HudsonAlpha Faculty Investigator Jeremy Schmutz is co-director of the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center (GSC), one of the few centers in the world performing original sequencing of plants. As co-director, Schmutz leads a team of experts in whole-genome sequencing, library construction, genome analysis, computational biology, evolutionary genomics, and informatics.

 Together, the team uses next-generation long and short-read sequencing to produce genomic data across economically valuable crops and environmentally relevant species Through analyzing and interpreting the genomic data, the team uses the information to improve crop breeding and investigate the plants’ roles in natural ecosystems.  Members of the GSC team are experts in de novo sequencing of plant and animal species. They have generated and released reference genomes for more than 200 plant species.