SangesLab Computational Genomics @ SISSA
Exploring Evolution Through Genomes
This is the website of the Computational Genomics Lab @ SISSA lead by Remo Sanges. Here you can find few information about us. For anything else please send an email to remo.sanges[AT]gmail.com without hesitation!
We are interested in the function and evolution of the non-coding and repeated portions of genomes, how they shaped the genomes of living organisms and their involvement in the establishment of complexity and diseases, with a strong focus on the nervous system and transposable elements. We are geek biologists and computer scientists having fun in combining molecular biology and functional genomics with bioinformatics pipelines development and analysis.
Contact Us
SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies
Via Bonomea 265
Trieste, 34136
Italy
Research Interests
Mobile Elements Activity in the Tree of Life
We study the activity of mobile elements in the genomes of diverse group of organisms such as mammals, fishes, mollusks, insects and worms to understand if, when and were these elements are or have been active in the tree of life as well as during the development of single organisms, what are their main functions and the roles they play in the evolution of complexity and in disease.
Evolution of the Nervous System in Intelligent Organisms
We are fascinated by the Octopus vulgaris and other organisms with big brains and advanced cognitive capabilities. Studying the evolution of the nervous system, taking advantage of transcriptomes and genomes of these organisms, is allowing us to understand better what are the molecular elements at the basis of such capabilities, how they evolve and what happen when they do not function properly.
Complexity in Simple (?) Organisms
Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic algae and despite being so small they are ecologically and biotechnologically very important. Some species have rather complex life cycles and are capable to respond to stimuli from the external environment. All this is codified in genomes and transcriptomes equipped with non-coding and repeated regions on which we are currently working.
Bioinformatics Pipelines Development
We are geek biologists and computer scientists producing and/or analyzing big data from functional genomics experiments. The majority of members of the lab are PhD students enrolled in the PhD program of Structural and Functional Genomics @ SISSA. The development of bioinformatics pipelines is essential for our work. We have developed pipelines to annotate transcriptomes, identify long non-coding RNAs, discover integration sites of mobile elements, find and annotate non-coding conserved elements and identify gene clusters on any genome.