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Computational Biology, Statistics and Bioinformatics

We have cutting edge expertise in a range of statistical and mathematical modelling techniques that allow us to interrogate large data sets – from the ‘big data’ of genomics through to magnetic resonance imaging and clinical trials. We are also home to the Medical Research Council WIMM Centre for Computational Biology – a hub for accelerating progress in genomics analysis and single cell biology.

Groups within this theme

We study the molecular mechanisms involved in disease initiation and progression in the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) in order to better understand disease pathogenesis and to identify new therapeutic targets and prognostic markers for this disorder.

Boultwood Group: Blood Cancer UK Molecular Haematology Unit

We are primarily interested in understanding how the genome functions and to leverage this to develop novel genome editing based cellular therapies

Davies Group: Genomics and Clinical Genome Editing

We study the embryonic origins of blood stem cells with the aim to inform the generation of these cells in culture, and ultimate produce clinically relevant blood stem cells for therapeutic purposes.

de Bruijn Group: Developmental Haematopoiesis

We have performed a number of genome-wide association analyses and meta-analyses on different case/control phenotypes and quantitative traits. After discovering genetic loci, our main interest is to refine the locus for causal variants using different computational approaches and integrating epigenetic data. We also have experience in rare variant data analysis from whole genome sequencing data.

Goel Group: Cardiovascular genetics and bioinformatics

We use state-of-the-art laboratory and computational approaches to understand how mammalian genes are switched on and off during development and differentiation and how this goes awry in human genetic diseases.

Higgs Group: Laboratory of Gene Regulation

Using genomics, computational and synthetic biology approaches to understand how genes are regulated in health and disease.

Hughes Group: Genome Biology

Research in the Jacobsen group is focused at unravelling normal and malignant hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell biology at the single cell level.

Jacobsen Group: Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology

We would like to understand the functional and molecular mechanisms of the immune system in various immunologically important conditions such as cancer, infection, autoimmune disease as well as ageing. We have a special interest in computational cancer immunotherapy such as antigen presentation, neo-antigen identification and T cell recognition of neo-antigens as well as interrogating the immune response to personalized vaccines from neo-antigens.

Koohy Group: Machine Learning and Integrative Approaches in Immunology

The Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology (HSCB) Laboratory is focused on understanding how the normal haematopoietic stem/progenitor hierarchy is disrupted during the development of myeloid malignancies. Our overarching aim is to improve the management of myeloproliferative neoplasms and related conditions through better monitoring and therapeutic targeting of malignant stem cell populations.

Mead Group: Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology

Aberrant epigenetic changes are a driving force in many human cancers. The focus of our lab is centred on understanding how epigenetics impacts gene regulation so that this information can potentially be used to develop new therapeutic strategies.

Milne Group: Epigenetic Control of Gene Expression in Leukaemia and Haematopoiesis

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is the only stem cell therapy in routine clinical use, and it is also the cell type that gives rise to most blood cancers. We use single cell biology and genetics to understand how hematopoietic stem cells normally sustain blood formation, and how this process is altered during ageing and when leukemia develops.

Nerlov Group: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Genetics

We focus on four key areas: (1) Dissecting how blood cancers create 'self-reinforcing' niches that promote clonal expansion and protect malignant clones from immunotherapies; (2) Development and application of human bone marrow organoids to study normal and malignant haematopoiesis and validate targets in a relevant tissue microenvironment; (3) Developing novel strategies to selectively target cancer stem cells and pathological megakaryocytes in myelofibrosis, a severe bone marrow malignancy; (4) Understanding our recent discovery that platelets contain a repertoire of DNA fragments sequestered from cell free DNA, and confirming clinical utility for cancer detection and for pre-natal diagnosis.

Psaila Group: The tumour microenvironment in blood cancers

We work on circadian rhythms, and nuclear receptors applied to both inflammation and energy metabolism. Our models range from cells to human populations.

Ray Group

Combining computational biology, computational chemistry, and machine learning techniques with biological big data to unravel the higher genomic code of life.

Sahakyan Group: Integrative Computational Biology and Machine Learning

We focus on systems level “big picture” approaches to understand gene regulation and build gene regulatory networks during development and disease in zebrafish, chick, lamprey and human models.

Sauka-Spengler Group: Gene Regulatory Networks in Development and Disease

We define how the immune system functions in the intestine to promote health. We uncover the immune pathogenesis of intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease to develop better ways to treat these disorders.

Simmons Group: Intestinal Immunity in Health and Disease

We are a computational biology research group using genomic and functional genomic data to study transcriptional regulation, with projects spanning from neuroscience to musculoskeletal biology.

Sims Group: Computational Genomics

We investigate the genetic, molecular and physiological basis of endocrine disorders that affect calcium homeostasis, and endocrine tumour development. By identifying and understanding the underlying mechanisms, we aim to establish better diagnostic methods and develop novel targeted therapies for these disorders to improve patient care.

Thakker Group: Academic Endocrine Unit