Marco Antonio Marra is a scientist and director of Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre and professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He also serves as UBC Canada Research Chair in Genome Science for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is an inductee in the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Education and early life
Canadian born and educated, Marco Marra received a B.Sc. in molecular & cell biology and a PhD in genetics from Simon Fraser University. The title of his PhD thesis: "Genome analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans: Genetic and molecular identification of genes tightly linked to unc-22(IV)".
Research
Along with GSC co-director, Dr. Steven J.M. Jones, Marra was involve in a paper titled "A physical map of the human genome", describes the construction and use of the human genome map to fuel human genome sequencing. Marra made contributions to that effort by devising and then implementing clonal fingerprinting techniques,
He was involved in sequencing the SARSe w virus in 2003. work identified an alternative procedure for extracting nucleic acids for COVID-19 testing.
As part of a GSC initiative, Marra played a role in a proof-of-concept for whole genome analyses in personalized cancer medicine.
Awards and honours
He became a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2020. In 2024, he was appointed as an officer to the Order of Canada.