George M. Martin is Professor of Pathology and Adjunct Professor of Genetics at the University of Washington (UW). Following BS and MD degrees from UW, he served as an intern at the Montreal General Hospital and as a Resident and Instructor in Pathology at the University of Chicago. Postdoctoral training included somatic cell genetics at Glasgow University (G. Pontecorvo), molecular biology at the Institute of Physical Chemical Biology in Paris (F. Gros) and experimental embryology at Oxford University (H. Harris and R. Gardner). Activities at UW included the Founding Directorships of the Medical Scientist Training Program, the University Hospital Cytogenetics Laboratory and the Alzheimer Disease Research Center.

Dr. Martin's research has been concerned with the development of genetic approaches to the study of aging and age-related diseases in mammals. Some specific achievements have included the first evidence for the limited replicative potential of cells of the vascular wall, the dominant nature of replicatively senescent cells, the determination of somatic mutation frequencies in epithelial cells of aging human tissue, and the positional cloning of the Werner helicase mutation. Studies of familial Alzheimer disease led to the mapping of the presenilin 1 locus and the synthesis of the first “knockin” mouse model of mutations at that locus. At a more clinical level, Dr. Martin has systematized our knowledge of human genetic disorders from the point of view of their rich potential to elucidate specific aspects of the senescent phenotype and used this analysis to make inferences concerning the polygenic basis of aging.

Honors for his research have included the Brookdale, Kleemeier and Paul Glenn Foundation awards of the Gerontological Society of America, the Allied-Signal Corporation Award, the Irving Wright Award of the American Federation for Aging Research, and the American Aging Association Medal. He has also received an Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Washington School of Medicine and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He currently serves as President of the American Federation for Aging Research.

Dr. Martin has a homepage at the University of Washington Department of Pathology.