Carlos D. Bustamante is a population geneticist who studies patterns of genetic variation among human populations and other species to address fundamental questions in biology, evolution and medicine. His research projects include creating maps that pinpoint rapidly evolving genes; sequencing and analyzing genomes at fine scale; and identifying genomic regions responsible for differences in dog breeds, which could serve as model systems for understanding human genetic variation.
In his current studies, Bustamante applies mathematical innovation to population history and genomic data from ethnically and racially diverse groups. His goal is to determine how rare genetic variants and population admixture may affect complex traits such as disease susceptibility. This research is advancing understanding of the dynamics of the human genome and the applications of population genomics to biomedicine.
Bustamante is a professor in the department of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the university's department of biology.
He received a B.A. in biology in 1997, an M.S. in statistics in 2001 and a Ph.D. in biology in 2001, all from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford in England.
His awards include a Sloan Research Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
NIGMS has supported Bustamante's research since 2007.
