Ross A. Poché, Ph.D.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at Baylor College of Medicine. For the past 25 years, I have used mouse genetics and molecular biology to investigate the mechanisms of gene regulation that influence development of the brain, eye and craniofacial skeleton.

As one in a set of identical triplets—essentially a genetic clone of my brothers—genetics has always interested me and likely shaped my career path. Meeting me and “my clones” would reveal that a naturally occurring genetic experiment is unfolding. Despite sharing an identical DNA sequence, we are very different individuals. For instance, although we all work in academia, one of my brothers is a visual artist, while I can barely draw a stick figure. The other is a fiction writer, whereas I focus on writing factual accounts of biological discoveries. Clearly, we are more than just our genetic code. This underscores the significance of gene regulation—my chosen field of study—in shaping individual identity beyond our static genome.