We are EMBL: Anu Shivalikanjli

Anu Shivalikanjli’s journey into bioinformatics began in India, took her to Spain for a PhD, and eventually brought her to the UK, where she has spent the past six years at EMBL-EBI. Today, she is part of the Samples, Phenotypes and Ontologies team, helping coordinate complex datasets so they can be openly accessed, shared, and built upon by the global scientific community.

Tell me about your background.

I grew up in India, where I studied bioinformatics and first became interested in working with biological data using computational methods. That interest grew during my PhD in Spain, where I focused on human psychiatric genetics using bioinformatics tools. 

After completing my doctorate, I joined EMBL-EBI. Over the past six years, I have taken on different roles. I started as a Postdoctoral Fellow, analysing genetic variation in mouse genomes.

Working with different teams during that time gave me a much broader view of the work happening here. It also helped me understand where my skills could make the most impact. I am now part of the Samples, Phenotypes and Ontologies team, managing large-scale data and thinking about the infrastructure and technology we need to support it.

Tell me about your work at EMBL-EBI.

A big part of our work is making sure that data generated by research labs does not remain isolated. We manage large-scale data from research groups and laboratories, ensuring data are ingested, stored, and distributed for long-term use. We do this by guaranteeing that the data respects the FAIR principles: making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

One example of our work is the MorPhiC project, which focuses on stem cell research. Our role is to manage the data generated across multiple labs and its flow through the MorPhiC data portals. I also contributed to EMBL-EBI’s Antimicrobial resistance portal, where we standardised antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data from multiple sources. AMR is a growing global threat, so having well-structured data is essential for researchers trying to address it.

Why is this work important?

Research labs usually focus on experimental design and data generation. At EMBL-EBI, we make sure that work does not stop there and that the value of data continues to grow. We harmonise diverse datasets and metadata, making research data accessible, reusable and interoperable with other relevant datasets whenever possible. 

We also use standardised pipelines to integrate the data and provide a better overview of human biology. 

Researchers can then can access data generated by other labs, saving significant time and effort, as they no longer need to recreate existing data.

What brought you to EMBL-EBI?

I was already familiar with EMBL-EBI during my studies, using tools such as BLAST and ClustalW, and databases like PDB. EMBL-EBI felt like the “Google for bioinformatics” to me. 

After my PhD, I wanted to continue in research, and EMBL-EBI stood out for its cutting-edge genomics work and focus on large-scale data. I was especially interested in how biological data, often coming from many different sources, is generated, managed, and shared with the wider community.

I joined as a postdoc in the Keane group, where I worked on computational comparative genomics in mouse.

How did you decide that you want to stay and become part of an EMBL-EBI services team?

During my postdoc, I worked with large-scale data for my own research, but I became increasingly interested in how data could be made available to others. When the opportunity came up to join a services team, it felt like a natural next step and a good fit for my interests and skills. 

Working in a services team gave me insight into how EMBL-EBI manages biomolecular data at scale. I found it fascinating to learn about the tools and systems used to ingest and present such large and diverse volumes of data.

Fun facts about you and what you like to do in your spare time. 

I enjoy hiking with my dog Olly, especially along the coast where I can just walk for miles. It is a great way to switch off and recharge.

I am also involved in public engagement with Wellcome Connecting Science and EMBL-EBI. I speak with children and adults about what we do and why it matters. Hands-on activities like extracting DNA from strawberries are always a crowd favourite and a fun way to spark curiosity in science.

I also volunteer with the Inspiring Women Network, to make activities more accessible, whether through data initiatives or wellbeing activities like yoga, so more people can get involved.