Bioinformatics and Health Data science group
People
The Brookeslab includes interdisciplinary expertise in genetics, computer science, biotechnology, mathematics and statistics. The group’s core activities are focussed on Health Data Science, including bioinformatics, statistics, network modelling and machine learning with computer vision. This is supported by extensive experience in full stack web development, software development, implementation and security. Privacy technologies and information governance provide a robust underpinning to our work.
Professor Anthony Brookes
Bioinformatics Group Lead
Professor Anthony Brookes has a long and distinguished record of innovation and leadership in human disease genetics and health data science. He co-founded both the Human Variome Project and the Human Genome Variation Society, and continues to shape the field through leadership roles in large international research programs (tackling dementia and rare disease) and as part of global standards initiatives (e.g., within the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, and the European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure). He also contributes his expertise to several UK and international expert advisory groups, journals and funders.
At the University of Leicester, Professor Brookes serves as Associate Director of the Midlands Substantive Site for Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK). His current research focuses on knowledge management that bridges the gap between research and healthcare - particularly through enabling responsible discovery and access of extant data and samples for research.
Professor Brookes has been instrumental in a number of impactful innovations, including:
- Development of standards such as ADA-M, Beacon and DUC/CCE
- Creation of the widely-applicable Café Variome software for federated discovery
- >Co-Leadership (with Gate Ventures) in developing the Technical Hub (a federated catalogue and data analysis environment) for IHI’s European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases
His scientific achievements span decades and include the discovery of the TUF phenomenon (which severely hinders DNA denaturation); co-discovery of several disease genes, including PSEN1 linked to Alzheimer’s Disease; and the invention of advanced genomic technologies such as:
- DASH (Dynamic Allele-Specific Hybridisation)
- Megaplex-PCR
- Hybridisation-enrichment methods for large-scale genetic analysis
Beyond academia, Professor Brookes has co-founded two bioscience SMEs, filed several patents, and actively participates in numerous EU, IHI/IMI, and national research consortia, further amplifying the impact of his work on global health and innovation.
Dr Spencer Gibson
Research Associate
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons.) Biotechnoogy (De Montfort)
- Ph.D (University of Nottingham)
Interests
- Development of intuitive metadata standards to capture use conditions associated with bio-resource
- Use of sensitive personal data via appropriate data governance, ethics and safeguards
- Multimedia communication of research.
- The use of consumer GPT LLM systems to mine text information relating to the responsible use of bio resources.
- Applied molecular biology
Information
Risha Jadeja
Project Manager
Qualifications
- BA(Hons) Business Information & Systems
- ILM 5 Coaching and Mentoring
- Maternity Coach
Interest
- Travelling
- Volunteering
- Spending time with family and friends
Umar Riaz
Research Software Engineer
Qualification
- Master in Advanced Software Engineering (University of Leicester)
- BS(Hons). Computing (University of Gujrat Pakistan)
Interests
- Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
- Open-Source Contributions
- Data Gathering, Visualisation and Discovery
- Trading
- Travel
- Photography
Information
Yunze Wang (Patrick)
Research Software Engineer
Qualifications
- BSc at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Computer Science
- MSc at University of Leicester, Advanced Computer Science
Interests
- Full stack development
- Protocol and architecture research
- Embedded and hardware development
Sai Anuhya Nalagandla
Research Software Engineer
Qualifications
- B Tech (India)
- MSc Advanced Computer Science (University of Leicester)
Interests
- DevOps,
- Software development
- Travelling
Deepthi Vettipuzha Sukumaran,
Research Software Support Officer
Qualifications
- BTech in Computer Science and Engineering
- MSc Advanced Computer Science (University of Leicester)
Interests
- Full Stack web development
- Data Analysis
- Machine Learning
Collaborator: Dr Tim Beck
Lecturer
Qualifications
- BSc (Leeds)
- MRes (Leeds)
- PhD (Sussex)
Interests
Semantics to connect health-related research big data.