We’re pleased to be welcoming Elinor Karlsson to the Earlham Institute for the inaugural Dame Janet Thornton Lecture. 

The Zoonomia Project: Exploring 100 Million Years of Evolution for Health and Conservation

Imagine a treasure trove of genomic secrets from more than 240 mammalian species spanning over 100 million years of evolutionary history. The Zoonomia Project, one of the largest comparative genomics resources produced to date, is exactly that.

By capturing mammalian genetic diversity, the Zoonomia Project found that about 11% of the human genome is evolving unusually slowly, and this can help us find the genetic changes responsible for human diseases. Zoonomia’s massive data compilation also allowed us to reconstruct the phenotype of Balto, a sled dog that helped save an Alaskan town from a 1925 diphtheria outbreak.

We’re now combining this genomic treasure trove with cellular models to explore how important traits, like hibernation and brain size, evolved across species. We look towards an even more data-rich future, and ask how we can ensure that large projects like Zoonomia, motivated by the opportunity to address health challenges in humans, can help us understand and protect our planet’s biodiversity.

Dame Janet Thornton

Professor Dame Janet Thornton is a leading figure in structural bioinformatics. She was the Director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) between 2001 and 2015, and Chair of the Earlham Institute’s Board of Trustees from 2017 until 2022. 

The Dame Janet Thornton Annual Lecture recognises Prof Thornton’s distinguished career, and her significant contribution to broadening the scope of traditional bioscience through applying computational methods to analyse biological data.

Elinor Karlsson

Elinor Karlsson, PhD is a Professor in Genomics and Computational Biology at the UMass Chan Medical School, and director of Vertebrate Genomics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Her research combines genomics, new technology and community science to investigate diseases and discover the origins of exceptional mammalian trails like hibernation and exceptional longevity. 

Prof. Karlsson’s research includes the Zoonomia project, an international effort to compare the genomes of over 240 mammals (from the African Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax to the Woodland Dormouse) and identify segments of DNA that are important for survival and health. Prof. Karlsson also has a special interest in pet genetics. 

Her community science nonprofit organisation, Darwin’s Ark, invites all dog and cat owners to enroll their pets in an open data research project exploring the genetic basis of behavior, as well as diseases such as cancer.

Elinor received her B.A. in biochemistry/cell biology and her B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) from Rice University, and earned her Ph.D. in bioinformatics from Boston University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University before starting her research group at UMass Chan Medical School in 2014, where she is the Dr. Eileen L. Berman and Stanley I. Berman Foundation Chair in Biomedical Research.