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Dr. Wallace is a geneticist and evolutionary biologist who founded the field of mitochondrial medicine 40 years ago. He investigates the role of mitochondria in human evolution, health, and disease.
Bio
More than 35 years ago, Dr. Wallace and his colleagues founded the field of human mitochondrial genetics. The mitochondria are the cellular power plants, organelles that generate most of the cell's energy. The mitochondria also contain their own DNA, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which encodes the wiring diagram for the cell's power plants. Dr. Wallace showed that the mtDNA is inherited exclusively from the mother and that genetic alterations in the mtDNA can result is a wide range of metabolic and degenerative diseases as well as being important in cancer and aging.
One of his seminal contributions has been to use mtDNA variation to reconstruct the origin and ancient migrations of women. These studies revealed that humans arose in Africa approximately 200,000 years ago, that women left Africa about 65,000 years ago to colonize Eurasia, and from Siberia, they crossed the Bering land bridge to populate the Americas. Studies on the paternally-inherited Y chromosome showed that men went along too.
Education and Training
BS, Cornell University (Genetics, Developmental Biology), 1968
MPhil, Yale University (Microbiology and Human Genetics), 1972
PhD, Yale University (Microbiology and Human Genetics), 1975
Titles and Academic Titles
Director, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine
Michael and Charles Barnett Endowed Chair in Pediatric Mitochondrial Medicine and Metabolic Diseases
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Professional Memberships
American Society for Microbiology, 1968-
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1972-
Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, 1989-
American Society of Human Genetics, 1993-
National Academy of Sciences, 1995-
International Human Genome Organization, 1999-
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2004-
Autism Speaks, 2009-
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2009-
Professional Awards
William Allan Award, American Society of Human Genetics, 1994
Member of American Academy for Microbiology, 1995
Passano Award 2000 for Mitochondrial Genetics, 2000
Docteur Honoris Causa, Universite Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, 2000
Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease, 2000
Fellow, American College of Medical Genetics, 2002
Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences and Molecular Medicine, Univ. of California, Irvine 2004
Robert J. & Claire Pasarow Award for Contributions to Cardiovascular Disease, 2006
Excellence in Teaching Award, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, 2006
Albert Einstein Visiting Professorship, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2006
Gruber Genetics Prize, Gruber Foundation, 2012
American College of Physicians Award for Outstanding Work in Science as Related to Medicine, 2013
Vanguard Award for Life Time Achievement, United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, 2015
Awarded Docteur Honoris Causa, University of Angers, France, 2015
Elected Italian Natnl. Acad. of Sci. (Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL), 2015
