UC Irvine hires genetics expert

A world-renowned geneticist has joined the faculty at UC Irvine.

Douglas Wallace, who founded the field of human mitochondrial genetics

with colleagues in the 1970s, will establish the Center for Molecular and

Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics.

He will hold a joint appointment in the Department of Ecology and

Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences and the

Department of Biological Chemistry in the College of Medicine.

Mitochondria are the power plants of cells and have their own DNA,

which is inherited only from the mother. In his research, Wallace has

shown that defects in mitochondrial genes are major contributors to

degenerative diseases, cancer and aging.

His work on using DNA variation to reconstruct ancient human history

has been a foundation of the new field of molecular anthropology and is

hailed as a significant achievement in paleoanthropology.