Jorge Benach
Department Chair

Turhan Canli
Graduate Program Director

The Graduate Program in Genetics at Stony Brook University offers students superb opportunities for training that reflect the ever-expanding role of genetics in modern biological and biomedical research. The impact of genetic methods on our understanding of biology continues to grow. For instance, alongside traditional mutagenic screens with model organisms, the recently emerged discipline of genomics is providing an explosion of fully-sequenced genome information from a wide variety of organisms, which in turn is revealing the genetic circuitry of and relationships among all forms of life. Information gathered by both traditional and new methodologies underscore the central importance of genetics in providing a connection between genes, their biological functions and the evolutionary processes that continue to shape life on earth. Genetics also provides practical insights into how defects in genes and their functions contribute to disease, and how gene products can be used to improve the human condition.

Founded in 1980 as an inter-institutional program between Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Genetics Program provides expertise that extends from fundamental studies on classical animal, plant, and microbial model systems, to cutting edge research on processes such as behavior, cancer and other human diseases.