Nick’s primary focus is genome biology, especially the application of machine learning and bioinformatics to understand the evolution and operation of DNA sequences. To date, he has applied these methods to metazoan genomes (human, chicken and mouse) and protozoan genomes (kinetoplastid and apicomplexan parasites). His background is in -omics and bioinformatics in human, mouse and model organisms applied to human disease. He has worked in type-2 diabetes and heart disease, molecular oncology (mostly hemato-oncology), and parasitology. Dealing with genomic and transcriptomic data from microarrays to high-throughput sequencing, some proteomics and metabolomics, and integration of clinical trial data. His overall research interest is the identification and understanding of functional units of DNA.

Nick’s training started with a Bachelor of Science in Biology at Imperial College London, UK. He wanted to work in forensics and spent a year of his B.Sc. working in a forensics and toxicology lab in London, but didn’t like the environment. He returned to finish his B.Sc. and combined an interest in computing with his biology experience through a bioinformatics Honors project. He worked for Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands for a short time where he was persuaded to do a Ph.D. He then worked as a research assistant for a year at the MRC Functional Genetics Unit in Oxford, UK, and registered for a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford. Following his doctoral studies, he moved back to London, then Glasgow, and more recently, Florida to continue his research. As an Associate Research Professor at FAU Harbor Branch, he is expanding his work to understand the interaction of populations with respect to genome sequence through metagenomics in the context of marine ecosystems and ocean biology.