Professor Chris Ponting
Group Leader

Background
Professor Chris Ponting is Chair of Medical Bioinformatics and a Principal Investigator at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer. Chris started his research in particle physics before moving via biophysics to bioinformatics and genomics. Aside from one year at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NIH, Bethesda, MD), he pursued his research at the University of Oxford before moving to Edinburgh in 2016. His research group has made substantial contributions to protein science, evolutionary biology, genetics and genomics. Early in his career he discovered many important protein domain families. He then provided the first evolutionary analyses for mammalian genomes whilst leading protein analysis teams for the human and mouse genome sequencing projects. More recently, his research established that 8.2% of the human genome is constrained, and thus is likely functional.
Chris has been on Editorial Boards of Genome Research, Genome Biology, Human Molecular Genetics, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, and Trends in Genetics, and was a Senior Editor of eLife until 2015. He served as Program Committee member for the CSHL Biology of Genomes, American Society of Human Genetics and Genome Science conferences.He was Head of the UK Node of ELIXIR and Chair of EMBL-EBI’s External Training Advisory Group and founded CGAT (www.cgat.org), an MRC-funded training centre. Professor Ponting is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
Qualifications
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Bachelor 1986, B.A. (2:1, Hons., physics), University of Oxford, UK
- Masters 1988, M.Sc. (1, physics), University of British Columbia, Canada
- Doctoral 1991, Doctor of Philosophy (biophysics), DPhil, University of Oxford
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An ependymal cell atlas reveals heterogeneous ongoing cell maturation in the adult mouse spinal cord that is dynamically regulated by injury
In:
Molecular Cell
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
OAF: a new member of the BRICHOS family
(5 pages)
In:
Bioinformatics Advances, vol. 2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbac087
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
DecodeME: Community recruitment for a large genetics study of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome
In:
Bmc neurology
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
The genetics of ME: a commentary on Hajdarevic et al
In:
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2022.06.008
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (E-pub ahead of print) -
Genome-Wide Analysis of Human Long Noncoding RNAs: A Provocative Review
In:
Annual review of genomics and human genetics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-112921-123710
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Mapping the developing human cardiac endothelium at single cell resolution identifies MECOM as a regulator of arteriovenous gene expression
In:
Cardiovascular Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac023
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Citrullination Was Introduced into Animals by Horizontal Gene Transfer from Cyanobacteria
In:
Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 39
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab317
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Refining the domain architecture model of the replication origin firing factor Treslin/TICRR
In:
Life Science Alliance, vol. 5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26508/lsa.202101088
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
PERCC1, a new member of the YAP/TAZ/FAM181 transcriptional co-regulator family.
In:
Advances in Bioinformatics
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Extending the Horizon of Homology Detection with Coevolution-based structure prediction.
In:
Journal of Molecular Biology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167106
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (E-pub ahead of print)