David A. Wheeler received Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Zoology from the University of Maryland and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the George Washington University, where he studied mouse models of breast cancer.
Dr. Wheeler did postdoctoral research in behavioral genetics at Brandeis University and through this work became interested in the field of bioinformatics. He joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine where he Directed the Molecular Biology Computation Resource for a decade.
He joined the Human Genome Sequencing Center at BCM in 2001 where he guided the finishing of the D. melanogaster genome followed by the human genome in 2003.
Professor Wheeler is now the Director of Cancer Genomics, and Assistant Director of the HGSC.
He leads the development of methods for discovery of genome variation in human and animal populations using DNA sequencing technologies to relate polymorphism to human disease.