Comparative Genomics

At the interface of biology and computer science, we seek to better understand evolutionary and functional relationships between genes, genomes and species. Key underlying questions are:

1. How can we extrapolate current biological knowledge, concentrated in a few model organisms, to the rest of life?
2. Conversely, how can we exploit the wealth and diversity of life to better grasp an organism of interest?
3. How to devise methods that get more accurate with more data?

Our activities are divided between bioinformatics methods and resource development, and their application – typically with experimentalists.

The group develops the SIB Resource OMA browser, part of the SwissOrthology one-stop shop for orthology, the Phylo.io tree viewer, and the ALF genome evolution simulator.