Formerly the Bioinformatics Manager for the NGRL, Andrew was appointed as Director of NGRL Manchester in 2008.
Who we are and what we do...
The NGRLs were established in Manchester & Wessex in 2002 with funding from the Department of Health to:
- Promote and take forward development of genetic laboratory science in the NHS
- Act as a dedicated resource to support molecular and cytogenetics communities.
Each laboratory has a team of scientists, technicians and specialists who deliver complementary work programmes to achieve these objectives. NGRL Manchester has established a strong informatics base which we continue to develop and support. We also carry out technology assessments and develop quality assurance initiatives to support diagnostic molecular genetics laboratories.
Following a successful bid for core funding from the DH in 2007, we are continuing to work with the experience and expertise established in the first five years to develop and enhance ways of integrating new genetic technologies into clinical practice.
Meet our staff...
Andrew Devereau - Director
Dr Mike Cornell - Health Informatics Scientist
Mike previously worked on the e-fungi database at the University of Manchester. He is responsible for the NGRL part of the Gen2Phen project, a holistic approach to integrating databases for clinical use.
Bharathi Kattamuri - Health Informatics Scientist
Previously supporting bioinformatics applications at the University of Manchester, Bharathi provides support for the Diagnostic Mutation Database, SNPCheck and the Universal Browser.
Dr Maja Milicic Brandt - Bio-Health Informatics Scientist
Maja previously worked as a research assistant at Dresden University of Technology where she obtained a PhD in knowledge representation. She is responsible for the NGRL's share of the RDTF project, in particular mapping Orphanet terms to existing medical ontologies.
Jasmin Opitz - Health Informatics Scientist
Jasmin previously worked at the University of Manchester on a PhD in knowledge engineering, particularly in the biomedical domain. She is now responsible for NGRL’s online tools and resources, including the Diagnostic Mutation Database, SNPCheck and the Universal Browser.
Stephanie Farrell - Project Assistant
Stephanie joined the NGRL in August 2011 from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and has a background in Biomolecular Sciences. In her role as Project Assistant she provides support for NGRL projects, in particular with the administration of the NGRL's online tools and resources including DMuDB and SNPCheck.
Kathryn Robertson - Project Manager
Kathryn has a background in molecular biology and joined the NGRL from a project management role in science-based marketing and communications. She provides support for NGRL projects and takes a lead on communications to the genetics community and other stakeholders.
Simon Williams - Clinical Bioinformatician
Simon was previously a postdoc at the University of Manchester investigating the evolutionary consequences of amino acid sequence divergence on protein structure as well as specificity in protein-protein interactions. He is currently responsible for assessing the role of missense prediction tools in diagnostic analysis.