Gerard Bouffard, Ph.D.

Associate Investigator
Genome Technology Branch

Co-Director
Bioinformatics Group
NIH Intramural Sequencing Center

B.S. University of Vermont, 1984
Ph.D. George Washington University, 1994

(301) 435-6154 (301) 435-6170 bouffard@nhgri.nih.gov		Advanced Technology Center 8717 Grovemont Circle, Room 152B Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Selected Publications		NIH Intramural Sequencing Center The Mammalian Gene Collection Hembase: Hematopoietic Cell Expression Database

I co-direct the Bioinformatics Group at the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center (NISC), where my work centers on applying the latest information technologies to the data management and analysis needs of this expanding operation. One of my areas of interest is the design and implementation of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and its associated tools. Accurate sample tracking and rapid data analysis are critical to our mission, as our operation generates over 3000 bp of high quality DNA sequence per minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I am also involved in several collaborative projects. I wrote a series of programs to assist collaborating investigators in the analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) and genomic sequencing projects. I initiated the bioinformatics component of the local implementation of the Mammalian Gene Collection Program, which generates complete cDNA sequences for all human and mouse genes. I play an active role in the Comparative Genomic Sequencing Project.

My interest in Bioinformatics began at a time when searching all of GenBank meant first installing it from a handful of 5¼-inch floppy diskettes. As a graduate student, my work focused on database tracking of E.coli genomic sequence fragments. Closer study and sequencing of one of these fragments led to my discovery of two new genes, which I then characterized. Later, as a post-doctoral fellow, I managed and analyzed the data for the YAC-based STS mapping of human chromosome 7, a project that paved the way for this chromosome's sequencing in the Human Genome Project.