mmarra@bcgsc.ca
 http://www.bcgsc.ca/

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Department:	Genome Sciences Centre (@ the BCCRC since 2000)
Research Role:	Senior Scientist
Postdoctoral Fellows:	Maria Mendez-Lago Jill Mwenifumbo Ian Bosdet
Graduate Students:	Noushin Farnoud Rodrigo Goya Malachi Griffith Olena Morozova Sorana Morrissy Ryan Morin
Other lab members:	Susanna Chan
Education:	PhD. (Genetics), Simon Fraser University, 1994 B.Sc. (Molecular and Cell Biology), Simon Fraser University, 1989
Birthplace:	Canada
Phone:	604-675-8162(Office) 604-675-8150 (Main Office)
Fax:	604-675-8178

Research Interests:

Significant Research Contributions:

Dr. Marra's most significant contributions to genome sciences are listed below. Publications have been organized into groups of technically or scientifically related topic areas.

Dr. Marra's work has been cited more than 9,600 times.

Nucleic Acids Research, 2004 Jul 09;32(12):3651-60; Nature Genetics, 2004 Mar;36(3):299-303.
These publications describe the bioinformatic selection and large-scale validation of a set of more than 30,000 Bacterial Artificial Chromosome clones spanning the human genome (Krzywinski et al) and the use of the clone set in high resolution microarray CGH (Ishkanian et al). The CGH technique is increasingly being used to identify genome copy number changes in clinical samples and ours was the first resource to represent essentially the entire human genome.

Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2004 Dec;10(12):2192-2195; Science, 2003 May;300(5624):1399-1404.
The EID publication describes the sequencing of Avian flu genomes isolated from human patients during an outbreak in BC's Fraser Valley. The Science publication describes the rapid generation of the complete and sequenced cDNAs, and then assembled these sequences into the final ~29 kilobase genome sequence. The entire effort took about six days, demonstrating that genome sequencing of a new viral pathogen could be considered a legitimate part of a "rapid response" to an emerging infectious disease. The Science paper has been cited more than 600 times.

Genome Research, 2006 Jun;16(6):768-775; Science, 2006 Sep 15;313(5793):1596-1604; Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2005 Dec 20;102(51):18526-18531; Science, 2005 Jul 15;309(5733):436-442; Nature, 2005 Apr 7;434(7074):724-731; Science, 2005 Feb 25;307(5713):1321-1324; Nature, 2004 Apr 1;428(6982):493-521; Nature, 2003 Jul 10;424(6945):157-164; Nature, 2002 Aug 15;418(6899):743-750; Nature Genetics, 2001 Oct;29(2):133-134; Genome Research, 2001 Feb;11(2):274-280; Nature, 2001 Feb 15;409(6822):934-941; Nature, 2001 Feb 15;409(6822):860-921; Genome Research, 1997;7:1072-1084.
These publications are selected papers of Dr. Marra's which describe large-scale high throughput DNA sequencing conducted via a hierarchical map-based approach. The papers published in the Feb 15, 2001 issue of Nature, titled "The Human Genome" describe the construction and use of Dr. Marra's fingerprint map of the human genome. In this regard, Dr. Marra's responsibility was to devise and then implement the approach that led to the human whole-genome BAC physical map. This map served as the centralized coordinating resource for the successful public-domain effort to sequence the human genome.

Nature, 2000 Dec 14;408(6814):796-815; Nature, 2000; 408:823-826; Cell 2000; 100:377-386; Nature 1999; 402:769-776; Science 1999; 286:2468-2474; Nature Genet 1999; 22:265-270; Nature Genet 1999; 22:271-275.
This series of papers describes the mapping and sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. A. thaliana is an important model plant used widely to address issues relevant to plant developmental genetics. I was a key member of the Cold Spring Harbor Sequencing Consortium, focused on first leading the effort to map the A. thaliana genome and subsequently coordinating aspects of the whole genome sequencing activity.

Genome Research, 2007 Jan;17(1):108-116; BMC Genomics, 2006,7:246; Proc Natl Acad USA, 2005 Dec 20;102(51):18485-18490; Science, 2005 Oct 22;306(5696):636-640; Proc Natl Acad USA, 2002 Dec 24;99(26):16899-16903; Genome Research, 2000;10(9):1393-1402; AM J Pathol, 2000;156(4):1109-1115; Cancer Research, 1999;59:5403-5407; Trends in Genetics;1998;14:4-7; Genome Research, 1996;9:807-828.
These publications describe the generation of very large datasets of human and murine gene sequence and gene expression information. Also described are applications of these datasets to analysis of clinical samples, which led to the identification of tumor makers and antigens. Papers in this series have important implications for several areas of cancer research.

See Also:

• Steven Jones