Dr Sam Robson is a COG-UK Principal Investigator for the University of Portsmouth and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth, where he is the Faculty Bioinformatics Lead, and Bioinformatics Lead at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation. He collaborates with researchers across the faculty on a number of different projects, in particular those utilising high-throughput next generation sequencing methods. Dr Robson also helps to identify and develop enzymatic solutions to help solve global environmental issues such as the current plastics crisis. He has been part of the team that has previously identified an enzyme (PETase) able to efficiently catalyse the breakdown of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. Following lockdown of University labs in March 2020, Dr Robson’s team worked in partnership with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to set up a temporary sequencing facility at their local hospital site for sequence the virus from COVID-19 positive patients. Since then, his team have partnered with the COG-UK consortium to provide whole genome sequencing coverage from NHS sites across the south coast. These data provide essential coverage to the COG UK surveillance program, as well as feeding directly back to infection control measures at partner hospitals.
