John Stanley Mattick (born 1950, Sydney) is an Australian molecular biologist known for his efforts to assign function to

non-coding DNA Non-coding DNA (ncDNA) sequences are components of an organism's DNA that do not encode protein sequences. Some non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g. transfer RNA, microRNA, piRNA, ribosomal RNA, and regula ...

. Mattick was the executive director of the

Garvan Institute of Medical Research The Garvan Institute of Medical Research is an Australian biomedical research institute located in , Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1963 by the Sisters of Charity as a research department of St Vincent's Hospital, it is now one of Australi ...

from 2012 to 2018. He joined

Genomics England Genomics England is a British company set up and owned by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Care to run the 100,000 Genomes Project. The project aimed in 2014 to sequence 100,000 genomes from NHS patients with a rare disease a ...

in May 2018 as Chief Executive Officer. In October 2019, he joined the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Career

Mattick received his high school education at St Patrick's College Strathfield. He obtained his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

and his PhD in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

. Subsequently, he worked at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate S ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, the CSIRO Division of

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

in Sydney, and the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, where he was based between 1988 and 2012. Mattick has also worked at the Universities of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and Strasbourg. He was Foundation Director of the Australian Genome Research Facility, two ARC Special Research Centres and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Mattick was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

in 2001 for service to scientific research in the fields of molecular biology, genetics and biotechnology, particularly through the development and administration of research institutes and the Australian Genome Research Facility. In 2007 he was elected an Associate Member of the

European Molecular Biology Organisation The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

and in 2008 elected a

fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

. More recently, he was awarded the Julian Wells Medal by the Lorne Genome Society in 2009 and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) Medal in 2011. He received the HUGO Chen Award for Distinguished Achievement in Genetic and Genomic Research in 2012, the same year he was appointed executive director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) in 2015. In 2019, he won the Advance Global Impact Award. Mattick served as Board Director for Arctoris Ltd, an Oxford-based technology company.

References

External links

* http://www.hgm2011.org/john_s_mattick.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120427170715/http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/3401/full 1950 births Living people Australian molecular biologists Australian biochemists University of Sydney alumni Monash University alumni Academic staff of the University of Queensland Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Officers of the Order of Australia Garvan Institute of Medical Research alumni Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Baylor College of Medicine faculty {{Australia-scientist-stub