Dr Matthieu Muffato

Informatics Infrastructure Team Lead

I lead the Informatics Infrastructure team of the Tree of Life programme, which guides the implementation and delivery of the genome assembly pipelines, and provides support for large-scale genome analyses for the Tree of Life faculty teams.

During my PhD in the Dyogen group under the supervision of Hugues Roest Crollius, I devised a method for reconstructing the gene order and the chromosome structure of extinct vertebrate species. The method was validated using simulations, and the results are available on the Genomicus browser and updated with the Ensembl releases.

I then moved to Ensembl, as a developer in the comparative-genomics team (aka Compara), and became the project leader a few years later. My initial focus was the pipeline that builds protein-trees for the Ensembl release, but over the years I worked on every pipeline, every corner of the API, and extensively contributed to the eHive workflow manager.

I joined the Sanger Institute in February 2021, to form the Informatics Infrastructure team of the Tree of Life programme. I have recruited 7 team members, with skills covering data curation & management, software development & operations, and bioinformatics.

My timeline

• Team Lead, Informatics Infrastructure, WSI, UK

• Project leader, Ensembl Comparative Genomics, EMBL-EBI, UK

• Software developer, Ensembl Comparative Genomics, EMBL-EBI, UK

• PhD, Comparative Genomics, IBENS, Paris, France

• MSc, Software Engineering, ENSIIE, Évry, France

• MSc, Bioinformatics, Évry university, France