Profile: Dr. Mick Watson

Mick Watson is an established bioinformatician, with 15 years’ experience in industry and academia. He was involved in the implementation and management of pipelines for functional genomics at GlaxoWellcome, SNP discovery at Incyte Genomics and Target Discovery at Paradigm Therapeutics, before joining the Institute for Animal Health as Head of Bioinformatics in 2002. He joined The Roslin Institute in 2010 and was Director of ARK-Genomics between 2010 and 2013. Mick recently became Head of Bioinformatics at Edinburgh Genomics (formed by a merger of ARK-Genomics with The GenePool). He has won several grants to create a bioinformatics research group allied to Edinburgh's next-generation sequencing facilities. His group's research focuses on the use of computational and mathematical techniques to understand genome function with an emphasis on systems of relevance to animal health and food security. He has authored and co-authored over 60 peer reviewed publications, including both primary bioinformatics research papers and collaborative research in a variety of technical and scientific journals. The outputs from his research have included novel algorithm development, as well as the application of bioinformatics techniques to a range of problems in animal health and food security.  Mick runs a bioinformatics and genomics research group with funding from BBSRC, TSB and Biosciences KTN, and has an established track record in applied research – current collaborations are in place with Genus, a large animal genetics and breeding company; Zoetis, the largest global animal health company; Ingenza, a small biotechnology company; Roche/Nimblegen, a genomics technology and sequence capture company; and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), an innovative nanopore sequencing company based in Oxford.