The Center for Genomic Medicine

Genomic medicine refers to diagnosis, prediction, prognosis, prevention, and treatment of disease using approaches informed or enabled by knowledge of the genome and the molecules it encodes.

Research Mission
The Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) comprises one of the largest and most vibrant hubs of genomic medicine research in the world. The CGM includes 46 faculty collaborating to define the ‘genomic medicine cycle’ – which envisages a genomics community seeking to advance research from basic genomics research to ultimately using genome information for diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. The Cycle is a paradigm that begins by discovering genetic variants that contribute to differences between individuals, then progresses to characterizing the mechanisms by which underlying DNA differences lead to disease, and is completed when the knowledge gained delivers benefit back to patients in the form of diagnosis and treatment. All of our investigators are faculty in Harvard Medical School, and many members of our community are also investigators at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. We welcome new trainees and staff to our community in open positions posted on this site, and encourage qualified individuals to consider our open faculty search listed below.

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Center for Genomic Medicine
Michael E. Talkowski
Director, CGM

Message from the Director

In the CGM, our investigators include leaders in virtually all aspects of genomics in medicine. We envision our activities as existing within a ‘genomic medicine cycle’ where we drive efforts to discover, target, and cure the genetic cause of disease. This cycle includes the discovery of genetic variants, analyses of their impact on human traits and disease, molecular dissection of the biological changes that they cause, and the direct targeting of biological changes with precision therapeutics. Over the next five years, the CGM faculty will continue to lead many of the largest international consortia in the field to expand catalogs of human variation across diverse global populations, then leverage these maps, sophisticated analytic tools, and massive human datasets to define how genetic changes contribute to rare and common diseases. We also have extensive research programs seeking to understand the mechanisms that govern the relationship between genetic variants and biological functions, and our faculty are actively developing therapies to treat genetic disease. These efforts will collectively catalyze the continued integration of genomics into routine medical care as our community seeks to repeatedly traverse this ‘genomic medicine cycle’. The diversity of expertise across our faculty, and their leadership roles in major international initiatives, uniquely position the CGM to fulfill its mission to implement genomic medicine into human health at MGH and beyond. If you share our passion for this mission and would like to contribute to our community, please reach out to me, and see our open training and staff positions, as well as our open search for a Harvard Medical School faculty position.

 

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Meet Our Faculty

Center for Genomic Medicine

Our Mission

is to promote the application of the powerful tool set that genomics provides to investigate fundamental mechanisms in all areas of human disease and leverage these mechanistic insights to develop new diagnostics, therapies, and/or management strategies.

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