Sims Group: Computational Genomics
We are a computational biology research group using genomic and functional genomic data to study transcriptional regulation, with projects spanning from neuroscience to musculoskeletal biology.
The human brain is one of the most complex organs in nature containing 100 billion cells and trillions of connections, all derived from a single fertilised egg. Our research group uses computational genomics approaches to study the transcriptional programmes that give rise to different brain structures and functions in a range of model organisms.
Working with Scott Waddell and Stephen Goodwin at the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (CNCB) we are using single cell sequencing and machine learning approaches to study the diversity of neurons in the brain of the fruit fly. As the fly midbrain contains only 40,000 cells modern sequencing approach can generate transcriptional data at a whole brain scale. Using these methods we are investigating the effects of thirst, hunger and learning and memory on different clusters of neurons within the brain.
We are also developing a novel lineage tracing method, Lineage-seq, to track the development of neurons within the mouse brain in collaboration with Colin Ackerman at the department of Pharmacology. This method will enable us to see for the first time the different cell types generated from different neuronal progenitor cells.
Our team
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David Sims
Associate Professor of Computational Genomics
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Charlotte George
Computational Biologist and Genomic Datascience Trainer
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Kevin Rue-Albrecht
Computational Biologist and biomedical data science trainer
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Carla Cohen
Computational Biologist
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Liezel Tamon
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGIST AND DATA SCIENCE TRAINER
Collaborators
Scott Waddell (CNCB, Oxford)
Stephen Goodwin (CNCB, Oxford))
Andrea Nemeth (NDCN, Oxford)
Esther Becker (NDCN, Oxford)
Aarti Jagannath (NDCN, Oxford)
George Tofaris (NDCN, Oxford)
Albert Basson (University of Exeter)
Sarah Snelling (Botnar Institute, Oxford)
Adam Cribbs (Botnar Institute, Oxford)
Colin Ackerman (Pharmacology, Oxford)
Tom Milne (WIMM)
David Gavaghan (Computer Science, Oxford)
Chris Ponting (University of Edinburgh)
Philipp Mergenthaler (Berlin)
John Todd (NDM, Oxford)
Lab Alumni
Nick Ilott | Steve Sansom |
Helen Knight | Ian Sudbery |
Jethro Johnson | Antonio Berlanga |
Mike Morgan | Tom Smith |
Katy Brown | Adam Cribbs |
| Kath Fawcett | Hania Pavlou |
| Martin Dienstbier | Sebastian Luna Valero |
| Andreas Heger | Devika Agarwal |
| Lucy Garner | Lena Morrill Gavarro |
| Lukas Lange | Heather Jeffery |
| Jack Gordon |