Dr James Cotton

Senior Staff Scientist

I'm involved in a range of projects across a diverse array of parasitic species, including nematodes, schistosomes and kinetoplastids. I play a leading role in a number of de novo genome sequencing projects, but particularly focus on projects with a strong comparative or population genomics component.

My research at the Sanger Institute is on evolutionary genomics of parasites, and particularly on parasites that cause neglected tropical diseases. This work covers a wide range of organisms from parasitic protozoa such as Leishmania to complex multicellular helminths, but they are united by a strong emphasis on either comparative or population genomic questions.

I studied biology at Oxford, and then did a PhD on gene family evolution with Rod Page at the University of Glasgow, followed by post-docs at the Natural History Museum in London and at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, working on various topics in phylogenetics and molecular evolution. I was subsequently an RCUK Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London for three years before joining the parasite genomics group in 2010.

My timeline

• Joined Parasite Genomics group

• moved to RCUK academic fellowship at Queen Mary, University of London

• awarded PhD, University of Glasgow

• graduated with a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford