Eric Nawrocki

Scientists at Janelia work together in multidisciplinary teams to solve challenging biological problems that are difficult to address in other research settings.

Many lab spaces at Janelia feature modular designs and natural light.

Credit: Brad Feinknopf

Occupying 689 wooded acres along the Potomac River, Janelia Farm provides a variety of services and facilities to support its diverse community of scientists and staff—inside and outside the lab.

A view of the Janelia Farm Research Campus at dusk.

Credit: Brad Feinknopf

The Janelia Farm model frees scientists of constraints commonly found in other research environments, providing access to world-class resources and a talented support staff.

Graduate scholar John Tuthill prepares a Drosophila specimen for imaging.

Credit: James Kegley

In addition to our resident scientists and fellows, we offer visiting scientists, graduate, and undergraduate candidates a range of scientific programs.

Graduate scholar Arbora Resulaj (left) and her mentor, Janelia Emeritus Fellow Dmitry Rinberg (right).

Credit: James Kegley

Janelia Farm regularly hosts scientific meetings, ranging from workshops to intensive, specialized conferences. See what's coming up and visit the archive of past events.

Janelia's large auditorium seats 250 people.

Credit: Matt Staley

Janelia provides outstanding employment opportunities, at all levels.

Credit: James Kegley

Many tools developed in Janelia Farm labs are made freely available to outside researchers, while others are taking shape through collaborations with industry, academia, and government.

A virtual arena for the study of flight in insects.

Credit: James Kegley

Janelia’s sense of community comes from a core belief that people of diverse disciplines and backgrounds can accomplish great things when working with a common purpose.

Research specialist Trevor Wardill (left) and group leader Vivek Jayaraman (right).

Credit: James Kegley

Eddy/Rivas Lab

Bioinformatics Specialist

Contact Me

I'm a software engineer working on sequence analysis of non-coding RNAs. As an undergraduate, I majored in biology and computer science at the University of Maryland in College Park. I did my graduate work on RNA sequence analysis with Sean Eddy at Washington University in St. Louis (first three years) and at Janelia Farm (final three years). I've continued that work since graduating and am currently the lead developer of the Infernal software package. Infernal is used by the Rfam database to annotate non-coding RNAs in sequence databases and also by the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) to align 16S ribosomal RNAs. I spend a lot of time trying to make Infernal run faster, so it can be used on large datasets in a reasonable amount of time.