Complex traits and simple systems: An interview with leonid kruglyak

Abstract

The Genetics Society of America’s Edward Novitski Prize recognizes an extraordinary level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity in the solution of significant problems in genetics research. The 2016 winner, Leonid Kruglyak, has made innovative contributions to the fields of linkage analysis, population genetics, and genomics, while drawing on a combination of mathematical, computational, and experimental approaches. Among other achievements, his work on statistical standards for genome-wide linkage studies has transformed their experimental design, and the linkage analysis program GENEHUNTER has been used to identify hundreds of human disease loci. Kruglyak’s group also pioneered expression quantitative trait locus studies, which enabled variation in global gene expression to shed light on the genetics of complex human diseases. In recent years, his laboratory has focused on using genomic technology to establish Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans as model organisms for studies of complex genetic variation.