Chris Ponting

Last updated

Chris Ponting
Chris Ponting.jpg
Born
Christopher Paul Ponting
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Known forSMART [1]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions University of Edinburgh
Thesis Structural Studies of Plasminogen and Related Proteins  (1992)
Website www.ed.ac.uk/mrc-human-genetics-unit/research/ponting-group

Christopher Paul Ponting is a British computational biologist, specializing in the evolution and function of genes and genomes. He is currently Chair of Medical Bioinformatics at the University of Edinburgh and group leader in the MRC Human Genetics Unit. He is also an Associate Faculty member of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [2] His research focuses on long noncoding RNA function and evolution, on single cell biology and on disease genomics. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Outside of science, Chris is an amateur novelist and wrote an unpublished, science fiction novel about engineered viruses. [9]

Contents

Education

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science in physics from University of Oxford and the University of British Columbia, respectively, he returned to Oxford, completing his Doctor of Philosophy in biophysics in 1992 on structural studies of plasminogen. [10] [11]

Research

Ponting contributed to the Human Genome Project, [12] and participated in sequence comparison for the mouse, [13] rat, [14] chicken, [15] dog, [16] opossum, [17] and platypus [18] [19] [20] Genome Projects. He has also used comparative genomics to contribute directly to the understanding of chromatin structure [21] and the genetics of numerous conditions including asthma, [22] obesity, [23] Alzheimer's disease, [24] retinitis pigmentosa, [25] muscular dystrophies, [26] and Aicardi–Goutières syndrome. [27]

Additionally, his lab is part of DecodeME, a genetic study to determine the potential causes of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). [28] [9]

