Stephen T. Warren

Stephen T. Warren was an American geneticist and academic. He was the William Patterson Timmie Professor of Human Genetics and the Charles Howard Candler Chair of Human Genetics. He was the former Founding Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University School of Medicine. He was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1991 until 2002, when he resigned to found the Human Genetics department. Warren is well known for his work in the field of Human Genetics. His research was focused on the mechanistic understanding of fragile X syndrome, a leading cause of inherited developmental disability and autism. In 2020, Warren stepped down as department chair after 20 years in that position.

In 2003, Warren was an inaugural inductee of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Hall of Honor for the "identification of triplet repeat expansion as the cause of fragile X syndrome and as an entirely new inherited mechanism of genetic disease". He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2004, the National Academy of Sciences in 2011 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Medical Genetics.

Education Warren was born in 1953 and was raised in East Detroit, Michigan (now Eastpointe, Michigan). He began his undergraduate studies at Michigan State University in 1972 and graduated with a B.S. in Zoology in 1976. While a freshman, he began his involvement in medical genetics by volunteering in the clinical genetics diagnostic laboratory with James Higgins where he continued to work throughout his undergraduate studies. During his summer breaks he worked with geneticists Lester Weiss and Gene Jackson at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. 2009 - Frontiers in Clinical Neuroscience Award, American Academy of Neurology 2011 - March of Dimes/Colonel Harland Sanders Award for lifetime achievement 2011 - Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Award, Emory University School of Medicine 2011 - Elected, National Academy of Sciences 2013 - Emory University Distinguished Faculty Award 2013 - Association for Molecular Pathology Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics 2015 - Elected, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Publications Selected papers Warren, ST, Zhang, F, Licameli. GR and Peters, JF: The fragile X site in somatic cell hybrids: An approach for molecular cloning of fragile sites. Science 237:420-423 (1987). Verkerk, AJMH, Pieretti, M, Sutcliffe, JS, Fu, Y-H, Kuhl, DPA, Pizzuti, A, Reiner, O, Richards, S, Victoria, MF, Zhang, F, Eussen, BE, van Ommen, GLB, Blonden, LAJ, Riggins, GJ, Chastain, JL, Kunst, CB, Gakljaard, H, Caskey, CT, Nelson, DL, Oostra, BA and Warren, ST: Identification of a gene (FMR-1) containing a CGG repeat coincident with a breakpoint cluster region exhibiting length variation in fragile X syndrome. Cell 65:905-914 (1991). Ashley, CT, Wilkinson, KD, Reines, D and Warren, ST: FMR1 protein: Conserved RNP family domains and selective RNA binding. Science 262:563-566 (1993). Kunst CB and Warren, ST: Cryptic and polar variation of the fragile X repeat could result in predisposing normal alleles. Cell 77:853-861 (1994). Feng, Y, Absher, D, Eberhart, DE, Brown, V, Malter, HE and Warren, ST: FMRP associates with polyribosomes as an mRNP and the I304N mutation of severe fragile X syndrome abolishes this association. Molecular Cell 1:109-118 (1997). Brown, V, Jin, P, Ceman, S, Darnell, JC, O’Donnell, WT, Tenenbaum, SA, Jin, X, Feng, Y, Wilkinson, KD, Keene, JD, Darenell, RB and Warren, ST: Microarray identification of FMRP-associated brain mRNAs and altered mRNA translational profiles in fragile X syndrome. Cell 107:477-487 (2001). Bear, MF, Huber, KM and Warren, ST: The mGluR theory of fragile X mental retardation. Trends in Neurosciences 27:370-377 (2004). Jin, P, Duan, R, Qurashi, A, Qin, Y, Tian, D, Rosser, TC, Liu, H, Feng, Y and Warren, ST: Pur binds to rCGG repeats and modulated repeat-mediated neurodegeneration in a Drosophila model of fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome. Neuron 55:556-564 (2007). Nakamoto, M, Nalavadi, V, Epstein, MP, Narayanan, U, Bassell, GJ and Warren, ST: Fragile X mental retardation protein deficiency leads to spontaneous mGluR5-dependent internalization of AMPA receptors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104:15537-15542 (2007). Chang, S, Bray, SM, Li, Z, Zarnescu, DC, He, C, Jin, P and Warren, ST: Identification of small molecules rescuing morphological, biochemical, and behavioral phenotypes of fragile X syndrome in Drosophila. Nature Chemical-Biology 4:256-263 (2008).

Books Davies, KE and Warren, ST (Editors): Genome Analysis Volume 7: Genome Rearrangement and Stability. (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York). pp. 165 (1993). Wells, RD and Warren, ST (Editors): Genetic Instabilities and Hereditary Neurological Diseases. (Academic Press, San Diego). pp. 829 (1998).