Euan Ashley is a Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Stanford University. He was born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Glasgow. He attended Oxford University, completing a PhD there before moving to Stanford University where he trained in Cardiology. He joined the Stanford faculty, where he led the team that carried out the first medical interpretation of a human genome. Ashley has received awards from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. He was recognized by the Obama White House and received the Medal of Honor from the American Heart Association.
This wonderful page-turner captures the excitement, peril, wonder and anticipation of the so-called genomics era -- the era that has begun us to allow us to sequence the entirety of DNA carried within our bodies, and to understand the functions of parts of this genome. Dr Ashley, one of the pioneers of gene sequencing technologies, writes with authority, elegance and simplicity to enable an in-depth understanding of the most exciting scientific developments of our times. Every curious reader must read this book. --Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of Maladies and The Gene The Genome Odyssey is destined to be a landmark narrative in the canon of modern science. Like Ulysses, Ashley has had a front row seat on this journey by virtue of his own scientific work which has been instrumental in bringing us to this place of great precision in diagnosis. Ashley's prose is brilliant and makes for compelling reading. --Abraham Verghese, New York Times bestselling author of Cutting for Stone, Professor and Senior Associate Chair of Internal Medicine, Stanford University Cracking the genome's code to solve medical mysteries requires a special kind of detective work, and The Genome Odyssey walks us through the most nerve-wracking, heart-in-your-throat cases to show us how it's done. With a storyteller's flair and a doctor's devotion, Euan Ashley explains a host of astonishing breakthroughs, each accomplished with human lives on the line. Taken together, his and his colleagues' work will leave you breathless. --Robert Kolker, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road Dr. Euan Ashley's book opens a window into the future of medicine and shows us firsthand how genetic information is transforming lives. In The Genome Odyssey, he shares compelling stories of real patients facing rare diseases and the life-changing breakthroughs made possible by decoding their full genetic makeup. --Anne Wojcicki, Co-founder and CEO of 23andMe