Meet the Wellcome Sanger R&D leaders and team members.
From challenging samples and complex taxa to breakthrough methods and scalable workflows, this team is helping define what it takes to process difficult genomes at scale.
Dr. Harris Lewin, co-founder of the Earth BioGenome Project and Chair of the EBP Executive Council.
Leading R&D at scale
Caroline Howard and Graeme Oatley
How the team balances innovation, production, and the next generation of biodiversity genomics challenges.
The Tree of Life R&D team is not organized only around machines or protocols. Its structure reflects a practical reality: different branches of life fail in different ways.
Caroline Howard and Graeme Oatley help guide the team's taxon-focused R&D, making sure that experimental methods can eventually become reliable production workflows. This means identifying where a problem is specific to one sample, where it reflects a broader taxonomic pattern, and when a method is ready to move out of R&D and into routine use.
Graeme brings deep experience in DNA extraction, sample preparation, workflow optimization, and troubleshooting difficult taxa. Together, Caroline and Graeme help bridge the gap between bespoke problem-solving and large-scale genome production.
They are also involved in one of the next major challenges for biodiversity genomics: reducing dependence on cold-chain logistics. Many current workflows still rely on flash-frozen samples and uninterrupted freezer storage. Developing reliable room-temperature preservation methods could make sequencing more accessible in regions where biodiversity is high but cold-storage infrastructure is limited, helping move biodiversity genomics into new parts of the world.
Mark's first forays into genomics were in the days of expressed sequence tag sequencing, which entailed many hours in the lab picking transformed E. coli clones containing cDNAs into microtitre plates to be grown up, extracted and sequenced.
Arthropods
Anna Kovalevskaia, Research Scientist
Arthropods are among the more scalable groups in biodiversity genomics, especially insects such as butterflies and moths. Many Lepidoptera now move successfully through automated extraction and sequencing workflows, representing one of the clearest examples of a taxonomic group transitioning from specialist troubleshooting into routine production.
That does not mean all arthropods are easy. Rare species, tiny insects, poorly preserved material, contaminated samples, repetitive genomes, and very low DNA yields can still require specialist R&D support.
The challenge is knowing when a group is ready for production and when it still needs careful troubleshooting. The success of Lepidoptera workflows reflects years of iterative development, refinement, and testing before they could be handed off to larger-scale production systems.
Prof. Bouabid Badaoui is a Full Professor of Genetics at Mohammed V University (Morocco) and Chair of the Africa BioGenome Project. His work focuses on animal genomics, biodiversity, and the application of sequencing technologies to understand adaptation in extreme environments. He leads initiatives on camel and goat genomics in arid regions, bridging fieldwork, genomics, and data science. His research aims to support sustainable livestock systems and biodiversity conservation across Africa.
Kerstin Howe, Head of Production Genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Kerstin Howe: I’m a computational biologist working in the Tree of Life Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where we are generating the highest-quality chromosomally resolved biodiversity assemblies at scale for a variety of projects, e.g. the Darwin Tree of Life Project, Project Psyche, the Vertebrate Genomes Project, the Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics Project, and the Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability, all under the umbrella of the EBP. My focus is on helping to create a platform that provides genomic data of the highest quality, accessible and free to all, to support planetary and thereby human health.
As the Head of Production Genomics, I look after the wet lab and informatics processes. These include the teams responsible for sample preparation and nucleic acid extraction, assembly generation, curation and analysis, data tracking, curation and visualisation, as well as IT infrastructure development and maintenance. The production work is accompanied by extensive R&D to ensure all processes are cutting edge. We are generating assemblies and assembly analyses to the highest quality and at a world-leading pace, currently releasing a genome assembly every 6 hours.
Within the EBP, I am the chair of the International Scientific Committee, supporting the scientific subcommittees in their work defining standards and providing recommendations. I am also still chairing the Sequencing and Assembly subcommittee, but am looking to pass this on to a successor soon.
Amy Denton, Technical Specialist in the Tree of Life Core Laboratory at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Amy Denton is a Technical Specialist at the Tree of Life Core Laboratory at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, performing sample homogenisation, high molecular weight DNA extractions and DNA fragmentation in preparation for both PacBio and ONT sequencing for reference genome generation. She primarily processes the vertebrate species for the Tree of Life Programme, however she also works on species which require DNA extraction R&D such as jellyfish and isopods. With degrees in Zoology and Veterinary Medicine, and experience in high-throughput lab work and automation in COVID-19 laboratories during the pandemic, Amy was drawn to this work as it enabled her to combine her passion for wildlife and research.
Giulio Formenti leads research in telomere-to-telomere genome assembly, comparative genomics, and AI-assisted genome curation.
Giulio Formenti is Research Assistant Professor at The Rockefeller University, Co-Director and Bioinformatics Lead of the Vertebrate Genome Laboratory, Chair of the Assembly Group for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) and member of the same working group for the Earth BioGenome Project. His research focuses on developing technologies and analytical frameworks for telomere-to-telomere genome assembly, comparative genomics, and AI-assisted genome curation. He is particularly interested in how complete reference genomes can unlock previously inaccessible biology and enable a new era of biodiversity genomics. Recently, he has been leading the flagship study for VGP Phase I, as well as the assembly and study of the first truly T2T bird genome.
Tara Paton, a manager in TCAG's NGS Sequencing Facility.
Tara Paton manages Genetic Analysis and Sequencing core facilities at The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. TCAG is the Toronto node of CGEn, a federally funded national platform for genome sequencing and analysis. In addition to supporting the Canadian BioGenome Project, TCAG works with hundreds of investigators each year on genomics research across a wide range of fields, including human disease and basic research. Tara is drawn to biodiversity genomics in part because her graduate work focused on avian molecular evolution, bringing her back to her scientific roots. She is also motivated by the belief that sequencing non-human genomes will deepen our understanding of genomics and ultimately contribute to breakthroughs in human biology and disease.
Kamil Jaron, Group Leader in the Tree of Life Programme, studies the interplay between reproduction and genome evolution in flies.
Kamil Jaron is a group leader at the Tree of Life. His research focuses on understanding the interplay of reproduction and genome evolution in flies. His favourite creatures to sequence are collembola and diptera.
