Trained in Physics and Engineering, Dr Zemin Ning has been active in genome informatics for 16 years. After completing a PhD degree at Aston University and postdoc training at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, he joined in the Sanger Institute in 1999 to pursue bioinformatics research. Over the past years, he and his colleagues in the group have developed a number of bioinformatics tools, which are widely appreciated by the genomics community. The group has also produced over 30 de novo assemblies from large animal and plant genomes, including Gorilla, Zebrafish, Tasmanian Devil, Bamboo and Miscanthus.