April 25, 2024

Genome Pioneer Deborah Nickerson Dies at 67

By layering these data over the annotated genome resulting from the Human Genome Project, she was able to identify genes underlying conditions such as cardiovascular illness, autism, and the unusual Miller syndrome. Nickerson developed assays to recognize typical variations as part of the International HapMap Project, according to the UW Medicine obituary, and also created one of the very first brochures of human variation using genome information sequenced from more than 6,500 volunteers. In a homage released by the NIHs National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which moneyed some of Nickersons work and to which she was a consultant, Director Eric Green recalls that she was “a forceful champ of so lots of things treasured by NHGRI and NIH, consisting of substantial listening to training and variety,” keeping in mind that “she constantly felt comfy telling me what I was doing well as NHGRI Director and what I was doing not so well!

By layering these data over the annotated genome resulting from the Human Genome Project, she was able to determine genes underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease, autism, and the unusual Miller syndrome. When Hood moved to the University of Washington in 1992 to establish its Department of Molecular Biotechnology– the first scholastic department committed to cross-disciplinary biology, according to the Institute for Systems Biology, a not-for-profit that Hood cofounded– Nickerson joined him, ending up being an establishing member of the Department of Genome Sciences in the early 2000s. Nickerson established assays to determine typical variants as part of the International HapMap Project, according to the UW Medicine obituary, and likewise developed one of the very first brochures of human variation using genome info sequenced from more than 6,500 volunteers. In a homage launched by the NIHs National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which moneyed some of Nickersons work and to which she was a consultant, Director Eric Green remembers that she was “a powerful champ of so many things treasured by NHGRI and NIH, consisting of significant listening to training and diversity,” keeping in mind that “she constantly felt comfortable telling me what I was doing well as NHGRI Director and what I was doing not so well!