David Shotton

David Shotton

Dr David M. Shotton
University Reader in Image Bioinformatics

Fellow of Wolfson College

Contacts

Email: david.shotton@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Phone: 01865 271193

Research Interests

I lead the Image Bioinformatics Research Group (IBRG) within the Department of Zoology, which is dedicated to research and the development of best practice for the sharing and reuse of biological research data, particularly images. IBRG forms part of the distributed Oxford e-Research Centre. My present interests and R&D activities include the development of biological image databases, particularly for Drosophila gene expression data (http://www.fly-ted.org), the development of data webs to enable integration of heterogeneous information from distributed resources (http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/; http://openflydata.org), the creation and community development of biological ontologies (http://ontogenesis.ontonet.org//moin/FrontPage), and the provision of related Semantic Web services to assist life sciences research. I am also interested in citation typing, for which I have developed CiTO, the Citation Typing Ontology (http://purl.org/net/cito/), and developments in Semantic Publishing, particularly for reports of infectious disease investigations, for which I am developing MIIDI, a Minimal Information standard for reporting an Infectious Disease Investigation.  Other interests include issues of semantic interoperability between the sciences, arts and humanities, and the preservation of our analogue scientific cultural heritage in the digital age. My past research has included molecular and cell biological investigations of protein and membrane structure in health and disease, investigations that have employed advanced light and electron microscopy techniques, particularly video and confocal light microscopy and freeze fracture electron microscopy. I maintain interests in these areas, have published extensively on these techniques, and have taught on many international microscopy courses.

Other Details

I teach cell biology for the undergraduate Biological Sciences degree, for the M. Sc. in Biology), and for the EPSRC Life Science Interface Doctoral Training Centre (http://www.lsi.ox.ac.uk/). I am the Degree Director for the M.Sc. in Biology; a College Lecturer in Biology at Christ Church; Fellow of the Oxford e-Research Centre.  I will be on sabbatical leave for the 2009-2010 academic year, during which period Dr Nathan Pike will serve as Acting Degree Director for the M. Sc. in Biology.  I server on the Life Science and Medicine Consultative Group of the Research Information Network (http://www.rin.ac.uk). 

Selected Publications