Rockville, Maryland
September 24,  2001

The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) is pleased to announce that Barbara J. Culliton has joined the Institute as Vice President for Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of the Genome News Network.

In this new position, Ms. Culliton will be responsible for the development and oversight of TIGR's publishing activities. As Editor-in-Chief of the Genome News Network (GNN), Ms. Culliton will use her considerable experience in journalism to further enhance the value of GNN, which produces an online news magazine about genomics in medicine, biomedical research, and agriculture. In addition, GNN will create an on-going series of print publications about advances in genomics, which is currently one of the most exciting areas of scientific research.

The Genome News Network, which was founded by Ms. Culliton and her team at Celera Genomics, has recently been acquired by TIGR, where it can be found as of September 28th at GNN.TIGR.org. 

As a Vice President of TIGR, Ms. Culliton will also work with TIGR's leadership on issues pertinent to the growth of the Institute within the scientific community, as well as the local and state communities of which it is an active and important member.

TIGR President Claire M. Fraser says, "We are delighted to have Barbara at TIGR. She brings a unique blend of experience in science journalism, publishing, and in the science policy community at a time that TIGR is poised to expand its role in research, news, and public education."

Prior to joining Celera in 1999 to launch GNN, Ms. Culliton was Deputy Editor of nature and head of its editorial operations in North America. Under her leadership, Nature Publishing founded three new journals: nature genetics (1992), nature structural biology (1994-check), and nature medicine (1995). Ms. Culliton was a reporter and then, News Editor at Science from 1972 until joining nature in 1991.

From 1990-1998, Ms. Culliton was also Times Mirror Visiting Professor and director of Writing About Science, a Master's program in The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She is a past-president of both the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for Advancement of Science Writing.

In 1988, Ms. Culliton became one of the first journalists elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences, where she served as a member of the IOM's governing council. She is currently a member of the Board of Overseers of Dartmouth Medical School and is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland.
She has been an advisor to the American Board of Internal Medicine, and is an honorary member of the Italian Society for Molecular
Medicine.

Founded in 1992, TIGR is a not-for-profit research institute in the forefront of genomic science. To date, TIGR has sequenced the complete genomes of 25 medically and biologically important organisms. In addition, TIGR plans to expand its already substantial research activities in functional genomics as part of its scientific vision for the future. This will enhance the Institute's existing broad focus, which includes comparative genomics in viruses, bacteria, archaea, and in eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and, of course, human beings. Additional information about TIGR is available at http://www.tigr.org.

Company news release
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