Evan Eichler

Evan Eichler is a Professor of Genome Sciences and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine. After his postdoc, he joined Case Western Reserve University in 1997 and the University of Washington in 2004. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2013) and the National Academy of Medicine (2018). His research group provided the first genome-wide view of segmental duplications within human and primate genomes. He is a leader in characterizing normal and disease-causing structural variation in the human genome with a specific focus on finishing complex regions that carry genes. His lab demonstrated that such dynamic regions both predispose the human species to disease causing variation associated with autism and neurodevelopmental delay while simultaneously leading to the emergence of new human-specific genes critical for the increase in size and complexity of the human brain when compared to non-human apes.