Section for Evolutionary Genomics

Section for Evogenomics - photo of birds

Research director of the Section for Evogenomics, Professor Tom Gilbert.

The Section for Evogenomics applies integrated ‘omics approaches, that draw principally from genomics, transcriptomics, metabarcoding, metagenomics and proteomics. The aim is to provide new (and sometimes unorthodox) solutions to classic questions concerning both ecology and evolution but also to applied topics such as biomedicine, food production and agriculture.

Research Focus

The interests of our research groups are broad, but are unified in the belief that state of the art ‘omics technologies have enormous potential to offer across the natural and applied sciences. We embrace initiatives to turn methods once highly specialised and restrictive in their application such as genomics and proteomics, into tools of widespread general relevance. In this regard, we both invest considerable effort into the standardisation and democratisation of these, but also showcase their relevance widely.

“Our group members represent a remarkably broad range of expertise, spanning genomics and the medical sciences, archaeology, ecology and even wine and cheese making, as well as the state-of-the-art infrastructure for generating and analysing massive ‘omics datasets at cost-effective prices. Thanks to this wide profile, our research has influenced many areas of science”, says Professor Tom Gilbert, Head of Section.

Publications

Link to all publications.

Main publications

Using a hologenomic framework to explain the evolution and mechanisms of obligate blood-feeding in vampire bats:
Hologenomic adaptations underlying the evolution of sanguivory in the common vampire bat

Combining archaeology and ‘omics to deconstruct how we shaped wine grapes during the past millennia:
Palaeogenomic insights into the origins of French grapevine diversity

Advocating how hologenomic frameworks can be used to optimise the production of animals:
Applied Hologenomics: Feasibility and Potential in Aquaculture

Research Groups

Studying life through the hologenomic window – how interaction between genes and microbes determine biological evolution.

Studying interactions between animals and their associated microorganisms using multi'omic methods.

The marine mammal group takes a holistic approach to understand the ecology and evolution of marine mammals.

The Cappellini Group provides innovative results in the study, diagnostics, and protection of cultural heritage collections.

The Collins Group study the survival of proteins in ancient samples and how to apply them to questions in archaeology and beyond.

Studying the molecular interactions between the microbiome domain and the respective host organisms using multi'omic methods.

Studying the microbiota-gut-brain axis in wild and model animals.

The Schroeder Group focuses primarily on the use of ancient genomics to tackle questions relating to the human past.

The focus of the Computational Biodiscovery group is artificial intelligence in life sciences and supercomputing.

The Bohmann Group use environmental DNA and high-throughput sequencing to assess biodiversity and diet.

Studying ecology and evolution of genetic and phenotypic diversification and historical biogeography in animals.

Using statistics to understand biological data, focusing on population genetics and integrative multi-omics.

Studying the effects of microbial interactions within, and among species, and between microbes and hosts.

Studying human evolution across the last 1 million years, primarily through the study of ancient proteins and associated biomolecules