Early Life Microbiomes and Longer-Term Outcomes

Dr Trevor Lawley explains how his team uses data-driven and hypothesis-driven approaches to investigate the human microbiome and translate their findings into medicines and diagnostics. The lab uses (meta)genomic analysis, genetics, mouse and cellular models, microbial culturing, transcriptomics, proteomics and machine learning to understand how healthy and disease resistant microbiomes develop, and discover the microbiome’s effects on a range of developmental disorders, diseases and poorly understood syndromes.

Dr Trevor Lawley is a Faculty and Senior Group Leader of the Host-Microbiota Interactions Lab (www.lawleylab.com) at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Founding Chief Scientific Officer of biotech company Microbiotica (www.microbiotica.com).

Q&A with
Dr Trevor Lawley

The Q&A session with Dr Trevor Lawley was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

High Throughput Spatial Genomics

Spatial genomics, a new frontier in molecular biology, aims to assay the genomic information of single cells within their native tissue environment.

Omer Bayraktar describes this new initiative at the Sanger Institute which combines high-throughput sequencing and microscopy to generate spatial genomic data at scale. His ambition is to harness these technologies towards building 3D cellular atlases of human tissues and analysing hundreds of patient tissue samples.

Dr Bayraktar is a group leader in the Sanger Institute’s Cellular Genetics Programme.

Q&A with
Dr Omer Bayraktar

The Q&A session with Dr Omer Bayraktar was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Mapping tissues in vivo and in vitro one cell at a time

Tissue microenvironment shapes cellular identity and function, understanding how this happens in vivo can help us engineer novel in vitro models.

Dr Roser Vento-Tormo’s research is focused on the adaptation of immune cells in tissues and their function in steady state and inflammation. Her team uses genomics, spatial transcriptomics and bioinformatics tools to reconstruct the microenvironment that will shape immune cellular identity and function. Dr Vento-Tormo is a group leader in the Sanger Institute’s Cellular Genetics Programme.

Q&A with
Dr Roser Vento-Tormo

The Q&A session with Dr Roser Vento-Tormo was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Inner evolution: How cancer associated mutants colonise our tissues and what we can do about it.

Ageing human tissues are colonized by mutants linked to cancer, understanding how this happens points to ways we can get rid of mutant cells and cut cancer risk. Professor Phil H Jones is a senior group leader in the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme

Q&A with
Professor Phil H Jones

The Q&A session with Professor Phil H Jones was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

The genetic basis of common traits and diseases

Find out how the human genome influences the risk of common diseases in the UK population. Professor Nicole Soranzo, a group leader at the Sanger Institute, seeks to unravel the spectrum of human genetic variation associated with cardiometabolic diseases.

Q&A with
Professor Nicole Soranzo

The Q&A session with Professor Nicole Soranzo, a group leader at the Sanger Institute was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

The causes and consequences of new mutations in humans

Find out what factors influence how much DNA mutates from one generation to the next, and what the disease consequences of these mutations can be. Professor Matthew Hurles, Head of the Human Genetics Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute outlines his research and discoveries.

Q&A with
Professor Matthew Hurles

The Q&A session with Professor Matthew Hurles, Head of the Human Genetics Programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office).

Functional genomic approaches to guide cancer drug discovery

Dr Mathew Garnett, a Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, outlines how he and his team investigate genetic alterations – their contribution to cancer development and their impact on patient responses to anti-cancer medicines.

Q&A with
Dr Mathew Garnett

The Q&A session with Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Comprehensive genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK

Dr Jeff Barrett is Director the Wellcome Sanger Institute COVID-19 Genomics Initiative.

Hear how the Sanger Institute has sequenced more than 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes, and how the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium is using the data for surveillance, including the discovery and spread of the B.1.1.7 variant.

Q&A with
Dr Jeff Barrett

The Q&A session with Dr Jeff Barrett, Director the Wellcome Sanger Institute COVID-19 Genomics Initiative was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Dissecting the function of genetic variants associated with immune diseases

Dr Gosia Trynka is Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Experimental Science Director of Open Targets.

In her talk, Gosia describes how she uses genomics to identify cellular pathways and molecular targets that have been affected in immune diseases to develop new treatments and diagnostics.

Q&A with
Dr Gosia Trynka

The Q&A session with Dr Gosia Trynka, Group Leader in the Human Genetics Programme, at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Experimental Science Director at Open Targets was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Charting the evolutionary journey towards malaria elimination

Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski is Head of the Parasites and Microbes research programme at the Sanger Institute.

In his talk, Dominic describes how he uses genomics to probe the ongoing evolutionary arms race between parasites, mosquitoes and human populations that are afflicted by malaria, and how this knowledge can be translated into new strategies for combatting drug and insecticide resistance.

Q&A with
Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski

The Q&A session with Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, who leads the Parasites and Microbes research Programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Busy ’bout the tree of life: What telomere-to-telomere genome sequences tell us about global biodiversity

Professor Mark Blaxter leads the Tree of Life Programme which has as an overarching goal the sequencing to high quality of all species on Earth.

Discover how he and his colleagues are using genomics to:

• understand the deep roots of biodiversity,
• delve into the unique biology of threatened organisms and
• provide tools for conservation and mitigation of climate change and other threats.

Q&A with
Professor Mark Blaxter

The Q&A session with Professor Mark Blaxter, who leads the Tree of Life Programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)

Stratifying sepsis patients through transcriptomic profiling

Dr Emma Davenport, Group Leader in the Human Genetics Programme at the Sanger Institute discussed somatic mutations, and how her research team is using gene expression data to understand how individuals respond to sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by the dysregulated host response to infection.

Q&A with Dr Emma Davenport

The Q&A session with Dr Emma Davenport, Group Leader in the Human Genetics Programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Somatic mutations in normal tissues

Dr Peter Campbell, Head of Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation programme at the Sanger Institute discussed somatic mutations, and how researchers are characterising the landscape of mutations in cells to provide insights into normal tissue development and maintenance, cancer evolution, diseases other than cancer, and ageing.

Q&A with Dr Peter Campbell

The Q&A session with Dr Peter Campbell, Head of Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)

Human Cell Atlas: Mapping the body one cell at a time

The Human Cell Atlas is an ambitious global initiative aiming to create a comprehensive reference map of all human cells—the fundamental units of life—as a basis understanding human health and diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.

In this talk Dr Sarah Teichmann explains how the Human Cell Atlas is providing unprecedented understanding of human cells and tissue architecture in health and disease including reproductive biology, auto-immune disease and Covid-19 infection.

Q&A with Dr Sarah Teichmann

The Q&A session with Dr Sarah Teichmann, Head of the Cellular Genetics research programme, was hosted by the Sanger Institute’s:

• Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader (from the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation research programme)
• Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader (from the Cellular Genetics research programme)
• Dr Julia Wilson, Associate Director (from the Director’s Office)