Magnus Rattray

Magnus Rattray is Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences, affiliated with the Division of Informatics, Imaging & Data Sciences. He has held this position since 2012, following previous roles as Professor at the University of Sheffield and Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at Manchester. His research group develops computational models for analyzing high-throughput biological data, specializing in Bayesian inference, gene regulatory networks, and hybrid mechanistic-probabilistic approaches.

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science, University of Manchester (1993-1996)
• BSc (First Class Honours) in Mathematics and Physics, University of Manchester (1989-1992)

His research focuses on computational methods for biological systems, including: probabilistic modeling of gene regulation; machine learning for transcriptome analysis; Bayesian inference for time-series data; hybrid mechanistic models; and evolutionary-scale biological modeling. Recent work emphasizes applications in spatial transcriptomics, mRNA translation regulation, and multi-omics integration.

His publications demonstrate consistent focus on computational biology methods development, with recent emphasis on spatial transcriptomics (CellPie), translational regulation (SunTag system), biomanufacturing optimization, and multi-omics disease mechanism analysis.

Research Leadership: Leads multiple projects including:

• Optimisation of CHO for Biotherapeutic Manufacture (2021-2026)
• Integrated Diagnostics for Liver Disease (2020-2024)
• Neural information extraction and multi-modal VAEs (2023-2024)
• Centre for Biological Timing
• Centre for Robotics and AI

Professional Activities: Serves on scientific committees including Medical Research Council (2020-2023) and Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (2019). Leads a research group developing computational methods for biological data analysis.