About us People & groups

The non-vertebrate genomics group, led by Dr Paul Kersey, develops Ensembl Genomes and related resources. Ensembl Genomes provides portals for bacteria, protists, fungi, plants and invertebrate metazoa, offering access to genome-scale data through a set of programmatic and interactive interfaces, exploiting developments originating in the vertebrate-focused Ensembl project. Our major areas of interest include broad-range comparative genomics and the visualisation and interpretation of genomic variation, which is being increasingly studied in species throughout the taxonomy. Even small communities with little informatics infrastructure can now perform highly complex and data generative experiments, once the sole domain of large, internationally coordinated sequencing projects. Through collaborating with the EBI and re-using our established toolset, such small communities can store, analyse and disseminate data more cheaply and powerfully than if they develop their own tools. The Non-vertebrate genomics team collaborates closely with VectorBase, a resource focused on the annotation of invertebrate vectors; WormBase, a resource for nematode biology; and PomBase, focused on the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Plant science collaborations include Gramene in the US and several European groups in the transPLANT project. We have developed PhytoPath, a new portal for plant pathogen data, and are involved in the development of Microme, a resource for bacterial metabolic pathways.