Mark Skolnick

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Mark Henry Skolnick (born January 28, 1946 in Temple (Texas) ) is an American molecular and human geneticist.

Skolnick graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in economics, demography and anthropology in 1968 and a PhD in genetics from Stanford University in 1975 . He then went to the University of Utah . At that time he dealt with population development and human genetics, including the inheritance of cancer. From 1974 he was Assistant Research Professor at the University of Utah and from 1976 Assistant Professor (Department of Medical Biophysics and Computation). In 1977 he became director of the health department of the Utah State Department of Social Services and was also from 1978 adjunct professor at the University of Utah in the department of biology. From 1978 he was also in the epidemiology group of the National Cancer Institute.

With his group he developed the Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLPs) method, which is important for the Human Genome Project , gene mapping and, for example, genetic fingerprints , and published in a highly cited work. He used it to map disease-causing genes like the one for Alport syndrome .

He is known for the first gene sequencing of the breast cancer-causing genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 , with which he beat the group of Mary-Claire King who discovered these genes and other groups in a tough competition. In 1994 his group announced the localization of the BRCA1 gene and in 1997 they received a patent. They were also the first to isolate the BRCA2 gene and were granted a patent in 2001.

He is the founder (1990) of Myriad Genetics in Salt Lake City , which deals with genetic diagnostics, in particular through the study of the well-documented Mormons as relatives .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth and career dates for American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ↑ D. Botstein, RL White, M. Skolnick, RW Davis: Construction of a genetic linkage map in man using restriction fragment length polymorphisms, Am. J. Hum. Genet., Vol. 32, 1980, pp. 314-331. PMID 6247908
  3. ↑ Biography at the Cold Spring Laboratory , DNA Learning Center
personal data
SURNAME Skolnick, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Skolnick, Mark Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American molecular geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Temple (Texas)