The title of his PhD thesis: “Genome analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans: Genetic and molecular identification of genes tightly linked to unc-22(IV)”.

[1] Marra trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri.

He also held the position of Senior Scientist at BC Cancer Research and Adjunct Professor for the Department of Medical Genetics.

Marra subsequently became Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.

He also served as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University from 2001 to 2015.

Jones, Marra was instrumental in creating the first map the human genome, an international initiative that allowed the data to remain in the public domain.

The GSC was one of the first three facilities involved in sequencing 10,000 Canadians that tested positive for the virus (HostSeq) for this Government of Canada funded project.