Australia
July 27, 2009
Appointment boosts CSIRO
bioinformatics research
A
respected researcher in the field of bioinformatics, Dr Lars
Jermiin, has been appointed CEO Science Leader of the Genome
Bioinformatics team at
CSIRO
Entomology.
“Bioinformatics, the interface between computing and biology, is
a fast growing field and Dr Jermiin’s appointment is part of
CSIRO’s move to build its skills base in genome bioinformatics,”
CSIRO Entomology’s Chief, Dr Mark Lonsdale said.
“Given Dr Jermiin’s experience and research excellence, we are
excited about what he brings to our research in genome
bioinformatics.”
Dr Jermiin’s research interests range widely from questions on
the origin and evolution of life and the mechanisms that govern
the evolution of genes and genomes, to questions on how to
extract valuable information from the genomes of microbes,
plants and animals, including the cotton bollworm – an important
worldwide crop pest.
Using his knowledge of how organisms are related and how their
genomes have evolved, Dr Jermiin aims to improve our
understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes at the
molecular level and, ultimately, to engineer enzymes and other
organic compounds for use in the pharmaceutical, agriculture and
energy industries.
“The availability of completely sequenced genomes from a variety
of species provides us with a tremendous opportunity to increase
our understanding of biodiversity at a molecular level as well
as of the evolutionary processes that led to this diversity,” Dr
Jermiin said.
“With this information, we will be able to manage our resources
better and to engineer novel enzymes and other molecules that
are useful from a biotechnological or pharmaceutical
perspective.”
Dr Jermiin takes a cross-disciplinary approach to his research
and collaborates with leading mathematicians, statisticians and
computational scientists around the world.
“It is at the interface of the life sciences, statistics,
mathematics and computational sciences where the greatest
potential for discovery and innovation lies,” Dr Jermiin said.
“My team has already developed several statistical methods and
computer programs for comparative and evolutionary studies of
genomics data. Our bioinformatics tools help us to gain a better
understanding of the diversity of functions that their genes
encode.”
Dr Jermiin comes to CSIRO from the University of Sydney where he
was an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
He did his undergraduate studies in Denmark and his PhD at La
Trobe University. His position is funded by the CSIRO Office of
the Chief Executive Science Team. |
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