Bioinformatics Fred Wright
Professor, Biological Sciences and Statistics
Fred Wright joined NC State in August 2013 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Bioinformatics, and as a professor in the Departments of Statistics and Biological Sciences. Wright is an internationally-known statistical geneticist, with wide-ranging interests including genomic bioinformatics, toxicogenomics and the statistical principles underlying high-dimensional data analysis. Wright is the director of the Bioinformatics Research Center (BRC), which has a strong history of research and training in statistical, evolutionary and computational methods applied to a variety of genomic problems. Wright will lead the expansion of the BRC’s focus to additional cross-cutting activities in human health and complex systems.
Wright received his bachelor of arts in statistics and psychology from the University at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Chicago. Previously, he was a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. He has been principal investigator of numerous grants, with activities ranging from development of new methods of gene mapping to expression-quantitative trait (eQTL) mapping for multiple tissues. He was also principal investigator of an EPA-funded STAR Center to apply genomics principles to long-standing problems in toxicology. Wright is one of the lead investigators in the International Cystic Fibrosis Genetic Modifier Consortium, seeking to unravel the unexpected complexities of this disease, which was once thought to be “simple” in its underlying genetics. While at UNC-CH, Wright fostered the development of a new statistical genetics curriculum, producing one of the most varied and rigorous programs among departments of biostatistics. He is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Delta Omega Honor society for Public Health.