References

  1. Schultz, J.; Milpetz, F.; Bork, P.; Ponting, C. (1998). "SMART, a simple modular architecture research tool: Identification of signaling domains". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 95 (11): 5857–5864. Bibcode:1998PNAS...95.5857S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.11.5857 . PMC   34487 . PMID   9600884.
  2. "Professor Christopher Paul Ponting FMedSci FRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  3. Chris Ponting's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  4. Sims, David (2014). "Sequencing depth and coverage: key considerations in genomic analyses". Nature Reviews Genetics. 15 (2): 121–132. doi:10.1038/nrg3642. PMID   24434847. S2CID   13325739.
  5. Rands, Chris M. (2014). "8.2% of the Human Genome Is Constrained: Variation in Rates of Turnover across Functional Element Classes in the Human Lineage". PLOS Genetics. 10 (7) e1004525. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004525 . PMC   4109858 . PMID   25057982.
  6. Gibbs, R. A.; Weinstock, G. M.; Metzker, M. L.; Muzny, D. M.; Sodergren, E. J.; Scherer, S; Scott, G; Steffen, D; Worley, K. C.; Burch, P. E.; Okwuonu, G; Hines, S; Lewis, L; Deramo, C; Delgado, O; Dugan-Rocha, S; Miner, G; Morgan, M; Hawes, A; Gill, R; Celera; Holt, R. A.; Adams, M. D.; Amanatides, P. G.; Baden-Tillson, H; Barnstead, M; Chin, S; Evans, C. A.; Ferriera, S; et al. (2004). "Genome sequence of the Brown Norway rat yields insights into mammalian evolution". Nature. 428 (6982): 493–521. Bibcode:2004Natur.428..493G. doi: 10.1038/nature02426 . PMID   15057822.
  7. Drosophila 12 Genomes, Consortium; Clark, A. G.; Eisen, M. B.; Smith, D. R.; Bergman, C. M.; Oliver, B; Markow, T. A.; Kaufman, T. C.; Kellis, M; Gelbart, W; Iyer, V. N.; Pollard, D. A.; Sackton, T. B.; Larracuente, A. M.; Singh, N. D.; Abad, J. P.; Abt, D. N.; Adryan, B; Aguade, M; Akashi, H; Anderson, W. W.; Aquadro, C. F.; Ardell, D. H.; Arguello, R; Artieri, C. G.; Barbash, D. A.; Barker, D; Barsanti, P; Batterham, P; et al. (2007). "Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny". Nature. 450 (7167): 203–18. Bibcode:2007Natur.450..203C. doi: 10.1038/nature06341 . PMID   17994087.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Mulder, N. J.; Apweiler, R; Attwood, T. K.; Bairoch, A; Barrell, D; Bateman, A; Binns, D; Biswas, M; Bradley, P; Bork, P; Bucher, P; Copley, R. R.; Courcelle, E; Das, U; Durbin, R; Falquet, L; Fleischmann, W; Griffiths-Jones, S; Haft, D; Harte, N; Hulo, N; Kahn, D; Kanapin, A; Krestyaninova, M; Lopez, R; Letunic, I; Lonsdale, D; Silventoinen, V.; Orchard, S. E.; Pagni, M.; Pagni, Marco; Peyruc, D.; Ponting, C.P.; Selengut, J.D.; Servant, F.; Sigrist, C.J.A.; Vaughan, R.; Zdobnov, E.M. (2003). "The InterPro Database, 2003 brings increased coverage and new features". Nucleic Acids Research. 31 (1): 315–8. doi:10.1093/nar/gkg046. PMC   165493 . PMID   12520011.
  9. 1 2 The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast . Episode 2, 2020.
  10. Ponting, Christopher Paul (1992). Structural Studies of Plasminogen and Related Proteins (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC   556763136.
  11. "Prof. Chris P Ponting BA MSc DPhil". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014.
  12. Lander, E. S.; Linton, M.; Birren, B.; Nusbaum, C.; Zody, C.; Baldwin, J.; Devon, K.; Dewar, K.; Doyle, M.; Fitzhugh, W.; Funke, R.; Gage, D.; Harris, K.; Heaford, A.; Howland, J.; Kann, L.; Lehoczky, J.; Levine, R.; McEwan, P.; McKernan, K.; Meldrim, J.; Mesirov, J. P.; Miranda, C.; Morris, W.; Naylor, J.; Raymond, C.; Rosetti, M.; Santos, R.; Sheridan, A.; et al. (February 2001). "Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome". Nature. 409 (6822): 860–921. Bibcode:2001Natur.409..860L. doi: 10.1038/35057062 . hdl: 2027.42/62798 . ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   11237011.
  13. Chinwalla, A. T.; Waterston, L. L.; Lindblad-Toh, K. D.; Birney, G. A.; Rogers, L. A.; Abril, R. S.; Agarwal, T. A.; Agarwala, L. W.; Ainscough, E. R.; Alexandersson, J. D.; An, T. L.; Antonarakis, W. E.; Attwood, J. O.; Baertsch, M. N.; Bailey, K. H.; Barlow, C. S.; Beck, T. C.; Berry, B.; Birren, J.; Bloom, E.; Bork, R. H.; Botcherby, M. C.; Bray, R. K.; Brent, S. P.; Brown, P.; Brown, E.; Bult, B.; Burton, T.; Butler, D. G.; et al. (2002). "Initial sequencing and comparative analysis of the mouse genome". Nature. 420 (6915): 520–562. Bibcode:2002Natur.420..520W. doi: 10.1038/nature01262 . PMID   12466850.
  14. Amos, Jonathan (31 March 2004). "Rat's 'life code' read by science". BBC News . Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  15. "Chicken gives up genetic secrets". BBC News . 9 December 2004. Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  16. Lindblad-Toh, K.; Wade, C. M.; Mikkelsen, T. S.; Karlsson, E. K.; Jaffe, D. B.; Kamal, M.; Clamp, M.; Chang, J. L.; Kulbokas, E. J.; Zody, M. C.; Mauceli, E.; Xie, X.; Breen, M.; Wayne, R. K.; Ostrander, E. A.; Ponting, C. P.; Galibert, F.; Smith, D. R.; Dejong, P. J.; Kirkness, E.; Alvarez, P.; Biagi, T.; Brockman, W.; Butler, J.; Chin, C. W.; Cook, A.; Cuff, J.; Daly, M. J.; Decaprio, D.; et al. (2005). "Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog". Nature. 438 (7069): 803–819. Bibcode:2005Natur.438..803L. doi: 10.1038/nature04338 . PMID   16341006.
