About the Author
Dr. Weber holds broad experience in the field of human genetics. For roughly the first half of his career, he worked as the head of a large research laboratory. His discovery of short tandem repeat (microsatellite) DNA polymorphisms and his construction of some of the first linkage maps of the human genome were important advances in human genetics. He is the author or coauthor of over 200 journal articles and book chapters. During the second half of his career, Dr. Weber served as founder and CEO of one of the largest clinical DNA testing labs in the US. In this role, he oversaw the testing of about 500,000 patients.
Education
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
1970-1972
University of Wisconsin – Madison
B.S. Degree in Chemistry with Honors 1974
1972-1974
University of California – Berkeley
Ph.D. in Biochemistry 1980
1975-1980
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Postdoctoral Fellow
1980-1982
Professional Experience
Captain, U.S. Army Medical Service Corps
Malaria Research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C.
1982-1986
Senior Research Scientist and Director, Center for Medical Genetics Marshfield Clinic Research Institute
Author or coauthor of over 200 scientific publications
Key player in Human Genome Project
Aggressive advocate of genetic testing for improving health care and preventing disease
Brought $36 million into Wisconsin in research grants and contracts
Holder of 3 patents which brought over $10 million to Marshfield Clinic
Named in 2002 one of the “Most Highly Cited” researchers (less than 0.5% of all research scientists)
Coauthor of Lancet 2002 Research Paper of the Year
1986-2004
Founder, President and CEO, PreventionGenetics, Marshfield, Wisconsin
2004-2021
Adjunct Faculty, University of Wisconsin – Madison
2019-Present
Most Significant Publications (from ~230 total)
Egan JE, Weber JL, Ballou WR, Majarian WR, Gordon DM, Hoffman SL, Wirtz RA, Schneider I, Woollett GR, Hollingdale MR, YoungJF, and Hockmeyer WT. Efficacy of murine malaria sporozoite vaccines: implications for human vaccine development. Science 236:453456, 1987.
Weber JL and May PM. Abundant class of human DNA polymorphisms which can be typed using the polymerase chain reaction. American Journal of Human Genetics. 44:388-396, 1989.
Wijmenga C, Frants RR, Brouwer OF, Moerer P, Weber JL, and Padberg GW. Location of the fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy gene on chromosome 4. Lancet 336:651-653, 1990.
Weber JL and Wong C. Mutation of human short tandem repeats. Human Molecular Genetics. 2:1123-1128, 1993.
Weber JL and Myers EM. Human whole genome shotgun sequencing. Genome Research. 7:401-409, 1997.
Broman KW, Murray JC, Sheffield VC, White RL and Weber JL. Comprehensive human genetic maps: individual and sex-specific variation in recombination. American Journal of Human Genetics. 63:861-869, 1998.
Broman KW and Weber JL. Long homozygous chromosomal segments in reference families from the Centre d’Etude du polymorphisme humain. American Journal of Human Genetics. 65:1493-1500, 1999.
Broman KW and Weber JL. Characterization of human crossover interference. American Journal of Human Genetics. 66:1911-1926, 2000.
Yu A, Zhao C, Fan Y, Jang W, Mungall A, Deloukas P, Olsen A, Doggett N, Ghebranious N, Broman KW, and Weber JL. Comparison of human genetic and sequence-based physical maps. Nature 409:951-953, 2001.
Weber JL, David D, Heil J, Fan Y, Zhao C, and Marth G. Human diallelic insertion/deletion polymorphisms. American Journal of Human Genetics. 71:854-862, 2002.
Rosenberg NA, Pritchard JK, Weber JL, Cann HM, Kidd KK, Zhivotovsky LA, Feldman MW. Genetic structure of human populations. Science 298:2381-2385, 2002. (Lancet Paper of the Year)
Weber JL. Genomes and the Gene Pool. Ten Generations Press. 2026.
Weber JL. Suggestions for Long Term Goals for Humanity. Ten Generations Press. 2026.
