Stephen J. O'Brien

[citation needed] In 1971 he earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from Cornell University, which honored him as “Andrew Dixon White Endowed Professor at Large” in 1998.

[citation needed] Over three decades of filed studies with his students and colleagues, he subsequently reported over 800 publications, many in the highest rated scientific journals of how genetics could inform and facilitate management action for endangered species.

This discipline today remains a baseline for interpreting the organization and evolution of human and established the domestic cat as a genetic model for hereditary cancer and infections diseases in man and animals.

[citation needed] In 1996 O’Brien's team described the first human gene to influence HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression, CCR5-Δ32, using population genetic based association analysis.

[11] O’Brien's group used similar genetic association studies to invigorate the field of Genetic Epidemiology, describing over 30 AIDS restriction genes and also applying these gene discovery strategies to chronic infectious human diseases including, hepatitis c, hepatitis b (HBV), hepatocellular carcinoma, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

He has mentored more than fifteen Ph.D. students including: Roger Reeves, Dennis Gilbert, Robert Wayne, Cheryl Winkler, Jose Lopez, Melanie Culver, Eduardo Eizirik, Olga Uphyrkina, Carlos Driscoll, Meredith Brown, and Shu Jin Luo in addition to eight M.S.

[citation needed] He served as President of the NIH Assembly of Scientists, as Chairman of the International Committee on Comparative Gene Mapping for the Human Genome Organization (HUGO).