Paul Thomas joins Alan Bridge in leading SIB’s largest group, based in Geneva. As a pioneer in computational biology for genomics, principal investigator of a globally important resource on gene function, and one of the world’s most highly cited researchers, his appointment further consolidates our position as a world leader in generating trustworthy, AI-ready knowledge for life science research and innovation.
Fuelling Swiss competitiveness and global progress
UniProt, GO and other resources co-developed by the Swiss-Prot team are mentioned in over 6,300 patents filed by Swiss entities – including Roche, Novartis, Nestle, EPFL, and ETH Zurich. The resources are additionally cited in over 150,000 scientific articles globally, across a large variety of life science and technology fields. UniProt also contributed to the first Nobel-winning AI model as a source of reliable training data.
See more on SIB’s contribution to the Nobel-winning AI model
Reinforcing the world’s most authoritative sources of biological knowledge
The Geneva-based Swiss-Prot group, led by Alan Bridge since 2018, develops a comprehensive suite of resources that power research and innovation by providing gold-standard data and knowledge on biological entities to scientists and AI developers. These include UniProt, the world’s most widely used source of protein information, and Rhea, a database of biochemical reactions, both of which are internationally recognized as critical for life science worldwide.
Fuelling Swiss competitiveness and global progress
UniProt, GO and other resources co-developed by the Swiss-Prot team are mentioned in over 6,300 patents filed by Swiss entities – including Roche, Novartis, Nestle, EPFL, and ETH Zurich. The resources are additionally cited in over 150,000 scientific articles globally, across a large variety of life science and technology fields. UniProt also contributed to the first Nobel-winning AI model as a source of reliable training data.
See more on SIB’s contribution to the Nobel-winning AI model
The arrival of Paul Thomas strengthens our expertise in biocuration and knowledge resource development to ensure our resources continue to meet the evolving needs of users. It also strengthens SIB’s long-standing contribution to the Gene Ontology (GO) resource, the internationally recognized gene function knowledgebase that he continues to co-lead. Efficiencies and joint projects enabled by bringing UniProt, GO, Rhea, and other resources under a common strategy will help ensure they stay up to date with the ever-growing amount of data produced – and continue to provide the foundation of responsible, reproducible AI models for drug discovery, biotechnologies, environmental protection, and more.
Paul brings a unique combination of scientific and operational leadership that will enable Swiss-Prot to reinforce and expand its globally trusted resources and partnerships.
A brief CV
- Director, Division of Bioinformatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
- Director, Gene Ontology Consortium
- Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
- Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, USA
- Director, Evolutionary Systems Biology, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, SRI International, California, USA
- Director, Protein Informatics, Celera Genomics, Maryland, USA
- Investigator, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Pennsylvania USA
- PhD in Biophysics, University of California San Francisco, USA
Bringing top US talent to SIB and Geneva
Paul Thomas, professor at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, will contribute to SIB’s mission as an advocate for high-quality, openly available data and bioinformatics tools, with much of his work available through GO and other public resources. His extensive collaborations with SIB scientists through a variety of projects and consortia give him a solid understanding of our organization.
A brief CV
- Director, Division of Bioinformatics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
- Director, Gene Ontology Consortium
- Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
- Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, USA
- Director, Evolutionary Systems Biology, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, SRI International, California, USA
- Director, Protein Informatics, Celera Genomics, Maryland, USA
- Investigator, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Pennsylvania USA
- PhD in Biophysics, University of California San Francisco, USA
Highlights from his career include:
- pioneering work on predicting functions of protein coding genes for the Human Genome Project, which was published in the paper on the first fully sequenced human genome in 2001;
- inclusion in the prestigious Highly Cited Researchers list for the past 10 years, reflecting further groundbreaking genomics contributions;
- developing global biocuration standards for annotating DNA sequences with information on gene function;
- generating the most comprehensive picture of human gene function to date, in a collaboration with members of the Swiss-Prot group published in Nature this year.
I’m thrilled to join this extraordinary team. Swiss-Prot has long been at the forefront of molecular biology knowledgebases that support scientific research worldwide. AI makes the need for reliable, accurate sources of computer-accessible knowledge even more acute, and I look forward to helping Swiss-Prot develop next-generation resources for this new era.
Stable investment needed for essential data resources
Maintaining the excellence of SIB’s indispensable life science resources requires not only scientific and operational leadership, but also long-term funding. The current uncertainty on long-term public funding rules – especially in the US – and budget constraints at the Swiss federal level need to be turned around into ambitious investments to safeguard this essential infrastructure. Switzerland’s competitiveness and international reputation depend on such action, as do collaborations and discoveries that deliver solutions to pressing health, environmental and societal challenges.
Reference(s)
Image credit: Paul Thomas
