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Stephan Beck received his MS (1982) and PhD (1985) from the University of Konstanz (Germany) where he specialised in physical chemistry studying DNA conformational changes. After postdoctoral fellowships in the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Millipore Corporation in Bedford (USA), he moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London in 1990 to head the DNA Sequencing Laboratory. There, he continued to develop novel methodologies and software for the analysis of DNA which he applied to study the molecular function and evolution of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), an essential part of the adaptive immune system. In 1996 he joined the Sanger Institute in Hinxton where he continued and expanded his research into genetic and epigenetic aspects of chromosome and genome function. In 1998, he became Head of Human Sequencing joining a team of senior scientists co-ordinating the production and finishing of the Sanger Institute\'s contribution towards the Human Genome Project. | 