Ira Cooke is a senior lecturer in bioinformatics and co-director of the Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology. He uses a range of high throughput (big data) molecular techniques to understand the evolution, molecular biology and ecology of marine organisms. 

Ira’s research uses population genomics to understand local adaptation in the marine environment by connecting recent biogeographical events with evolutionary processes on specific genes and genomic regions. One of the major goals of this work is to improve our understanding of the basic molecular biology of marine taxa (ie what genes do and how they are regulated). To further this goal Ira often works collaboratively, providing bioinformatic expertise to projects combining evo-devo, physiological and comparative genomic approaches.