A Harvard genetics expert has been named scientific director of the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine on the campus of the UConn Health Center, the company announced Monday.
Charles Lee is currently director of the molecular genetics research unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the cytogenetics facility for the Harvard Cancer Center in Boston.
The company is currently operating out of temporary headquarters on the UConn health center campus. A new, 189,000-square-foot building is now under construction and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014.
In announcing Lee’s appointment, the company said in a statement: “Lee is a world renowned scientist best known for his discovery that copy-number variation — a state in which cells have an abnormal number of copies of DNA sections, sometimes associated with susceptibility or resistance to disease — is widespread and significant in the human genome.
“This discovery, and his subsequent pioneering research, has provided the tools that clinicians around the world need to help them make accurate diagnoses for genetic testing of conditions such as autism, birth defects and cancer.”
Less, who received Ph.D. in 1996 at the University of Alberta in Canada, has held research fellowships at Cambridge University in England and Harvard Medical School, the company said.
Jackson Laboratory was founded in 1929 and is based in Bar Harbor, Maine. It also has a location in Sacramento, Calif. Within 10 years of opening, its Farmington location is expected to employ 300 scientists and operational staff. Within 20 years, the number is expected to double.