Professor Joseph Powell

Program Director - Translational Genomics / Director Garvan-Weizmann Centre For Cellular Genomics

Professor Joseph Powell is the Director of the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics, a Lab Head at Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and a Principal Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, in 2010. Throughout his PhD Joseph was a member of the scientific advisory board at Aviagen. Following his PhD he moved to Professor Peter Visscher’s (FRS, FAA) group at QIMR, and then the University of Queensland. During this time, he helped form and lead an international consortium to study the genetic control of gene expression, the Consortium for the Architecture of Gene Expression (CAGE). In 2015, Joseph started his own group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, where they pioneered the use of single cell sequencing methods to understand the genetic control of disease, and cell development. He is also a founding director of SeqBio, a company developing new diagnostic technology for lung diseases using liquid biopsies and single cell sequencing. The Computational Genomics Laboratory focuses on demonstrating the genomic mechanisms by which loci contribute to complex human diseases, and working towards early stage diagnosis methods and targeted therapeutics. To do so, they apply existing computational approaches, and develop their own statistical genetics methods for analysis of large-scale next generation sequencing data. Following in silico experiments, they perform functional validation of statistical observations using molecular techniques such as high-throughput genome editing and cell phenotyping. They have a significant focus on the use of single cell sequence data and technology, due to the phenomenal resolution it offers in identifying differences in the genomics processes between individual cells. The laboratory drives projects in a number of areas of medical genomics research, but they also believe strongly in the value of collaboration between groups with differing expertise.