{"id":82607,"date":"2026-09-28T09:05:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=82607"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:05:10","slug":"we-are-embl-emily-bowler-barnett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/people-perspectives\/we-are-embl-emily-bowler-barnett\/","title":{"rendered":"We are EMBL: Emily Bowler-Barnett on how biocuration supports open science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a Senior Database Curator and Product Manager in the UniProt<\/a> team at EMBL-EBI, Emily Bowler-Barnett helps to develop the world\u2019s leading open-access database for protein sequences. UniProt is jointly run by teams at EMBL-EBI, the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics (SIB), and the Protein Information Resource (PIR). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, Bowler-Barnett talks about her scientific journey, her passion for open data, and how she spends her spare time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your personal and professional background?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m from a small village in England. My family is not scientific at all. At college, in biology class, we had a postdoc teach us genetics for a semester. It was the first introduction I had to the idea that life comes from a set of biological instructions. And that\u2019s when I fell in love with genetics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went on to complete an undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences and genetics. I then did a Master\u2019s in molecular medicine and cancer research. That\u2019s where I first got introduced to big data and its impact on clinical medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, I then did an internship at EMBL-EBI, in the GWAS Catalog<\/a> team. After I did my PhD in proteomics and systems biology, returning to EMBL-EBI was a natural choice, as I could use my skills to help make a difference to scientists around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now work as a Senior Databse Curator and Product Manager for UniProt at EMBL-EBI. My team maintains UniProt, which is the world-leading, freely accessible database for protein sequence and function information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does a biocurator do?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a nutshell, I read scientific publications and curate relevant data into specialist databases. Biocurators save scientists huge amounts of time, because we summarise information from multiple sources and point them in the direction of the most relevant papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite finding eyeballs repulsive, I started off focusing on eye proteins, then moved to wider topics. Alongside data curation, I also coordinate training and teaching for biologists and bioinformaticians who want to make the most of UniProt. I manage and develop UniProt\u2019s proteomics data import pipelines. I liaise closely with the website team to help them deliver new features and data in a way that users can interpret and understand, and I write a lot of technical documentation. I also manage the comms and social media for our team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n