Joseph Ecker is professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory. He is the director of the Genomic Analysis Laboratory, Salk International Council Chair in Genetics, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His current research focuses on genomic and epigenomic regulation in plants and mammals and the application of DNA sequencing technologies for genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation, chromatin conformation, transcription, and gene function in single cells.