United Kingdom Cambridge

Wellcome Sanger Institute

Department of Cellular Genetics

Brief Overview

The Wellcome Sanger Institute is one of the premier centres of genomic discovery and understanding in the world. It leads ambitious collaborations across the globe to provide the foundations for further research and transformative healthcare innovations. Its success is founded on the expertise and knowledge of its people and the Institute seeks to share its discoveries and techniques with the next generation of genomics scientists and researchers worldwide.

Research Areas

Genetics

Host center eligibility

Global fellowships (return phase only)/European fellowships – in line with current status

Research infrastructure/facilities

The high-throughput, large-scale biological research undertaken at Sanger is a central defining characteristic distinguishing our science from that of most research institutes and universities. Carrying out science at this scale is critically dependent upon the existence of major core facilities and platforms organised into complex pipelines. These require substantial infrastructure, expert organisation and professional management. Sanger’s data production platforms are organised into a single management structure. This ensures that we have refined processes and ensures that we have appropriate levels of investment and manning, with robust forward-planning and realistic targets.

Research funding/Resources

Dr Teichmann’s laboratory is extremely well funded, both through Sanger Core funding as well as additional grants to study lung biology. Kerstin Meyer is co-PI on the following lung cell atlasing grants: WSSS: a pilot for the human cell atlas (Wellcome), profiling fetal lung development (MRC), single cell multi-omics profiling of multiple locations in the adult (EU H2020 DiscovAIR) and paediatric lung (CZI seed network). In addition, The Rosetree Trust and CZI are funding work to understand airway changes and immune responses in COVID-19. Previous grants (Open Targets) have allowed us to derive single cell profile of the asthmatic lung.

Links to non-academic sector

Our Enterprise and Innovation Team host a range of events and business related training workshops and are able to advise on a huge variety of issues associated with technology translation, intellectual property and business development. In addition, they lead on growing our ecosystem of innovative genomics and biodata companies within our BioData Innovation Centre on Campus and have access to a large professional network from industry, academia and public sector organisations, as well as deep knowledge of the commercial landscape in the genomes and biodata markets.

Experience hosting international researchers, career development & training programmes, outreach activities

At the Sanger Institute, we recognise that Post Doctoral Fellows (PDFs) are in the early stages of their career and will require training in a variety of areas. Alongside the training that they will receive within their team, the institute also runs a PDF development programme. This opens our PDFs to many opportunities for training and professional development with many courses and workshops designed to aid in career development. We also have a collaboration with the University of Cambridge, which allows the PDFs at Sanger to attend further courses run by the graduate school of life sciences. These programmes also run alongside a mentoring and coaching scheme where the PDF can learn from other members of staff to help them achieve their full potential.

HR Excellence in Research – EU award

No