Dr Matthew Forbes
Principal Bioinformatician
Background
Undergraduate
I completed my undergraduate in Biochemistry with a year in Research at Imperial College London in 2012, during this time I performed a year long placement at Rothamstead Research.
Doctoral Studies
I then went on to a 4 year PhD at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB), a partnership between Birkbeck College and University College London. My main project was with Prof. Maya Topf and Prof. Konstantinos Thalassinos in the development of computational methods to analyse protein structure using data from a technique called Chemical Crosslinking Mass Spectrometry. In this project we published a paper in the journal Structure where we devised a methodology to use monolinks, a previously unused by-product produced in the cross-linking procedure, to score model protein structures.
Working at Sanger
I initially joined Sanger in September 2020 working primarily on data analysis on the SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance initiative (part of the Genomic Surveillance Unit – GSU). My role evolved into being more intertwinned with product development and I became involved in the production of the institute’s COVID-19 surveillance dashboard. I then became more involved in data analysis taking on responsibility for coordinating data analysis tasks related to COVID-19 withing the institute. I then began to transition to taking part in more of the acitivities of malariagen, including having an involvement in the Pf7 and Pv4.1 data releases.
My Current Role at Sanger
In September 2022 I moved into the Analysis Ready Data team in the GSU as a Senior Bioinformatician. In this role I have taken on responsibility for software development of bioinformatics pipelines related to variant identification, as well as retaining some data analysis responsibilities. In January 2023 I also took on the role of Analytical Product Owner, with responsibility to develop and coordinate analytical activities within the team.