PLoS Genetics Editor-in-Chief

Biography for Gregory S. Barsh

Greg Barsh is Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. His original interest in mouse coat color genetics stems from mutations that cause a back-and-forth switch between pigment granules characteristic of red hair to those characteristic of black, brown, or blond hair. Studies of these pigment type-switching mutations have identified one set of pathways important for body weight regulation and another set of pathways implicated in neurodegeneration.

Greg obtained his BS in Biology from University of California Irvine in 1977 and then obtained a PhD in the Genetics of Human Disease and an MD in Medicine from the University of Washington in 1984. He has been Program Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program since 2002 and Associate Chair of the Department of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine since 2004. He has also authored or co-authored more than 100 professional research papers in publications including Cell, Genes and Development, Nature, Nature Genetics, PLoS Biology, PLoS Genetics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Science.