Geneticist Ben Lehner Emphasizes Protein Domain Mapping for Disease Insight

Ben Lehner, head of Generative Genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and senior group leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, discusses his research that merges high‑throughput genomics, protein biology and artificial intelligence. He argues that focusing on protein domains – the “domainome” – provides a more practical route to understanding how genetic variations cause disease, because domains are the fundamental functional units of proteins and are easier to study than whole proteins.

Lehner’s team has built one of the largest experimental catalogs of human protein domains, revealing that many disease‑causing mutations destabilise proteins. The goal is to create comprehensive maps of the effects of every possible mutation, which could ultimately improve patient diagnosis and treatment. He notes that good governance of scientific research is as vital as the scientific work itself. Lehner is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and EMBO, and received the 2026 Rei Jaume I Prize for Biomedical Research.