PhD John Michael Hancock
no.: 55087

During my career my interests evolved from biochemistry to bioinformatics and evolutionary biology. My interest in bioinformatics took off when I was first exposed to readily available software in the mid 1980s. A lot of my career has focussed on the evolutionary dynamics of repetitive sequences, starting with ribosomal RNAs then moving on to genomic sequences and proteins. Highlights include the discovery of compensatory slippage in RNA evolution and the association of amino acid repeats with unstructured regions of proteins. When I moved to MRC Harwell in 2002 I became interested in the relationship between genotype and phenotype with an emphasis on semantic encoding of phenotype using ontologies. Since leaving Harwell I have been engaged with science policy (at BBSRC) and bioinformatics infrastructure (in ELIXIR-UK and ELIXIR). In my association with the University of Ljubljana I have consolidated links with ELIXIR, including leading the new Systems Biology Community and supported Slovenia's involvement in B1MG and the European Genomic Data Infrastructure.