An inordinate fondness for beetles, or an arms race with plants?

Are you an evolutionary biologist working with genomics data, or simply passionate about beetles? In particular, if you are a user of the OrthoDB or BUSCO SIB Resources, and would like to see them used in the context of a functional genomics study, this latest in silico talk is for you. SIB Group Leader Robert Waterhouse at the University of Lausanne takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of one of his recent papers and explains how he and his colleagues identified genomic signatures that accompanied the dietary shift to plant-feeding in beetles – thought to be a key driver of their diversification – and the associated bioinformatics workflows and resources.

About the in silico talks series – The latest in bioinformatics by SIB Scientists

The in silico talks online series aims to inform bioinformaticians, life scientists and clinicians about the latest advances led by SIB Scientists on a wide range of topics in bioinformatics methods, research and resources. Stay abreast of the latest developments, get exclusive insights into recent papers, and discover how these advances might help you in your work or research, by subscribing to the in silico talks mailing list.

Speaker

Name:

Robert Waterhouse

Institute:

University of Lausanne

Rob's undergraduate studies in Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford and biopharmaceutical work experience fostered his early interest in computational biology. Subsequent formalisation of his training through an MSc in Bioinformatics at Imperial College London equipped him with the skills necessary to pursue his doctoral studies in comparative genomics. Rob's thesis detailed the computational comparative analysis of insect genomes, focusing on the immune system of disease-vector mosquitoes. During his postdoctoral research at the University of Geneva Medical School Rob developed and supervised projects in arthropod genomics with many international collaborations, to understand principles of molecular evolution and genome biology. As a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he successfully led the comparative analysis of multiple mosquito genomes. Returning to Switzerland, Rob is developing his independent research group as a Swiss National Science Foundation Assistant Professor (Professeur boursier FNS) and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Group Leader at the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, with a focus on the comparative evolutionary and functional genomics of arthropds.