiology questions. In order to understanding the questions he needed more background information and started to study cell biology and then microbiology. His studies introduced him to David Botstein a geneticist working at MIT. Botstein was working on a way to unravel how subtle differences in complex genetic systems can become disorders like cancer, diabetes, schizophrenia even obesity. Lander then joined Whitehead Institute (1986) and later joined MIT as a geneticist. In 1990 he founded WICGR
WICGR is one of the worlds leading centres of genome research and under Doctor Landers leadership they has made great progress in developing new methods of analysing mammalian genomes, Sequenced approx one third of the Human Genome (making them the primary contributors to the Human Genome Project HGP) And the have made important breakthroughs in applying this information to the study of human variation particularly the study of medical genetics.
Primary contributions made by Lander and WICGR to genomics
They have led the effort to develop genetic and physical maps of human and mouse genomes. This was an essential step to the clone by clone method of sequencing used in the HGP. Eric Lander led the WICGR team as they sequenced approximately one third of the total human genome allowing the HGP team to publish the draft version of the human genome first and preventing Celera Genomics from patenting the human genome. Regardless of one's stance on the debate on whether the sequence of the Human Genome (open access) should or should be patentable the WICGR team’s contribution was the deciding factor in the race between the HGP and Celera Genomicsfor this he was included in TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of our time (2004) and was named first author when in 2001 the draft of the human genome sequence was published in 2001. The WICGR has also made a leading contribution to the sequencing of the mouse genome aside form academic interest this is an important strep in fully understanding the molecular biology of mice which are often used as model organisms in many studies of human diseases. Increased understanding of mice will thus facilitate many areas of medical research. The WIGCR has also sequenced the genomes of the uchordate Ciona, the puffer fish tetradon, the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa and multiple relatives of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (one of the most studied yeasts). The sequencing of the related yeasts will ease the identification of key gene regulatory elements some of which may be common to all eukaryotes (including both plant and animal kingdoms)
Beyond genomics
Sequence data is just that a list of bases found in a given stretch of DNA its value lies in the application of this information in the discoveries and new technologies it allows. In Dr. Lander’s case the application was the study of disease he is the founder director of the Broad Institute this is a collaboration between MIT, Harvard, the Whitehead institute and affiliated hospitals its goal is “to create tools for genome medicine and make them broadly available to the scientific community; to apply these tools to propel the understanding and treatment of disease”. To this end they are studying the variation in the human genome and have led an international effort which ha assembled a library of 2.1 million Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) these act as markers or signposts in the genome allowing the identification of disease susceptibility genes. They hope to construct a map of the human genome using blocks of these SNP called Linkage disequilibrium or LD this map will be of significant help in medical genetics. It will allow researchers to link a given condition to a given gene or set of genes using the LD as a marker this will allow for improved diagnostic procedures. Lander and his colleagues are hoping the LD map will allow them to test the Common Disease-Common Variant hypothesis which states than many common diseases may be caused by a small number of common alleles, for example 50% of the variance in susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease is explained by the common allele ApoE4. Landers group have recently discovered an important association which accounts for a large proportion of population risk for adult onset diabetes. They are also using family studies to identify the genes involved in many genetic diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. Landers most important work may be his development of a molecular taxonomy for cancers. The cancers are grouped according to gene expression and information like there response to chemotherapy is collected for each group. They have also identified a new type of leukaemia called MLL and have identified a gene which may serve as a target for a new drug. The division of cancers into homogenous subgroups will allow increased understanding of the molecular origins of these cancers and aid the design of more effective therapies.
Summary
Much of Landers work is in genomics a field which involves large scale experiments huge groups of researchers collaborating thus it is difficult to single out one person and point to a given discovery or single career moment and say that this was the key. I
There are some exceptions some figures in genomics have significant individual contributions and Dr. Lander is undoubtedly among them he founder and directed WICGR one of the worlds leading centre for genome research. He was instrumental in allowing the HGP to finish first in the race to sequence and publish the first draft of the Human Genome. This contribution to such a historic endeavour would alone make Dr. Lander’s career noteworthy but this was not his only achievement while the WICGR continues to sequence evolutionary and medically important genomes Dr. Lander has moved on to apply sequence information to the difficult problem of medical genetics to this end he founded and directs the Broad institute which is making significant contribution to many areas of medical genetics. Through out his career he has maintained a policy of making the information obtained in his studies available to the public further increasing the impact of his research on the scientific world.