Des Higgins on the early days of bioinformatics and EMBL-EBI

Des Higgins (EMBL-EBI Group Leader, 1990-1996) speaks with Thomas Vaccari (EMBL Predoctoral fellow, 1999-2004) about the "wild west" early days of bioinformatics, the establishment of EMBL-EBI and the collaboration which led to the Clustal programme.

This interview was conducted in July 2023.

Des received the Lennart Philipson Award in 2023. His award presentation can be viewed in our Alumni Award Lectures playlist -    • Des Higgins - 2023 Lennart Philipson ...  

Summary
00:00 - Early career and the influence of Michael Ashburner.
04:40 - The start of DNA sequencing and bioinformatics.
10:36 - Developing the first multiple sequence alignment software, ClustalW.
16:48 - DNA sequencing, phylogeny, and assembly and the titin protein.
21:40 - Collaboration at EMBL and Clustal.
23:52 - Open Access to Sequencing Databases.
29:10 - AI in bioinformatics, protein folding, and openness in research culture.


Video Production and Editing: EMBL Alumni Relations
Content and Interviews: Angus Lamond and Thomas Vaccari
Music: Eco Technology by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay
Thanks to: EMBL Audiovisual and EMBL Design
Sponsored by: EMBLEM
© European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)