Leopold Parts

Dr. Leopold Parts is a Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where he leads the Parts Group within the Human Genetics Programme and the Generative and Synthetic Genomics Programme. His research focuses on understanding human DNA function through genome engineering approaches, combining experimental and computational methods to study how genetic variation affects cellular traits.

Parts received his undergraduate education at MIT, double majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics, before earning his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge in 2011 under Richard Durbin. His doctoral work on sources of variation in gene expression earned him the Grand Prize of life sciences PhDs in Estonia. He then completed postdoctoral training as a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Global Scholar at the University of Toronto with Brenda Andrews and Charles Boone, followed by a Marie Curie Fellowship at EMBL Heidelberg and Stanford University with Lars Steinmetz.

His research program integrates genome engineering, high-throughput screening, and computational modeling to understand how DNA sequence variation affects cellular phenotypes. The Parts Group develops tools for genetic perturbations using CRISPR/Cas, prime editing, and recombinase systems to create cell lines for randomization, screening, and evaluation. They combine these experimental approaches with probabilistic modeling to analyze large-scale genetic screens and their outputs.

The analysis of Parts' recent publications reveals a strong focus on genome engineering technologies, particularly CRISPR-based approaches. His work spans multiple applications including predicting editing outcomes, developing tools for structural variant engineering, and applying these techniques to understand human disease mechanisms, particularly in cancer. His research bridges computational biology and experimental genomics, with increasing emphasis on single-cell technologies and clinical applications.

• Grand Prize of life sciences PhDs in Estonia

Parts leads a diverse research team including postdoctoral fellows, advanced research assistants, and PhD students, with current members including Dr. Alistair Dunham, Mr. Gareth Girling, Elin Madli Peets, and Isabelle Zane. His group collaborates extensively with other research teams at the Sanger Institute, including the Cancer Dependency Map, Cellular Generation, and Cellular Screening groups. The Parts Group is part of the broader Human Genetics Programme, which aims to understand the genetic causes and biological mechanisms of disease susceptibility.

The Parts Group maintains strong collaborations with external partners including the Open Targets consortium and the Cancer Dependency Map initiative. Their work combines laboratory-based genome engineering with computational analysis to address fundamental questions about human genome function.