Janet Thornton

Professor Janet Thornton is a distinguished structural biologist and Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (Cambridge). She holds professorial appointments at Birkbeck, University of London, and University College London. Her career has focused on using computational methods to study protein structures and sequences, pioneering the CATH classification system. Elected a Fellow of Birkbeck in 2006, she has been recognized globally for her contributions to bioinformatics and structural biology.

Education:

• BSc in Physics, University of Nottingham
• MSc in Biophysics, King’s College London
• PhD in Structural Biology, National Institute for Medical Research (London)

Research Interests: Professor Thornton’s work integrates computational approaches with molecular biology to classify protein structures (e.g., CATH system) and predict protein functions. She has advanced protein threading methods and contributed to drug discovery through bioinformatics. Her leadership at the European Bioinformatics Institute ensures global access to genomic and proteomic data.

Awards & Recognition:

• Fellow of the Royal Society (1999)
• CBE (2000)
• Foreign Associate Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2003)

Advising & Leadership: Supervised numerous PhD students, co-founded Inpharmatica (a bioinformatics company), and coordinated the EU-funded Biosapiens project. Her work bridges academia and industry, emphasizing open data standards.

Labs & Collaborations: European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), joint School of Biomolecular Sciences (Birkbeck/UCL), and the Biosapiens network (14 European countries).