Robert C. Green

Robert C. Green is an American physician and scientist. He is currently a faculty member in the Division of Genetics and Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Associate Director for Research in the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM), and founding Director of the Genomes to People (G2P) research program. He is Principal Investigator of three studies funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI): the REVEAL (Risk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer's Disease) study - the first to use randomized clinical studies to explore the impact of genetic susceptibility testing and disclosure - and The MedSeq Project, and co-Principal Investigator, with Scott Roberts, of the Impact of Personal Genomics (PGen) study.

Dr. Green has played a key role in the field of translational genomics and the integration of personal genomics into clinical practice, including planning and directing the first large-scale randomized clinical trials in translational genetics. He is also a leading figure in discussions of the return of incidental findings in clinical settings and currently leads a committee of the American College of Medical Genetics in the process of creating a consensus among medical specialists on how to handle incidental findings from clinical genomic tests.

Additionally, Dr. Green's research has led to key contributions in understanding genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, including the development of risk estimates based on family history and genetic markers. and leadership of multi-center treatment and prevention trials;. His work on the REVEAL study included measuring patients’ responses to being informed of their genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The idea of disclosing APOE status—apolipoprotein E, the gene most often linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease—was highly controversial at the time, as many believed that informing patients of their higher risk of developing an incurable disease would cause unnecessary anxiety. However, the REVEAL study helped to make APOE disclosure more widely accepted, showing that the distress of learning of increased Alzheimer’s risk is temporary.

Dr. Green has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 21 years and has published over 300 articles. He is a member of the NIH study section on Social and Ethical Issues in Research and a member of the Board of Directors of the Council for Responsible Genetics.

Dr. Green graduated from Amherst College and the University of Virginia School of Medicine before fulfilling a residency in neurology at Harvard Medical School’s Longwood Neurology Program and completing research fellowships at Beth Israel Hospital and Children’s Hospital in Boston. Before his current post, Dr. Green was on the faculty of the Emory University School of Medicine (1988-1996) and obtained an MPH (epidemiology) at Emory University. From 1999-2011, Dr. Green was on the faculty of Boston University School of Medicine, most recently as Professor of Neurology, Medicine (Genetics) and Epidemiology.