Prasun Dutta

I am a bioinformatics researcher with over 7 years of experience in analyzing and interpreting genomic data from various long and short-read sequencing platforms (Illumina, ONT, PacBio). Currently, as a Senior Bioinformatician at the Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, under Prof. Jenny Taylor, I am focusing on the genetics of rare diseases using long reads and structural variation detection methods. Additionally, I am exploring the Genomics England (GEL) dataset to identify genetic variation leading to incorrect splicing events in various cases of rare neurological and musculoskeletal diseases.

Prior to my current role, I worked as a postdoctoral bioinformatician at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, under Prof. Tim Aitman (Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine), where I led the bioinformatics analysis of detecting structural variations using ONT long reads in the Scottish Genomics Partnership (SGP) project for diagnosing rare disease cases.

I hold a PhD in Developmental Biology from the University of Edinburgh (Roslin Institute). During my PhD, I undertook one of the first high-resolution analyses of evolutionary and regulatory variation in an important domesticated species, Bubalus bubalis (the water buffalo). The aim of my thesis was to use whole genome (DNA-seq) and RNA-seq data to characterise regulatory variation in immune cells and genome evolution in the water buffalo. Specifically, I explored the presence of regulatory variation in the macrophages of the water buffalo in the form of allele-specific expression (ASE) and investigated signatures of selection and breed divergence across different water buffalo breeds from India, Italy, and the UK. I have also worked on computational drug discovery and tuberculosis in my previous roles at the Open Source Drug Discovery Unit, Government of India.