Robert D. Wells, Ph.D. Robert A. Welch Endowed Professor of Chemistry Institute of Biosciences and Technology Texas A&M Health Science Center Texas Medical Center Houston, TX 77030

Dr. Robert D. Wells (b. 1938) is the Director of the Center for Genome Research at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Texas Medical Center in Houston. He was the Founding Director of the Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology in Houston (1990-1994). Concurrently, he served as the Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Previously, he was Chairman and Professor of the Department of Biochemistry in the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a ten-year period. From 1966-1981, Dr. Wells was Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Biochemistry. Wells participated in solving the genetic code (1964-66); his postdoctoral mentor, Dr. H. Gobind Khorana received the Nobel Prize in 1968 for these discoveries. He served a one year sabbatical leave of absence on a Guggenheim fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California-San Diego in the mid 1970’s where he studied cancer viruses (polyoma).

Dr. Wells holds an Adjunct Professorship in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (1991-present). This is the sole Adjunct Professorship ever extended by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The laboratory of Dr. Wells has made numerous seminal contributions to our understanding of unusual DNA structures related to gene expression. Attention is currently focused on repeating triplet sequences that cause human hereditary neurological diseases. The genetic instabilities (expansions and deletions) which cause diseases such as myotonic dystrophy, fragile X syndrome, and Friedreich’s ataxia, are due to the formation of non-orthodox DNA structures which enable slippage of the complementary strands that are accentuated by a number of genetic-biochemical factors. His laboratory has contributed more than 300 refereed articles, books, and book chapters. His book entitled, “Genetic Instabilities and Hereditary Neurological Diseases,” co-edited with Dr. Stephen T. Warren (Emory University) was released by Academic Press in May 1998. Dr. Wells has directed an active research program continuously funded by federal, state and foundation sources since 1966. He has conferred 28 Ph.D. degrees and has trained over 60 postdoctoral fellows.