Greg Matera graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1984, majoring in Chemistry and MCD Biology. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Davis, where he studied the transcription and transposition of repetitive DNA elements in higher primates. Dr. Matera completed his postdoctoral studies at Yale University in the Departments of Genetics and Molecular Biochemistry & Biophysics, where he worked on the subcellular organization and function of RNA processing factors.

Greg began his independent career at Case Western Reserve University in 1994 as an Assistant Professor, rising through the ranks to Professor in 2005.  In 2007, he joined the faculty of the   University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the rank of Professor.  Dr. Matera currently holds appointments at UNC in the Departments of Biology (College of Arts & Sciences) and Genetics (School of Medicine). He is a member of the UNC Program in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology and is Director of its Animal Models of Human Disease Initiative.  Dr. Matera is also a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, the Developmental Biology Training Program and the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program.

His honors include a postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund, a Basil O'Connor Scholar Award from the March of Dimes, a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society and a Journal of Cell Biology lectureship from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zellbiologie. Dr. Matera is an active member of the RNA Society, the American Society for Cell Biology and the Genetics Society of America. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the journals Chromosoma and Molecular Biology of the Cell.