Anil Wipat gained a first degree in a Applied Biology from John Moores University. He returned to Liverpool following a year in the BioElectronics group at Cranfield Biotechnology Institute and completed a PhD in Molecular Microbiology.

He then spent a year in industry working firstly as a Software Engineer and subsequently as a Research and Development Scientist. In 1990 he joined Newcastle University as postdoctoral researcher studying firstly the regulation of alpha toxin in Gram Positive bacteria before working on research projects aimed at sequencing and functional analysis of the genome of the Gram positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis. In 1995 he was appointed as temporary lecturer in Microbial Genomics and spent a further 4 years within the Microbiology Department at Newcastle. In 2000, Anil gained a Masters with distinction in Computing Science from Newcastle, with a placement at the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge. After returning to Newcastle, he accepted a post as a Bioinformatics research fellow in the Faculty of Agriculture.

He joined the School of Computing Science in 2001 as a Lecturer in Bioinformatics.

Anil was the degree programme director for the MSc Bioinformatics and Computational Systems Biology at Newcastle University from 2003-2006. He is currently on a research fellowship as co-director of the Systems Biology Resource Centre.

His research interests are focussed on integrative bioinformatics and computational systems biology; members of his group research strategies for data integration in bioinformatics at various levels from the local integration of 'omics' datasets as probabilistic integrated functional networks, through to the integration of remote heterogeneous databases (ComparaGrid).

His group are investigating approaches to facilitate an integrative and systems approach to biology, with a particular emphasis on ageing and nutrition, as part of the BBSRC/EPSRC funded Newcastle Centre for the Integrative and Systems Biology of Ageing and Nutrition (CISBAN).

The group also researches and develops e-Science and Grid technology to tackle problems in biological data analysis, simulation, and integration, and are interested in how the biological sciences can, in turn, drive developments in computing science. In particular, the group is developing Grid technology for data integration, computational modelling and comparative genomics (e.g. Microbase).

The biological applications of his research are quite diverse ranging from microbiology and metagenomics, through to the mechanisms of human genetic disease and ageing. Traditionally the group has a strong interest and background in microbial genomics and functional genomics particularly for Gram-positive microorganisms such as Bacillus and relatives.