The CNAG was established in 2010 and has grown continuously since then. Research and service teams have extended their expertise to offer a wider range of applications and services in large scale genome analysis projects.

Comparative Genomics
As part of this continuing expansion process, the Comparative Genomics team of the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) led by Tomàs Marquès i Bonet, has joined the CNAG on a double affiliation. The Comparative Genomics team will benefit from higher sequencing and computational capacities to develop demanding international projects. At the same time, it will provide the CNAG with its expertise in comparative genome analysis focused on copy number variation.

The Comparative Genomics team has been working on the characterization of genomic differences in a wide variety of organisms, including humans, apes, dogs, plants and fish. The final goal is to understand the phenotypic impact of all these variants by making use of well defined organisms and the fine scale exploration of all of variants.

Single Cell Genomics
In addition, the CNAG expansion includes the creation of a Single Cell Genomics team, focused on DNA and RNA applications at the level of an individual cell. The researcher María Méndez-Lago will lead this team that aims to research the biological context of individual cells in different types of cancers and in healthy cells during development. Previously the focus was on analyzing large numbers of cells but the variability among cells is quite large. Recently, the development of several technologies and protocols has enabled the study of the genome at the single-cell level. This is a unique time to study single-cells in order to understand the differences among individual cells and their roles and contribution to a tissue or an organ, or to disease.