Tomas

Walsh

PhD

biography

After completing my PhD, on the molecular pathology of breast tumors, I joined Dr. Mary-Claire King’s laboratory at the University of Washington as a postdoctoral fellow to study inherited predisposition to breast cancer.  I joined the Division of Medical Genetics in 2005 and took advantage of resources here to learn genomics technology.  This experience led me to develop a massively parallel sequencing resource for my collaborative work.  I was among the first to exploit exome sequencing to discover new genes for Mendelian diseases and to demonstrate de novo mutations are involved in schizophrenia.  In collaboration with clinical colleagues, I have helped develop and implement gene panel testing for breast, ovarian and colon cancer susceptibility at the University of Washington.

Education & Training

BSc, University College Galway, Ireland (1993)

MSc, University of Leicester, UK (1994)

PhD, University of Leicester, UK (1997)

Honors

NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2007)

Member of Stand Up to Cancer Ovarian Cancer Dream Team (PIs Alan D’Andrea and Elizabeth Swisher) (2016)

Research Interests

Dr. Walsh's research includes the genomic analysis of breast and ovarian cancer and the discovery of new genes for simple and complex diseases.  He is also interested in clinical applications of sequencing technologies.

Publications

Walsh, T, Casadei S Coats K, Swisher E, Stray SM, Higgins J, Roach KC, Mandell J, Lee MK, Ciernikova S, Foretova L, Soucek P, King MC. (2006). Spectrum of Mutations in BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and TP53 in Families at High Risk of Breast Cancer. JAMA. 295: 1379-1388

Walsh T, Lee MK, Casadei S, Thornton AM, Stray SM, Pennil C, Nord AS, Mandell JB, Swisher E, King M-C. (2010). Detection of inherited mutations for breast and ovarian cancer using genomic capture and massively parallel sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 107:12629-12633

Walsh T, Casadei S, Lee MK, Pennil CC, Nord AS, Thornton AM, Roeb W, Agnew KJ, Stray SM, Wickramanayake A, Norquist B, Pennington KP, Garcia RL, King MC, Swisher EM. (2011). Mutations in 12 genes for inherited ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal carcinoma identified by massively parallel sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 108:18032-18037.

Walsh T, Shahin H, Elkan-Miller T, Lee MK, Thornton AM, Roeb W, Abu Rayyan A, Loulus S, Avraham KB, King MC, Kanaan M. (2010). Whole exome sequencing and homozygosity mapping identify mutation in the cell polarity protein GPSM2 as the cause of non-syndromic hearing loss DFNB82. Am J Hum Genet, 87:90-94

Walsh T, McClellan JM, McCarthy SE, Addington AM, Pierce SB, Cooper GM, Nord AS, Kusenda M, Malhotra D, Bhandari A, Stray SM, Rippey CF, Roccanova P, Makarov V, Lakshmi B, Findling RL, Sikich L, Stromberg T, Merriman B, Gogtay N, Butler P, Eckstrand K, Noory L, Gochman P, Long R, Chen Z, Davis S, Baker C, Eichler EE, Meltzer PS, Nelson SF, Singleton AB, Lee MK, Rapoport JL, King MC, Sebat J. (2008). Rare structural variants disrupt multiple genes in neurodevelopmental pathways in schizophrenia. Science. 320:539-543.

Gulsuner S, Walsh T, Watts AC, Lee MK, Thornton AM, Casadei S, Rippey C, Shahin H; Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS); PAARTNERS Study Group, Nimgaonkar VL, Go RC, Savage RM, Swerdlow NR, Gur RE, Braff DL, King MC, McClellan JM. (2013). Spatial and temporal mapping of de novo mutations in schizophrenia to a fetal prefrontal cortical network. Cell. 154:518-529.