  17. Mikkelsen, T. S.; Wakefield, M. J.; Aken, B.; Amemiya, C. T.; Chang, J. L.; Duke, S.; Garber, M.; Gentles, A. J.; Goodstadt, L.; Heger, A.; Jurka, J.; Kamal, M.; Mauceli, E.; Searle, S. M. J.; Sharpe, T.; Baker, M. L.; Batzer, M. A.; Benos, P. V.; Belov, K.; Clamp, M.; Cook, A.; Cuff, J.; Das, R.; Davidow, L.; Deakin, J. E.; Fazzari, M. J.; Glass, J. L.; Grabherr, M.; Greally, J. M.; et al. (2007). "Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences". Nature. 447 (7141): 167–177. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..167M. doi: 10.1038/nature05805 . hdl: 1885/57171 . PMID   17495919.
  18. Warren, W. C.; Hillier, L. W.; Marshall Graves, J. A.; Birney, E.; Ponting, C. P.; Grützner, F.; Belov, K.; Miller, W.; Clarke, L.; Chinwalla, A. T.; Yang, S. P.; Heger, A.; Locke, D. P.; Miethke, P.; Waters, P. D.; Veyrunes, F. D. R.; Fulton, L.; Fulton, B.; Graves, T.; Wallis, J.; Puente, X. S.; López-Otín, C.; Ordóñez, G. R.; Eichler, E. E.; Chen, L.; Cheng, Z.; Deakin, J. E.; Alsop, A.; Thompson, K.; et al. (2008). "Genome analysis of the platypus reveals unique signatures of evolution". Nature. 453 (7192): 175–183. Bibcode:2008Natur.453..175W. doi:10.1038/nature06936. PMC   2803040 . PMID   18464734.
  19. http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/platypusgenome/ Discussing the platypus genome
  20. Briggs, Helen (7 May 2008). "Platypus genetic code unravelled". BBC News . Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  21. Jenuwein, T.; Eisenhaber, S.; O'Carroll, F.; Strahl, D. N.; Sun, B. D.; Schmid, Z. W.; Opravil, M.; Mechtler, S.; Ponting, K.; Allis, C. P.; Jenuwein, C. D. (2000). "Regulation of chromatin structure by site-specific histone H3 methyltransferases". Nature. 406 (6796): 593–599. Bibcode:2000Natur.406..593R. doi:10.1038/35020506. PMID   10949293. S2CID   205008015.
  22. Zhang, Y.; Leaves, N. I.; Anderson, G. G.; Ponting, C. P.; Broxholme, J.; Holt, R.; Edser, P.; Bhattacharyya, S.; Dunham, A.; Adcock, I. M.; Pulleyn, L.; Barnes, P. J.; Harper, J. I.; Abecasis, G. A.; Cardon, L.; White, M.; Burton, J.; Matthews, L.; Mott, R.; Ross, M.; Cox, R.; Moffatt, M. F.; Cookson, W. O. C. M. (2003). "Positional cloning of a quantitative trait locus on chromosome 13q14 that influences immunoglobulin E levels and asthma". Nature Genetics. 34 (2): 181–186. doi:10.1038/ng1166. hdl: 10044/1/57392 . PMID   12754510. S2CID   20807679.
  23. Gerken, T.; Girard, C. A.; Tung, Y. -C. L.; Webby, C. J.; Saudek, V.; Hewitson, K. S.; Yeo, G. S. H.; McDonough, M. A.; Cunliffe, S.; McNeill, L. A.; Galvanovskis, J.; Rorsman, P.; Robins, P.; Prieur, X.; Coll, A. P.; Ma, M.; Jovanovic, Z.; Farooqi, I. S.; Sedgwick, B.; Barroso, I.; Lindahl, T.; Ponting, C. P.; Ashcroft, F. M.; O'Rahilly, S.; Schofield, C. J. (2007). "The Obesity-Associated FTO Gene Encodes a 2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Nucleic Acid Demethylase". Science. 318 (5855): 1469–1472. Bibcode:2007Sci...318.1469G. doi:10.1126/science.1151710. PMC   2668859 . PMID   17991826.
  24. Ponting, C. P.; Hutton, M.; Nyborg, A.; Baker, M.; Jansen, K.; Golde, T. E. (2002). "Identification of a novel family of presenilin homologues". Human Molecular Genetics. 11 (9): 1037–1044. doi: 10.1093/hmg/11.9.1037 . PMID   11978763.
  25. Abd El-Aziz, M. M.; Barragan, I.; O'Driscoll, C. A.; Goodstadt, L.; Prigmore, E.; Borrego, S.; Mena, M.; Pieras, J. I.; El-Ashry, M. F.; Safieh, L. A.; Shah, A.; Cheetham, M. E.; Carter, N. P.; Chakarova, C.; Ponting, C. P.; Bhattacharya, S. S.; Antinolo, G. (2008). "EYS, encoding an ortholog of Drosophila spacemaker, is mutated in autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa". Nature Genetics. 40 (11): 1285–1287. doi:10.1038/ng.241. PMC   2719291 . PMID   18836446.
  26. Dickens, N. J.; Beatson, S.; Ponting, C. P. (2002). "Cadherin-like domains in α-dystroglycan, α/ε-sarcoglycan and yeast and bacterial proteins". Current Biology. 12 (6): R197 –R199. Bibcode:2002CBio...12.R197D. doi: 10.1016/S0960-9822(02)00748-0 . PMID   11909544. S2CID   15872294.
  27. Crow, Y. J.; Leitch, A.; Hayward, B. E.; Garner, A.; Parmar, R.; Griffith, E.; Ali, M.; Semple, C.; Aicardi, J.; Babul-Hirji, R.; Baumann, C.; Baxter, P.; Bertini, E.; Chandler, K. E.; Chitayat, D.; Cau, D.; Déry, C.; Fazzi, E.; Goizet, C.; King, M. D.; Klepper, J.; Lacombe, D.; Lanzi, G.; Lyall, H.; Martínez-Frías, M. A. L.; Mathieu, M. L.; McKeown, C.; Monier, A.; Oade, Y.; Quarrell, O. W. (2006). "Mutations in genes encoding ribonuclease H2 subunits cause Aicardi-Goutières syndrome and mimic congenital viral brain infection". Nature Genetics. 38 (8): 910–916. doi:10.1038/ng1842. PMID   16845400. S2CID   8076225.
  28. Chris Ponting Research Group MRC Human Genetics Research Unit. July 2021.