Magnus Nordborg

Background

Dr Magnus Nordborg joined the GMI as Science Director in 2009. Previously he was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. Dr Nordborg is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the use of genome wide association studies to study patterns of natural variation in non-human organisms. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Also in 2010 he was awarded a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Nationality: Swedish

Academic Qualifications

• Swedish Defense Institute of Language/Uppsala University, Sweden, 1986.

• BSc: Lund University, Sweden, 1989.

• PhD, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, USA, 1994.

Current and Former Positions

• Research Associate, Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, USA, 1994-1997. Advisors: J. Bergelson, B. Charlesworth & D. Charlesworth.

• Research Assistant Professor ("forskarassistent"), Department of Genetics, Lund University, Sweden, 1997-2000

• Assistant Professor, Molecular & Computational Biology, University of Southern California, USA, 2000-2004

• Associate Professor (tenured), Molecular & Computational Biology, University of Southern California, USA, 2004-present

Honorary Appointments

• Visiting Research Scholar, ICAPB, University of Edinburgh, UK, 1994. Hosts: WG Hill & NB Barton.

• Associate Member, Committee on Genetics, University of Chicago, USA, 2994-1997.

• Long-Stay Participant, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Programme, "Biomolecular Function and Evolution in the Context of the Genome Project", Cambridge, 1998.

Awards, Honors & Fellowships

• Fulbright Grantee, 1989-1994

• Fellowship, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1989-1991

• Postdoctoral award, Sweden-America Foundation, 1994-1995

• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2003-2005
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2010

Research Funding

Current support

• "Trans national infrastructure for plant genome science" ERC 283496, total amount €4,349,700 (Investigator, minor fraction of budget [PI: EMBL], 2011-2014
• "Developing maximum-resolution genotype-phenotype maps using whole-genome polymorphism data" ERC 268962, total amount €2,183,956 (PI), 2011-2015
• "Genome-wide association mapping in Arabidopsis thaliana", NIH 1 R01 GM073822-01A1, total amount $2,758,734 (Investigator, minor fraction of budget [PI: Borevitz, U. Chicago]), 2006-2011.

• "Collaborative Research: An Arabidopsis Polymorphism Database", NSF DEB-0723935, total amount $635,143 (PI), 2008-2011.

• "The molecular basis of local adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana", NIH 1 R01 GM083068-01A1, total amount $2,470,000 (PI), 2008-2013.
• "Statistical methods for relating sequence data to phenotype" NIH 1 R01 MH084678-01, total amount $1,219,583 (Investigator, minor fraction of budget [PI: Marjoram, USC]) 2008-2011
• "Genomic analysis of the genotype-phenotype map" NIH 2 P50 HG002790-06, total amount $12,201,508(Investigator, major fraction of budget [PI: Tavaré USC]) 2009-2013
• "Integrated genetic and genomic resources for a model system" NICHD NIH, total amunt €240,000 (PI) 2009-2012

Past support (last five years)

• "Simulation algorithms for genome-wide data and application to admixed data", NIH 1 R01 HG004049, total amount $934,836 (Investigator, minor fraction of budget [PI: Wall, UCSF]), 2007-2010.
• "Implications of haplotype structure in the human genome", NIH 1 P50 HG002790-01A1, total amount $18,718,929 (Investigator, minor fraction of budget [PI:Waterman, USC]), 2003-2008.

• "BE-GenEn: Genomics of Adaptation to the Biotic and Abiotic Environment in Aquilegia” NSF MCB-0412727, total amount $1,666,673 (Co-PI, minor fraction of budget [PI: Hodges, UCSB]), 2004-2008.

• "The pattern of polymorphism in Arabidopsis thaliana”, NSF DEB-0519961, total amount $2,074,500 (PI), 2005-2008.

Journals

• Associate Editor, Plant Cell, 2006–2008

• Associate Editor, Genetics, 2004–

• Associate Editor, Journal of Molecular Evolution, 2001–2007

• Regular reviewer for a number of journals, including: American Journal of Human Genetics, Current Biology, Journal of Molecular Evolution, Genetics, Genetical Research, Genome Research, Molecular Biology & Evolution, Molecular Ecology, Nature, Nature Genetics, Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, PNAS, PLoS Biology, PLoS Genetics, Science, Theoretical Population Biology and TIG

Advisory functions

For funding agencies

• USDA-NRI Panel Member (2004)

• Temporary Member, NIH Genome Study Section (2004)

• NSF Panel Member (2003)

• External reviewer of proposals for a number of agencies, including NSF and the Wellcome Trust

• NSF Plant Cyber-infrastructure Workshop (2005)

Other

• Advisory Board Member, “Molecular and Functional Diversity of the Maize Genome”, John Doebley, PI, 2004–.

• External examiner for Ph. D. Carsten Wiuf, Arhus University, 1998, MSc Tobias Mourier, Copenhagen University, 1998, and PhD David Serre, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2004.

• Member of the external reviewing committee, Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2003.

• NRC workshop on the National Plant Genome Initiative, Washington, DC, 2007.

• NSF workshop on the future of Arabidopsis research, Washington, DC, 2008.

• Various committees at USC, including hiring, admissions, and the Provost's advisory group on bioinformatics.

Invited Presentations (last five years)

2007

• Gordon Research Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Ventura.

• NESCent Catalysis Meeting "Genomic Approaches to the Study of Adaptive Radiation in African Cichlids", Durham, North Carolina.

• Ceres, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California.

• CSHL "Biology of Genomes", Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

• Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Annual Meeting, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• ISMB/EECB 2007, Vienna, Austria.

• Lausanne Genomics Days 07, Lausanne, Switzerland.

• Banbury Meeting "From Statistics to Genes: Figuring out the Molecular Basis of Complex Traits", CSHL, New York.

• John Innes Centre/University of East Anglia, Norwich, England.

2008

• Gregor Mendel Institute, Vienna, Austria.

• Sokendai symposium, Hayama, Japan.

• Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

2009

• Keystone Meeting on Plant Sensing, Response and Adaptation to the Environment, Big Sky, Montana, USA
• FEBS Workshop on Adaptation Potential in Plants, Vienna, Austria
• 20th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, Edinburg, UK.
• 6th Tri-National Arabidopsis Meeting, Cologne, Germany

2010

• 2nd Workshop of StatSeq COST Action TD0801, Ghent, Belgium
• Wenner-Gren Symposium "Adaptive responses during plant development and evolution", Madrid, Spain
• EMBO Workshop on Systems Biology & Development, Ascona, Switzerland
• Evolutionary and Ecological Genomics of Adaptation, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
• Academia Belgica, Rome, Italy

2011

• BI/IMP/IMBA Meeting on Translational Genomics andPersonalized Medicine, Gumpoldskirchen,Austria.

• 6th Annual DOE JGI User Meeting “Genomics of Energy & Environment”, Walnut Creek, California.

• 22ndWorld Congress on Dermatology,Seoul, Korea.

• Annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Kyoto, Japan.

• Summer meeting of the Graduate Program in Genomic Ecology, Lund University, Sweden.

• Isogenic Medaka Workshop, EBI, Hinxton,UK.

• University of Zürich Priority Program in Systems Biology and Functional Genomics, Grindelwald,Switzerland.

• Plant Genomes & Biotechnology, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

• Genome Canada Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Workshop, Toronto, Ontario.

Publications

Click here for a full list of Dr Nordborg's publications.