erik jorgensen

Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology, University of Utah Howard Hughes Medical Investigator

Adjunct Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah Adjunct Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah

Dr. Jorgensen was born and raised in Saratoga, California. He attended West Valley Junior College. In 1979, he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Resources from the University of California at Berkeley. Jorgensen returned to UC Berkeley to study centromere function in yeast with Sy Fogel, and then the University of Heidelberg to study hepatitis proteins under Heinz Schaller. He initiated doctoral studies in the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington in 1983, characterizing mutations in the Antennapedia locus of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster with Dr. Richard Garber.  He received his Ph.D. in 1989. Postdoctoral work was conducted in H. Robert Horvitz’s laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he started studying the genetic basis of GABA transmission in the nematode C. elegans. In 1994 Jorgensen established his own laboratory in the Department of Biology at the University of Utah. He is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology and an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Human Genetics and Bioengineering. In 2005, Jorgensen was named an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  The goal of his laboratory is to understand the synapse. The laboratory is employing a genetic approach in the nematode C. elegans, and validating these studies in the cultured hippocampal neurons from rodents.