Luis Barreiro, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Section of Genetic Medicine) , has been appointed as chair of the Committee on Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology (GGSB), effective June 15, 2022.
Barreiro’s research focuses on linking functional genomic studies of the immune system to an evolutionarily informed understanding of human variation in immune responses to infection and susceptibility to immune-related disorders. His research has generated landmark papers showing that genetic ancestry and natural selection drive population differences in immune responses in humans and describing how the social environment and epigenetic changes play a key role in the regulation of innate immune responses to infection. Barreiro’s lab is funded by the NIH, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Helmsley Foundation.
Barreiro received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Biotechnology at Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal, and earned his PhD in Human Population Genetics from the University of Paris VII. He joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 2018, after being an Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal from 2011 to 2018. Since his arrival at UChicago, he has been an active member of the GGSB Committee, chaired the development of a new computational track in the Committee on Immunology graduate program, and has also served on several committees focused on mentoring and training of graduate students.
As chair of the GGSB Committee, Barreiro will follow Marcelo Nobrega, MD, PhD, who has chaired the Committee since 2018. Nobrega was recently named Dean for Faculty Affairs for basic science faculty, where he will now focus on programs to promote faculty development.
Originally reported in BSD News June 7, 2022