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Every cell of every living thing contains its genome, a chemical molecule that contains the coded instructions for building a new copy of that living thing.  Copies of the genome are passed on from parents to children, and sometimes there are small differences — mutations.

Because of mutations, different things’ genomes are all little different:  two humans will have very similar genomes, but even very different creatures’ (like humans’ and birds’) genomes can be compared and similar parts found.

My work is to use mathematical methods and computer programs to do these comparisons.  We can learn about the evolutionary relationships of the creatures from their genomes (questions like, “are humans more closely related to chimpanzees, or to gorillas?”), and we can also learn about what different parts of the genome are for (e.g., “does this gene have something to do with the way humans react to a virus?”).

I work in a team of people who have University degrees in mathematics, computer science, biology and biochemistry.  Between us, we have a lot of different skills that we combine to find new solutions to problems in understanding genomes.

As well as my scientific research, I take care of the students who are studying at our Institute and I am on one of the Institute’s management committees.  So a typical day probably includes one or two meetings about those things, talking to the students about how to make their studies easier or planning how to develop our Institute’s work.

Once that’s out of the way, I spend too much time answering e-mails, and not enough time thinking about new scientific ideas.  At the moment, I am preparing a presentation on some of the new ideas two of my students have been working on.