Research Interests and Accomplishments

Roger Lasken has spent much of his career studying DNA polymerases, the enzymes that synthesize DNA in the cell.  Postdoctoral work was with Arthur Kornberg, Nobel Laureate, and discoverer of these enzymes.  Dr. Lasken was Assistant Professor at Cornell University Medical College and Principal Scientist at Life Technologies Inc where DNA polymerase was used in biotechnology applications to amplify DNA in the lab.  As Director of Genomics at Molecular Staging Inc, he developed Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA), a method to amplify DNA that is sold under the brand names Repli-g (Qiagen) and TempliPhi and GenomiPhi (GE Healthcare) and is used in hundreds of laboratories.  Dr. Lasken's team was the first to sequence genomic DNA from a single cell. In 2004 he returned to academics as Professor at The Center for Genomic Sciences, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh where single cell genomics was applied to the study of infectious disease.  He joined the J. Craig Venter Institute in 2006 and has focused on integrating his technologies into the scientific programs of the Institute.  Projects include discovery of environmental microbes, genomics of human pathogens, and genetics of cancer cells.

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