Sean R. Eddy is a scientist who leads a research group at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...

 (HHMI) Janelia Farm Research Campus

Janelia Farm Research Campus

The Janelia Farm Research Campus is a research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006. The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn...

 in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, with interests in bioinformatics

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

, computational biology

Computational biology

Computational biology involves the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems...

 and biological sequence analysis

Sequence analysis

In bioinformatics, the term sequence analysis refers to the process of subjecting a DNA, RNA or peptide sequence to any of a wide range of analytical methods to understand its features, function, structure, or evolution. Methodologies used include sequence alignment, searches against biological...

. Current projects include the use of Hidden Markov model

Hidden Markov model

A hidden Markov model is a statistical Markov model in which the system being modeled is assumed to be a Markov process with unobserved states. An HMM can be considered as the simplest dynamic Bayesian network. The mathematics behind the HMM was developed by L. E...

s in HMMER

HMMER

HMMER is a free and commonly used software package for sequence analysis written by Sean Eddy. Its general usage is to identify homologous protein or nucleotide sequences. It does this by comparing a profile-HMM to either a single sequence or a database of sequences...

, Infernal Pfam

Pfam

Pfam is a database of protein families that includes their annotations and multiple sequence alignments generated using hidden Markov models.- Features :For each family in Pfam one can:* Look at multiple alignments* View protein domain architectures...

 and Rfam

Rfam

Rfam is a database containing information about non-coding RNA families and other structured RNA elements. It is an annotated, open access database hosted by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in collaboration with Janelia Farm...

.

In 2007, Sean was the winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award in Bioinformatics

Benjamin Franklin Award (Bioinformatics)

The Benjamin Franklin Award is an award for Open Access in the Life Sciences presented by the Bioinformatics Organization-Laureates:*2002 - Michael B. Eisen*2003 - Jim Kent*2004 - Lincoln D. Stein*2005 - Ewan Birney*2006 - Michael Ashburner...

 for contributions to Open Access in the Life Sciences.

Education and employment

Sean completed a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 in Biology at California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

 in 1986, followed by a Ph.D in molecular biology

Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

 at the University of Colorado

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado system is a system of public universities in Colorado consisting of three universities in four campuses: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and University of Colorado Denver in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in...

 in 1991. From 1992 to 1995 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical Research Council

Medical Research Council (UK)

The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

 (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Laboratory of Molecular Biology

The Laboratory of Molecular Biology is a research institute in Cambridge, England, which was at the forefront of the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s, since then it remains a major medical research laboratory with a much broader focus.-Early beginnings: 1947-61:Max...

 (LMB) in Cambridge UK working with John Sulston and Richard Durbin. From 1995 to 2007 he worked at Washington University School of Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine , located in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the graduate schools of Washington University in St. Louis. One of the top medical schools in the United States, it is currently ranked 4th for research according to U.S. News and World Report and has been listed...

and has been working for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2000. He graduated June, 1982 from Marion Center Area High School, Marion Center, PA.

Sources and notes