Cambridge, 5th September 2023 – We are delighted to announce that our Co-founder and Informatics Director at Congenica, Professor Richard Durbin, has been awarded the International Prize for Biology by the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science.
The award recognises Richard’s role as a pioneer in genome sequencing and bioinformatics. For more than 25 years Richard has developed sequence data analysis tools, including the alignment software bwa and the SAM/BAM format that underpin most clinical genomic data analyses. Richard has also made significant contributions to the Ensembl resource for vertebrate genome annotation, as well as the TreeFam and Pfam databases. In addition, he has led the international 1000 Genomes Project and the UK 10K Genome Project. Richard is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University and Associate Faculty of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Robert Denison, CEO at Congenica, said: “This is fantastic news and a well-deserved accolade for Richard. Richard’s knowledge and expertise are second to none and have shaped not only Congenica, but the world of genomics and genome biology. We are immensely privileged and proud to have such a world-renowned scientist as one of our co-founders, who as the Informatics Director supports Congenica's mission to make Precision Medicine a reality for everyone.”
We recently held a webinar during which Professor Richard Durbin spoke of some of the significant achievements in the past decade.