Jeffery P. Gregg, M.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, and Director, Molecular Molecular Pathology Shared Resource, UC Davis Cancer Center, and M.I.N.D. Institute Genomics Facility

UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute
2825 50th Street
Sacramento, CA 95817
E-mail: jpgregg@ucdavis.edu

During the last several years, Dr Gregg, an expert in microarray technology, has moved into the neurosciences and research on autism. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Gregg taught a short course on microarray technology at the Society of Neuroscience. This led to a book that he edited with Dr. Dan Geschwind from UCLA on microarrays and neuroscience (Microarrays for the Neurosciences: The Essential Guide. Massachusetts, MIT Press). In the autism arena, Dr. Gregg has taken a unique approach to studying autism in which he uses microarray technology to perform gene expression studies of the entire genome of peripheral lymphocytes in order to identify genes associated with autism. This approach, called “blood genomics” has great potential but is still in its infancy. In addition to these microarray studies, he is adapting microarray technology to identify gains and losses (i.e., duplications and deletions) in the genome of children with autism.

M.D. University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine Los Angeles, California, 1993

Landry JP, Zhu XD, Guo XW, Gregg JP.  Oblique-Incidence Reflectivity Difference and Fluorescence Imaging of Oligonucleotide and IgG Protein Microarrays.  Mat Res Soc Symp Proc 773: N7.51-N7.56, 2003.

Yang Q, Lishanski A, Yang W, Hatcher S, Seet H, Gregg JP. Allele-Specific Holliday Junction Formation—A New Mechanism of Allelic Discrimination for SNP Scoring.  Genome Res. 13: 1754-1764, 2003.  

Gellar SC, Gregg JP, Hagerman P, Rocke DM. Transformation and Normalization of Oligonucleotide Microarray Data.  Bioinformatics 19(14): 1817-23, 2003.

Landry JP, Zhu XD, Gregg JP.  Label-free detection of microarrays of biomolecules using oblique-incidence reflectivity difference microscopy.  Opt Lett 29(6):581-583, 2004.

Andree KB, Kim J, Kirsche CP, Gregg JP, Paik H, Joun HJ, Woodhouse L, King J, Huang L.  An Investigation of Gene Expression for Use as Biomarkers for Zinc Status in Humans. J Nutrition 134(7):1716-1723, 2004.

Identification of biomarkers for early detection and sub-phenotyping of children with autism is an  important step toward understanding the cause(s) of this disorder and developing effective approaches to prevention or treatment.  A novel technology, GeneChip microarrays, can be used to compare the entire expressed genome in children with autism to that of controls, permitting identification of genes or patterns of gene expression that correlate with autism and of different autism subtypes. To perform these analyses, technology and algorithms that more robustly and efficiently identify genes are needed.  Progress in this regard is reported in the Landry et al and Geller et al papers and recently submitted papers by Liu et al. and Goth et al.  Efforts are also underway to identify DNA polymorphisms that may result in a higher risk or predisposition for developing autism.  Dr. Gregg has developed a novel technology (Holliday-Junction SNP scoring) for rapidly screening SNPs (DNA changes) in individuals and, as reported in Yang et al (2003 and 2004), is adapting this to autism-related studies.

Biomarker Discovery Through Genomic-Array Profiling of Autism.  International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Sacramento, CA, May 2004.

Principal Investigator: Biomarker Discovery Through BAC-Array Genomic Profiling, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute Investigator-Initiated Research Grant, 2003-05.

Co-Principal Investigator: Biomarkers of Exposure to Hazardous Substances/ Microarray Core (PI: Hammock), NIEHS, 2003-05.

Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Pessah): Environmental Factors in the Etiology of Autism)/ Microarray Core, NIEHS/EPA, 2001-06. The purpose of this program is to investigate environmental risk factors contributing to the incidence and severity of childhood autism.

Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Rodriguez): Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics/Molecular Pathology Core, NCMHD, 2003-07.

Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Matsumura): Environmental Health Center/Microarray Core, NIEHS, 2001-06.

Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Maselli): Microarray Analysis of Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes, March of Dimes, 2004-06.

Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting Short Course, Instructor
Ad Hoc member, NIH/NIMH study section NIMH ZMH1
Special Emphasis Panel Member, NIH/NIDCR
Special Emphasis Panel Member, NIH/NIDCR, RFA DE-04-003
Special Emphasis Panel Member, NIH/NIDCR, RFA DE-05-001
Ad Hoc reviewer: Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Biotechniques, Carcinogenesis, Nature Medicine
Invited Participant, Governors Conference, “Promoting the Life Sciences: New Initiatives for the Sacramento Region 2003”
Director of Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, UC Davis Medical Center
Director, Pathology Resident Rotation, Molecular Diagnostics