Joseph DeRisi

Joseph DeRisi is an American biochemist, specializing in molecular biology, parasitology, genomics, virology, and computational biology.

Joseph DeRisi
NationalityAmerican
Alma materStanford University, University of California, Santa Cruz
Known forViroChip, work on identifying SARS virus, gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum
Scientific career
FieldsBiology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Francisco Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Doctoral advisorPatrick O. Brown

Life

He received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1992) from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1999) from Stanford University.

Joseph DeRisi is currently a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator and a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) with a joint appointment at the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3).

DeRisi's best-known achievements are printing the first whole genome expression array (DeRisi, JL; Iyer, VR; Brown, PO (1997). "Exploring the metabolic and genetic control of gene expression on a genomic scale". Science. 278: 680–6. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.335.7937. doi:10.1126/science.278.5338.680. PMID 9381177.), performing the first broad analysis of differential gene expression in cancer cells (DeRisi, J; Penland, L; Brown, PO; Bittner, ML; Meltzer, PS; Ray, M; Chen, Y; Su, YA; Trent, JM (1996). "Use of a cDNA microarray to analyse gene expression patterns in human cancer". Nat Genet. 14: 457–60. doi:10.1038/ng1296-457. PMID 8944026.), profiling gene expression throughout the lifecycle of the malaria-causing protozoan Plasmodium falciparum,[1] his discovery of the SARS virus,[2] and pioneering virus discovery using gene hybridization array and DNA sequencing technologies (Wang, D; Coscoy, L; Zylberberg, M; Avila, PC; Boushey, HA; Ganem, D; DeRisi, JL (2002). "Microarray-based detection and genotyping of viral pathogens". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 99: 15687–92. doi:10.1073/pnas.242579699. PMC 137777. PMID 12429852.). Joe is also known for tackling any "cool problem" whatsoever, which generally come in the form of biological questions complicated by obstacles not surmountable without invention of new protocols and techniques.

DeRisi uses microarrays extensively in his work, and has designed and built both hardware and software for microarrays. He is a proponent of open access to microarray technology, and maintains a website with software and protocols for microarray operations. He is also a proponent of open access publishing, and has publications in the Public Library of Science journals.[3]

DeRisi has identified putative disease-causing viruses in humans (cancer, SARS, other respiratory infections, etc.), and animals ranging from parrots and cockatiels to honeybees and boa constrictors. He and a research partner, Don Ganem, have identified a parasite, Nosema ceranae, that appears to be responsible for colony collapse among honeybees. http://today.ucsf.edu/stories/ucsf-sleuths-identify-suspects-in-mystery-of-vanishing-honeybees/. He has also de-bunked the relation of viruses to certain subsets of human cancer.

Perhaps most relevant to contemporary global health, based on extensive characterization of the malaria-causing pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, DeRisi's group has developed profoundly promising candidate drugs to cure malaria and a model for a vaccine to prevent malaria.

In 2004 DeRisi was named a MacArthur fellow (the "Genius" award), in 2008 was awarded the 14th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy, and Employment, and in 2014 he received the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science from the National Academy of Sciences. In 2016 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[4]

He was involved in the development of the ViroChip, which is used to rapidly identify viruses in bodily fluids. It was used to help identify the Severe acute respiratory syndrome virus in 2003. He has also been involved in the development of an online platform called IDseq, backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which is used to identify viruses from metagenomic sequencing data.[5]

Awards
  • 2001 Searle Scholar Award, The Searle Scholars Program, Northbrook IL
  • 2001 JP Morgan Chase Health Award, The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose CA
  • 2002 Gordon Tomkins Chair of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2003 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, CA
  • 2004 MacArthur Fellowship, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL
  • 2004 Wired RAVE Award, Health and Medicine, WIRED Magazine, San Francisco, CA
  • 2005 BayBio Scientific Achievement Award, BayBio, San Francisco, CA
  • 2006 Alumni Achievement Award, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
  • 2007 Chabot Science Award, Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA
  • 2008 The 14th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment, Pittsburgh, PA

References
  1. Llinas, Manuel; Bozdech, Zbynek; Wong, Edith D.; Adai, Alex T.; Derisi, Joseph L. (2006), "Comparative whole genome transcriptome analysis of three Plasmodium falciparum strains", Nucleic Acids Research, 34 (4): 1166, doi:10.1093/nar/gkj517, PMC 1380255, PMID 16493140
  2. Rota, Paul A.; Oberste, M. Steven; Monroe, Stephan S.; Nix, W. Allan; Campagnoli, Ray; Icenogle, Joseph P.; Penaranda, Silvia; Bankamp, Bettina; Maher, Kaija; Bellini, William J. (2003), "Characterization of a Novel Coronavirus Associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome", Science, 300 (5624): 1394, doi:10.1126/science.1085952, PMID 12730500
  3. Bozdech, Zbynek; Llinás, Manuel; Pulliam, Brian Lee; Wong, Edith D.; Zhu, Jingchun; Derisi, Joseph L. (2003), "The Transcriptome of the Intraerythrocytic Developmental Cycle of Plasmodium falciparum", PLoS Biology, 1 (1): e5, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000005, PMC 176545, PMID 12929205
  4. National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected, News from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, May 3, 2016, archived from the original on May 6, 2016, retrieved 2016-05-14.
  5. "A Simpler Way to Get to the Bottom of Mysterious Illnesses in Poor Countries". The Atlantic. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
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