Tree of Life Core Laboratory Team

Tree of Life Programme

The Core Laboratory team provides molecular biology support for all projects within the Tree of Life Programme.

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The Tree of Life Core Laboratory provides the wet lab molecular biology heart of the Tree of Life Genome Assembly Engine. The team works across all of the projects within the Tree of Life Programme, supporting Faculty Teams, providing secure sample flow into Scientific Operations, and continuously improving processes via R&D projects large and small.

The team is responsible for working with samples that have been collected by all of the varied partners and collaborators, extracting high molecular weight DNA and RNA, providing robust quality control and processing, and feeding this through to various sequencing platforms in order to generate the data required for reference level genome assembly.

The team has developed routine processes that can be applied at scale to an extremely large range of organisms, and are continuing to develop ever more refined methods for those taxonomic groups that provide more challenge.

Core team

Photo of Dr Amy Denton

Dr Amy Denton

Advanced Research Assistant

Photo of Mr Benjamin Jackson

Mr Benjamin Jackson

Advanced Research Assistant

Photo of Dr Abitha Thomas

Dr Abitha Thomas

Scientific Manager

Previous core team members

Photo of Clare Cornwell

Clare Cornwell

Quality Officer

Photo of Liam Prestwood

Liam Prestwood

Scientific Manager

Photo of Edel Sheerin

Edel Sheerin

Technical Specialist 

Photo of Dr Michelle Strickland

Dr Michelle Strickland

Senior Research Assistant

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