We work on projects that involve RNA analysis, the analysis of genome variation and the benchmarking of bioinformatic software tools. We spend a lot of resources analysing large and complex datasets that have been generated with next-generation sequencing technology. We are involved with comparative analyses of genomic, transcriptomic and transposon mutagenesis screens. We are very interested in predicting the phenotypic consequences of genetic variation and are developing tools to do this. We are looking at the relationship between mRNA abundance and protein abundance and ways to infer the mechanisms for when these are not related.

Databases  Rfam – the RNA families database RMfam – the RNA motif families database Datasets AREBA – RNAseq datasets and analysis tools for bacteria and archaea Bird ncRNAs –  annotations and analysis results for 48 bird genomes BRalibase – datasets for benchmarking bioinformatic tools for RNA analysis  Metabenchmark – datasets for benchmarking metagenome analysis tools    Education RNA informatics block course Seminar and lecture slides

Software TIsigner & SoDope design optimised mRNA sequences for expression and solubility RNIE – an annotation tool for bacterial Rho independent terminators RMfam – annotate RNA structure motifs in alignments and genomes Ribo – an RNA alignment game, Candy Crush with a purpose (developed in collaboration with Jérôme Waldispühl) MASTR – Multiple Alignment of STructural RNA Crowd-sourcing science CompBio, MCB, NZ and RNA wikiprojects –  communities of Wikipedian collaborators RNA families @ RNA Biology – a publication track dedicated to new and updated RNA families

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Funding

Our research is funded by generous support from a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, MBIE Smart Ideas, The Marsden Fund, The Bio-Protection CoRE and The Biomolecular Interaction Centre.