I joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2006, as a member of the Human and Vertebrate Analysis and Annotation (HAVANA) group. Undertaking gene annotation of the human and mouse genomes, I have gained considerable expertise in genome analysis, contributing towards the GENCODE gene set. I am particularly interested in the transcription of long noncoding RNAs, which despite their functional potential, remain poorly defined within the genome. In 2017, the HAVANA group moved to the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and I continue to be associated with gene annotation as a visiting scientist.
Participating in the EUCOMM and KOMP high-throughput gene knockout programmes from an early stage, I have led the conditional design process, targeting the majority of mouse protein coding genes. I continue to be involved in gene editing at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, including high-throughput targeting of human ES cells and the generation of bespoke mouse models using a range of CRISPR-Cas9 strategies.