Oral History Collection

Jeffery Schloss

Jeff Schloss, Ph.D. is the founding director of the Division of Genome Sciences of the Extramural Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute. He retired in early 2017 after 24 years with the institute. He managed a diverse portfolio of grants involved in developing a range of nucleic acids-related technologies – in particular, DNA sequencing technology and the well-known $1,000 Genome Program. This oral history follows him from his post-doctoral work in a Yale University microscopy lab studying nucleic acids to meeting NHGRI program director Dr. Jane Peterson at a cell and biology meeting, where she recruited him to come to work at NHGRI. Dr. Schloss compares the research and development efforts of NHGRI and the biotech world, and discusses the consequences of the draft sequence quality standard.