Associate Professor Sean Grimmond
Sean is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow who established the IMB's Expression Genomics laboratory in 2001. His work is centred at the intersection of bioinformatics, genomics and cell biology and its underlying theme is the accurate characterisation of the transcriptome and the identification of transcriptional programs or gene networks controlling cellular phenotypes in human development and disease.
These studies involve an integrated pipeline approach to large scale transcriptome annotation, genome wide surveys of gene expression, computational prediction of gene function and transcriptional programs, and the validation of lead genes function. This pipeline approach has been successfully used to screen the mammalian genome/transcriptome/proteome f or key secreted factors/cell surface markers of ES cell, haematopoietic differentiation, organogenesis and renal repair and is now being extended to study ES cell differentiation, cell division and tumorigenesis.
Sean is recognised internationally as a pioneer in microarray expression profiling and its application to mammalian development, and is an active senior member of the international transcriptome/bioinformatics community. He is a senior member of the large international transcriptome consortium, Functional Annotation of the Mouse (FANTOM) (2002-present), and of the Human Genome Network Project (2005-present). He is the bioinformatics Principal Investigator for the kidney program in the NIDDK's Stem Cell Genome Anatomy Project and more recently a co-PI for the NIH's Molecular Atlas of Genitourinary Development. He has also driven bioinformatics programs for the Australian Stem Cell Centre and the Australian Renal Regeneration Consortium.