Galen Wright

Galen completed his PhD in Louise Warnich’s research group at the Department of Genetics at Stellenbosch University in March 2012. His doctoral research involved characterising specific genes with regards to schizophrenia-susceptibility as well as antipsychotic response in local South African populations.

After completing his PhD in March 2012, he started as a postdoctoral research fellow in Nicki Tiffin’s group at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) at the University of the Western Cape. This research focussed on the identification of genes causing familial diseases through the use of computational analyses of exome sequencing data. Further, he has was engaged in an analysis of the ethical and legal implications of whole genome and whole exome sequencing in African populations.

In July 2014, Galen moved to Vancouver, Canada and started a new postdoctoral research fellowship at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia, in the Department of Medical Genetics. He is presently supervised by Michael Hayden and Colin Ross. His current research projects involve investigating the genetic causes for adverse drug reactions in cancer patients as well as the study of more effective treatments for Huntington’s disease.