Gerald Joyce

Gerald Francis "Jerry" Joyce (born 1956) is a professor and researcher at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He is best known for his work on in vitro evolution, for the discovery of the first DNA enzyme (deoxyribozyme), for the development of the first self replicating RNA enzyme [1][2] and more in general for his work on the origin of life.

Gerald Joyce
Gerald Joyce, 2010
Born	1956 (age 64–65)
Alma mater	University of Chicago University of California, San Diego
Known for	in vitro evolution
Scientific career
Institutions	Salk Institute for Biological Studies The Scripps Research Institute
Website	www.salk.edu/scientist/gerald-joyce/

Joyce received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1978, completed his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in 1984. He was a postdoctoral fellow and senior research associate at the Salk Institute from 1985 to 1989, and joined Scripps in 1989. Joyce was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2001, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011) and to the Institute of Medicine (2014). He has been a professor at The Scripps Research Institute until 2016 and served as Dean of the Faculty at Scripps from 2006 to 2011,[3] during which time he was instrumental in founding a second campus in Jupiter, Florida.[4] Joyce has served as the chair of the JASON advisory group, which he joined in 1996.[5]

Joyce received the Urey medal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) in 2005.[6] In 2009, Joyce's lab was the first to produce a self-replicating in vitro system, capable of exponential growth and continuing evolution, composed entirely of RNA enzymes.