Earlham Institute (EI, formerly The Genome Analysis Centre) is a life science research institute located at the

Norwich Research Park Norwich Research Park (NRP) is a science park, science research park located to the southwest of Norwich in East Anglia close to the A11 road (England), A11 and the A47 road, A47 roads. Set in a area of parkland, it is one of five Biotechnolog ...

(NRP),

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. EI's research is focused on exploring living systems by applying computational science and biotechnology to answer ambitious biological questions and generate enabling resources. It is situated on the

, to the west of Norwich on the former A47
B1108
, and adjacent to the west of the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

History

The institute was established by the

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds science, scient ...

in partnership with

East of England Development Agency The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) was a non-departmental public body and the regional development agency for the East of England region of England. It came into operation on 1 April 1999 and assumed the regional powers of English Part ...

(EEDA),

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for Norfolk, England. Below it there are seven second-tier district councils: Breckland District, Breckland, Broadland, Borough of Great Yarmouth, Great Yarmo ...

Norwich City Council Norwich City Council is the local authority for Norwich, a non-metropolitan district with city status in Norfolk, England. It consists of 39 councillors, elected to represent 13 wards, each with three councillors. It forms the lower tier of l ...

South Norfolk Council South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

and the Greater Norwich Development Partnership. It cost £13.5 million, and was built by

Morgan Sindall Morgan Sindall Group plc is a prominent UK construction and regeneration company, headquartered in London employing around 6,700 employees and operating in the public, regulated and private sectors. It reports through six divisions of Construct ...

. It was officially opened on 3 July 2009 by

John Sulston Sir John Edward Sulston (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' in 2002 with ...

, winner of the 2002

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

, and former Director of the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

, another genomics research institution.

Function

The goal of this institute is to be at the forefront of data intensive science in biology, to be a leader in bioinformatics innovation and the application of genome technology and to enable bioscience through dissemination of the data and technology produced in the institute and in collaboration with external scientists worldwide. Project specialisms include wheat and

ryegrass ''Lolium'' is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera. They are characterized by bunch-like growth habits. ''Lolium'' ...

, but the wider research carried out includes vertebrate, evolutionary, environment, and regulatory genomics as well as data infrastructure and software development to support the international bioscience community. EI makes its research

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

where possible. One of the responsibilities of EI is to communicate the science it undertakes to a range of audiences, such as the international scientific community, the general public, school children, and students. It runs various programmes throughout the year to deliver this responsibility, as well as producing editorial features to explain the research it carries out.

Directors

Earlham Institute has been directed by: * Jane Rogers from July 2009 to December 2012 * Mario Caccamo from January 2013 to July 2015 * Dylan Edwards from August 2015 (Interim Director) * Neil Hall from April 2016 (Current Director)

Facilities

Sequencing platforms

EI is equipped with next-generation sequencing and genomics platforms for high-throughput data generation for research projects. EI historically has been an early adopter of new technologies for its scientific research, but also makes these available to the UK bioscience community through it
National Capability in Genomics
* Illuina NovaSeq * Illumina HiSeq 2500 * Illumina MiSeq * Illumina iSeq100 * PacBio Sequel * PacBio Sequel II * Oxford Nanopore MinION * Oxford Nanopore GridION * 10X Chromium

Pandemic support

Scientists at Earlham Institute and Quadram Institute are helping to develop a new tool to translate the dynamic microbiome/body communication. The method would be useful to researchers seeking to learn how microbes impact safety, the modifications contributing to illness, and pointing to new targets for medicines.

References

External links

* {{authority control Biotechnology in the United Kingdom Biotechnology organizations Bioinformatics organizations Buildings and structures completed in 2009 Buildings and structures in Norwich Genetics in the United Kingdom Genetics or genomics research institutions Government agencies established in 2009 Organisations based in Norwich Research institutes in Norfolk South Norfolk 2009 establishments in England Research institutes established in 2009