Peter Cock
+44 (0)344 928 5428
The James Hutton Institute
Invergowrie
Dundee DD2 5DA
Scotland UK
Biography
Peter is interested in high throughput technologies including sequencing and phenotyping, biology which are increasingly becoming a big-data science. This gave rise to the interdisciplinary area of bioinformatics, where the day-to-day work requires programming and scripting skills in addition to biological knowledge. Much of Peter's genomics work has been linked to identification of candidate effector proteins, by which we mean proteins a plant pathogen, such as a nematode or aphid, produces and excretes into the host plant to manipulate it to its benefit - for example suppressing immune responses. Another strand of work his covers molecular diagnostics, using a marker gene like a barcode to enable large scale surveys - including nematodes and bacteria in soil, or oomycetes in plant or water samples.