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Copyright 2012 By Ernest Tsz-Tsun Lam ! ii Acknowledgements This dissertation represents a body of work that many have contributed to, and there are countless people that I must thank. I offer my most sincere gratitude to those that have helped in one way or another and those that have lent their support in making this possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Pui-Yan Kwok for being my mentor and graduate advisor. He took me in when I knew little about genetics (let alone genomics) and research in general. He has entrusted me with the optical mapping project that he has been so passionate about, and for that, I am extremely grateful. He is always supportive. He has given me the freedom and time I needed to grow and develop as an independent scientist. Most importantly, he has created an environment that fosters collaboration instead of competition. He has brought in so many genuinely nice people to this lab, and this has had an unquantifiable positive impact on my graduate work. I am grateful to past and present members of the Kwok Lab; it is an honor to have worked with all of you. In this age of Big Science, one could not conceal the fact that most of our work requires extensive collaboration. Our lab members are our most immediate collaborators. Angel Mak – thank you for your honesty and thoughtfulness. You have helped me see and appreciate things with your childlike sense of wonder. You should believe in yourself, that you truly are special in your own ways. Annie Poon – I could not have gotten here without your help with the CREATE project and the optical mapping project. I have enjoyed your company. Thank you for your generosity that I wish I could repay. I am grateful for the breakfast and the soup that you brought me. I am grateful for the countless rides I have gotten from you, many of which not always the ! iii most convenient for you. Bani Tamraz – I thank you for always going the extra mile (quite literally). He drove us to visit Illumina in Hayward; we went to Gladstone together. You are always generous and welcoming. Blanca Herrera – I enjoyed working briefly with you on the kidney exome project. I wish you, your soon-to-come baby, and your family all the best. Catherine Chu – thank you for keeping me healthy by buying me chicken wings, driving us to badminton, and bringing me delicious soup. I am really glad I got to know Alex as well. Jennifer Pons – thank you for letting me play with your gene expression data and for welcoming my participation. Ludmila Pawlikowska – you were almost my second mentor. I remember going to you sometimes late in the afternoon when I wanted to talk, and you never turned me away. I thank you for listening to me and for giving constructive suggestions. I would not have gotten past my early years without you. Nina Gonzaludo – I have always admired your entrepreneurial spirit. Thanks for sharing your industry experience with us. Paul Ling-Fung Tang – I am now an Apple believer because of you. I really appreciate your openness and willingness to explore. I have enjoyed our conversations. I sincerely hope that you will be able to find something that you are passionate about. Stacy Musone – thank you for taking on the role of the senior student/mentor. You were always so nice and kind. Thanks for listening to me when I needed someone that would understand. Stephanie Hesselson – thank you for organizing our lab events and for all the treats. I had a lot of fun playing with Etta. I will always remember the hamburger that you made when I visited. Ting-Fung Chan – thank you for your generosity and hospitality when I visited your lab in Hong Kong. I appreciate your mentorship, and I hope that we will continue to collaborate. Wilson Liao – thank you for being my mentor when I first rotated in the lab. Thank you for brining me to the psoriasis ! iv clinic. The experience was life-changing for me. I really enjoyed working with you on the ZNF750 project. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work with many talented people: Yang Cao, Emma Dowd, Aparna Chhibber, Jesus Lopez, Dean Ehrlich, Dillon Dong, and Jasmin Eshragh. Every summer, the lab frantically decides what projects would be appropriate for our summer students. Mentoring can be draining at times, but there is only joy in being able to share my passion for science with them. I will readily admit that I am not the best mentor despite my genuine intentions, but they have tolerated my shortcomings and appreciated my efforts. Most importantly, all of them have gone on to bigger things. As a mentor, I cannot be happier for them. They have inspired me, pushed me, and brought me joy. I thank my thesis committee members – Prof. Pui-Yan Kwok, Prof. Steve Hamilton, and Prof. John Witte – for their guidance and support. In particular, I have had extended interactions with Steve because of our collaboration on the Border collie deafness project. I am eternally grateful that Jennifer Yokoyama brought me onto the project. We met at Starbucks, laid out a plan, got all the reagents, prepared all the samples… I could not have asked for a better collaborator. And of course, I thank her for her friendship. Her infectious laughs. Her honesty. Her selflessness. I am very excited about our project, which has been fruitful, and working with Jennifer and Steve could not have been more wonderful. I would like to thank my qualifying exam committee members – Prof. Nadav Ahituv, Prof. Xin Chen, Prof. Kathy Giacomini, and Prof. Hao Li – for their valuable input. They asked difficult questions not to make me stumble but to force me to think ! v about broader impacts of my research. Nadav and Sook Wah Yee graciously invited me to participate in the review paper in Genome Medicine, and I am honored to have worked with them. I would like to thank Prof. Xin Chen, Prof. Neil Shah, and Prof. Charles Craik for taking me as a rotation student. Among other things, Cindy Kosinski helped with my experiments and my NSF application, and I really appreciate her friendship. Corynn Kasap was particularly patient with me when teaching me cell culture techniques. Christopher Weier taught me how to run Western blots and stayed late with me when I needed to test antibody combinations. He was fun to be around with and always so kind. I have had the fortune of participating in multiple collaborative projects, and several of those have been fruitful. I have the most sincere respect for Prof. James Cleaver, who introduced me to the XP proteins. I felt intimidated when I was told you are a member of the Academy of Sciences. You took the time to talk to me about more than just science. Thank you for the career advice you have given me. I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to participate in the Nature Reviews Genetics paper. Ming Xiao played a huge role in the optical mapping project. Thank you for doing almost daily calls with us in order to help set up TIRF when you didn’t need to. I have enjoyed our dinner conversations, and I have learned so much from you. Our optical mapping work is a work of true collaboration. I am proud of our product. I hope you are too. Greg Tranah was another one of my main collaborators. You welcomed my participation when I expressed interest. You introduced me to the wonderful world of mitochondrial genetics. You were always positive, engaging, and welcoming. ! vi Prof. Michael Zwick welcomed me to spend a week with his lab, and David Okou shared his protocol for solid-phase target capture with me. David taught me how to QC, what to look for, and everything else about the protocol. Everyone at the Zwick Lab was very kind to me. Niranjan Nagarajan has provided much needed input on alignment of optical maps. His experience in this area of research has helped the project tremendously. I have enjoyed our weekly Skype sessions. I also want to thank my early mentors. David Lauter (George Washington High School) was the one that got me first started. I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am if I didn’t take his Biology and AP Biology classes. He was a very special teacher, and I hope that others are inspired by him in the same way he inspired me to pursue science. I started doing research in college because of the Chem 91 Undergraduate Honors Seminar at UC San Diego. Prof. Jack Dixon was the speaker for one of the evenings. I vaguely remember he talked about kinases and phosphatases and cancer. He encouraged us to try research, and when I got back to my dorm room, I immediately emailed him. We talked on the phone on the next day, and he offered me a volunteer position in his lab. I thank Shaun Lee for being patient with me when I did not know anything (literally) about research. It wasn’t until much later that I understood what NRPS really meant. I then worked with Prof. Michael VanNieuwenhze in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Aaron Wohlrab taught me the basics of synthetic chemistry. I saw first-hand how incredibly hardworking organic chemists were. I have enjoyed interacting with my classmates from the PSPG graduate program. We are a group with diverse interests, but everyone is kind and supportive.