Ravi Sachidanandam

Formally trained as a physicist, I am interested in all things genomic, especially the esoteric parts. This has often involved the development of experimental technologies and analytical techniques tailored to the datasets. I am currently working on aspects of mitochondrial genetics as well as the dynamics of the T Cell Receptor repertoire. My lab has developed a technology for un-biased small RNA sequencing and new methods for mtDNA and TCR repertoire sequencing.  I also work with several groups on the study of piRNAs and their role in transposon control in the germline.

In the past, I worked on mRNA splicing, identifying determinants of splice-site strength and delineating novel classes of splice sites in five model organisms. The associated database of splice site types, SpliceRack, is a widely used resource. We also work on the development of Bioinformatics tools (an example is Kismeth, which is widely used in the plant community to study DNA methylation) and databases (such as the first large-scale collection of human SNPs) in a variety of areas.