Dr. Melissa Wong

My main research interest is to answer biological questions using Next Generation Sequencing and bioinformatics tools. I'm a self-taught bioinformatician with a good background in molecular biology and plant breeding. I'm a keen AWK user and I would like to spend more time writing and optimizing the performance of my Python codes. My past research involves transcriptome assembly, gene expression analysis, genome annotation, karyotype evolution and whole genome duplication in legumes.

I'm currently involved in the Sinergia grant funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation to study evolutionary genomics of sex determination in amphibian (Perrin group) and plant (Pannell group) models. I'm working with available draft genomes and genomic resources to improve the genome assembly and annotation, to understand genome evolution and synteny especially in X/Y chromosome and to develop pipeline to facilitate bioinformatics analysis.

A brief description of my projects:
1) Genome annotation of European common frog (Rana temporaria) Illumina draft assembly
2) Identification of highly differentiated genomic region in the sex chromosome of R. temporaria
3) CpG methylation analysis of R. temporaria using SMRT sequencing
4) Understanding sex determination in Cannabis sativa

Last modified date: 24 June 2016