Gary D. Stormo, PhD

Gary D. Stormo, PhD, the Joseph Erlanger Professor in the Department of Genetics and Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology, is honored for his seminal research contributions in the field of bioinformatics and genomics.

A pioneer in experimental and computational molecular biology, Stormo was among the first to use computational approaches to analyze biological sequence data. He introduced the use of the Position Weight Matrix (PWM) to represent the specificity of nucleic acid binding proteins. PWM now is a commonly used representation of biological sequence patterns. Stormo also helped develop an information theory approach to analyzing binding sites for DNA and RNA proteins and is internationally recognized for developing algorithms that can predict RNA structures and identify genes in genomic DNA sequences. His research has dramatically broadened the understanding of trigger mechanisms in gene expression as well as the regulation of protein and DNA interactions in both normal and diseased cells.

In addition to a wide range of research collaborations with colleagues from around the world, Stormo initiated and served as founding director of the Graduate Program in Computational and Systems Biology in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. He has mentored numerous graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

At Washington University School of Medicine, he was among the earliest to receive an endowed professorship as part of the university’s BioMed 21 initiative, which aims to rapidly escalate translational research efforts across the campus. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the esteemed International Society for Computational Biology.

Stormo received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and joined the Washington University faculty in 1999.