Joseph DeRisi, PhD., is currently a professor at UC San Francisco in the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Prior to joining the faculty at UCSF in 1999, Joe was a UC Fellow for approximately one year. During his graduate work at Stanford University in the laboratory of Patrick O. Brown, Joe was one of the early pioneers of DNA microarray technology and whole genome expression profiling and is nationally recognized for his efforts to make this technology accessible and freely available.
He was the lead instructor of the popular annual Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories course “Making and Using cDNA Microarrays.” Joe was a Searle Scholar, and is now a Packard Fellow. He was the recipient of the 2001 JPMorgan Chase Health award and the 2004 WIRED RAVE award.
In addition, Joe holds the first Tomkins Chair at UCSF. Most recently, Joe was chosen for a Macarthur award in 2004. Joe has extended his work to the study of infectious diseases, including malaria and viral pathogens.