Richard Gibbs is the Wofford Cain Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics and the director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine. His research focuses on the analysis of large genomes and the molecular basis of human genetic diseases. Gibbs received a Ph.D. in genetics and radiation biology in 1986 from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He subsequently moved to Houston as a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine to study the molecular basis of human X-linked diseases and to develop technologies for rapid genetic analysis. During this period he also developed several fundamental technologies for nucleic acid analysis, and in 1991 joined the faculty at Baylor and played a key role in the early planning and development phases of the human genome project. He currently holds the rank of director and professor.

In 1996, he established the Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) when Baylor was chosen as one of six programs to complete the final phase of the human genome project. The current focus of the HGSC is production of a draft sequence of the rat genome. The HGSC is also engaged in projects to sequence other genomes, including those of the honeybee, another species of fruit fly (Drosophila Pseudoobscura), the sea urchin, the slime mold, the cow and the Rhesus monkey. The Center is the largest contributor to the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project which aims to generate all full-length DNA clones from human and mouse.

In 1995, Gibbs founded SeqWright Inc., a Houston biotechnology services company, and in 2002, started Wilbury Biotech Partners, a new biotechnology incubator venture in the inner Houston area that is developing 57,000 square feet of new research space. Gibbs holds several patents and has co-authored more than 100 original research publications; he is also the chair of the National Institutes of Health Genome Research Review Committee and serves on numerous corporate boards and scientific advisory committees.

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