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Richard Emes

Associate Professor in Bioinformatics, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

Contact

  • workRoom A14b Clinical Building
    Sutton Bonington Campus
    Sutton Bonington
    Leicestershire
    LE12 5RD
    UK
  • work0115 951 6583
  • fax0115 951 6415

Biography

Richard Emes is an Associate Professor in Bioinformatics at Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. Prior to moving to Nottingham he was a lecturer in the school of medicine at Keele University. He initially studied Zoology at the University of Wales (First Class, 1996) and completed a PhD in molecular parasitology (Glasgow 2000). But then undertook post-doctoral positions at Oxford University and the Sanger Institute Cambridge developing bioinformatics and comparative genomics approaches to investigate the evolution of genes and genomes. He was subsequently awarded an MRC Fellowship in Bioinformatics to study molecular evolution at University College London.

His research interests are in bioinformatics, comparative genomics and molecular evolution particularly in the fields of pathogen biology, epigenetics and neurobiology.

Emes Group Webpages and links to software

Current Group Members

  • Frank Wessely (PhD Student 2010-2013) Faculty Webpage - Bioinformatic Analysis of the Epigenome.
  • Ornampai Japa (PhD Student 2010-2013) Faculty Webpage co-supervised with Dr Robin Flynn SVMS - Identification and biological Characterization of Fasciola hepatica cytokine homologues associated with parasite evasion.
  • Maqsud Hossain (PhD Student 2011-2014) - Bioinformatic analysis of pathogen genes and genomes
  • Tom Giles (Bioinformatics Intern 2012)
  • Ishan Ajmera (Bioinformatics Intern 2012)

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Previous Group Members

  • Libin Joy MSc 2009 - A Bioinformatics approach to detect location bias in CpG island methylation related to maternal folate intake.
  • Satish Pendurthi (MSc Student 2011) - Clustering methods for epigenetic analysis.
  • Harry Clifford (Genetics Society Summer studentship 2011) - Effect of anti-epileptic drugs on fetal DNA methylation.
  • Amelia Pollard (BBSRC Research Experience Placement awardee 2011) co-supervised with Dr Lisa Chakrabarti SVMS - Does the mitochondrial proteome change according to tissue type and age?
  • Oliver Heygate (Wellcome Trust Summer studentship 2011) co-supervised with Dr Lisa Chakrabarti SVMS - Do changes occur in the mitochondrial proteome of the cerebellum as the neurons develop to maturity?

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Expertise Summary

Richard Emes is an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Science and Technology in Medicine, Keele University. He is an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Epigenomics and Frontiers in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology journals and is the Sutton Bonington Campus local representative of the Genetics Society of Great Britain. He co-convenes the year three research methods and research project modules.

University of Nottingham Expertise Guide.

Teaching Summary

Dr Emes' teaching interests are in bioinformatics, genomics, research methods and presentation of scientific data. The teaching is directly informed by the past and present research carried out by Dr… read more

Research Summary

Bioinformatics is a cohesive discipline bringing together computer science statistics and biology. I collaborate widely with experimental and computational biologists. Current areas of active… read more

Selected Publications

Dr Emes' teaching interests are in bioinformatics, genomics, research methods and presentation of scientific data. The teaching is directly informed by the past and present research carried out by Dr Emes.

Undergraduate Teaching

Veterinary Medicine BVMBVS

  • Year 1: Introduction to data presentation and numerical analysis.
  • Year 3: Veterinary Research Methods, module co-convenor.
  • Year 3: Veterinary Research Project, module convenor.
  • Embedded Module: Scientific and technical information and documentation methods, module convenor.

Postgraduate Teaching

Protein Interactions (Integrative Systems Biology MSc, University of Nottingham)

Current Research

Bioinformatics is a cohesive discipline bringing together computer science statistics and biology. I collaborate widely with experimental and computational biologists. Current areas of active research include:

i) Comparison of complex biological datasets.

Biologists are fortunate to be researching in a data rich age, where gene and genome sequences from multiple species are available and can be linked either independently or through specialist databases to data types as diverse as structure, function, expression and evolutionary history. The successful mining and combination of this data can bolster traditional bench research by providing a filter or by generation of novel avenues of research (Emes Methods Mol Biol 2008). Ongoing research involves analysis of gene and protein expression studies and whole genome comparison of the human fetal epigenome (funded by the World Cancer Research Fund see http://www.keele.ac.uk/istm/fetalepigeneticsgroup/).

ii) Comparative genomics of the mammalian synapse proteome.

Analysis of the post-synaptic proteome, a defined group of proteins with known importance in the processes of learning and memory, offers an insight into the development and evolution of the synapse, the basic building block of cognition. In collaboration with Seth Grant, The Sanger Institute, I am leading investigations into the evolutionary origin and subsequent modification of the protein networks of the mammalian synapse (Funded by the Royal Society, see Emes et al Nature Neuroscience 2008, Ryan et al BMC Neuroscience. 2008).

iii) Detection of adaptive evolution in genes and genomes.

The differential behaviour of therapeutics in varied organisms as highlighted by the disastrous effects of TGN1412 treatment during recent human drug trials has led pharmaceutical companies to re-evaluate how drug targets are selected. In collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline we have developing methods to allow the rapid identification of genes/pathways subject to differential adaptive evolution along human and experimental model organism lineages, by screening of multiple whole genome data (Vamathevan et al BMC Evol Biol 2008).

Major Collaborators:

Future Research

Bioinformatics is a fast changing discipline, my lab aims to be analyzing important and interesting findings using the latest technologies.

School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 6116
fax: +44 (0)115 951 6415
email: veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk