Hardison Named T. Ming Chu Professor

17 March 2006 — Ross C. Hardison, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has been named the T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He was appointed by the Office of the President, based on the recommendations of his colleagues and Dean Daniel Larson in the Eberly College of Science, in recognition of his national and international reputation for excellence in research and teaching.

Hardison's research focuses on the molecular basis of gene regulation and evolution, an area important for fundamental issues in developmental biology and for exploring practical applications. Hardison’s work is part of the worldwide effort to determine and understand genomic DNA sequences from many species, including humans, which is revolutionizing the biological sciences.

In a collaboration that began around 1990, Hardison and Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering, developed computer tools to align long sequences of genomic DNA in order to find strong candidates for functional sequences in portions of the genome that do not code for proteins. Some regions of this “noncoding” DNA have been found to be involved in regulating the expression of genes. These tools were a key part of Hardison's participation in the landmark studies of the International Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium.

In 2000, Hardison and Webb Miller shared the Faculty Scholar Medal for Life and Health Sciences for their collaborative work in developing new computational methods for the analysis of gene structure and function. Their work led to web-based computer servers, such as PipMaker, the Globin Gene Server, and GALA that have become an international resource for scientists working on DNA comparisons, hemoglobin mutations, and other areas of research. Hardison's current experimental work uses bioinformatics approaches to identify candidate regulatory elements for erythroid genes throughout the genome, which he then tests in cultured mammalian cells.

Hardison’s work also has been recognized with a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award in 1987 and, in 1998, he shared an award in the Special Recognition Program for Collaborative Instructional and Curricular Innovation at Penn State for the course titled "Genetic Analysis." He was an associate editor of the journal Genomics from 1992 to 2005, and was on the editorial boards of Molecular Biology and Evolution from 1990 to 1993 and Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution from 1991 to 1998. He has served on the editorial board of Genomics Research from 2004 to the present.

Hardison is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Society for Human Genetics, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. He has published more than 140 scientific papers about his research, and has authored or coauthored three books. He has given invited presentations at institutions, meetings, and conferences across the United States and abroad. He also has organized or co-organized several symposia and meetings on molecular biology and genomics.

Hardison joined the faculty at Penn State in 1980 as an assistant professor of biochemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1986 and to professor in 1991. He has been director of the Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics at Penn State since 2003, and was director of the Penn State Center for Gene Regulation from 1992 to 1997. He has served on many committees in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Eberly College of Science, and the University.

Prior to coming to Penn State, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology from 1977 to 1980, a graduate research fellow in biochemistry at the University of Iowa from 1973 to 1977, and a research assistant in chemistry at Vanderbilt University from 1972 to 1973. He has held visiting positions at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and at the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Vanderbilt University in 1973 and his doctoral degree in biochemistry at the University of Iowa in 1977.

[ L A K ]