Lucy Colwell has demonstrated that the three-dimensional structure of proteins can be determined from large sequence alignments. Her current research develops methods for relating phenotype to genotype, using large data sets from high throughput biological experiments, focusing mainly on proteins, small molecules and nucleic acids. She is a Simons Investigator in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems program, which aims to help the research careers of outstanding scientists working on mathematical and theoretical approaches to topics in the life sciences.