Mark Blaxter leads the Sanger Institute’s Tree of Life programme, generating and analyzing genome sequences from thousands of species across the tree of life, especially Britain and Ireland (the Darwin Tree of Life project).

His own research portfolio focuses on the genomics of neglected, non-model organisms - especially using the chromosomally-complete genome sequences generated by Tree of Life work - and the interpretation of those genomes in ecological and evolutionary contexts (including, inter alia, parasitic and free living nematodes, tardigrades, gastropod and bivalve molluscs, butterflies, bees, flies, birds, algae, fungi and bacteria).

He has played a key role in defining pattern and process in chromosome evolution in Lepidoptera (comprising 10% of all described species) and nematodes. Before joining Sanger, he was Professor of Evolutionary Genomics at the University of Edinburgh. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2014.