Name: Beth Sampher
Position: Bioinformatics Technician
Company: Wellcome Sanger Institute
I’m in favor. . .
Bioinformatics is a broad field. My team focuses more on software expansion, but it’s all based on biology. We’re expanding software that will help scientists keep track of their lab experiments.
We’re also launching a new task called Saturation Genome Editing, which involves making adjustments to the genome and observing the effects. I help IT with this and expand the software that will help the scientists design the experiments. As a bioinformatician on the team, I also deal with knowledge analysis.
A typical day in my life. . .
In the morning I check my emails and messages. We have a short assembly day in the morning to talk about what we have been doing; This assembly will dictate what I will paint during the day. This can simply be scheduling, research papers on other software, analysis, or just general administrative responsibilities like booking assemblies.
If I’m on campus, which is a few days a week, we have lunch as a team and go for a walk. I have one exam day per week, so I will have classes or practical work online or on campus.
What I like most about my job. . .
The fact that I can contribute in some way to the clinical advances that are happening here. I am very passionate about science. Scientists are making vital breakthroughs and discovering things about other diseases, such as cancer. Sanger is still working on sequencing COVID genomes, which has helped track variants of the pandemic. We also make animal genome series here, which helps conservation. These are very vital revolutionary things!
The moments of teamwork. . .
I paint in a team of 10 other people. Everyone gets along very well and it is wonderful to exchange concepts with other people. We have a wonderful courtship and that makes the task more fun. It’s wonderful to go out and see other people face to face. It’s very encouraging and everyone has other skills. I learned a lot from the more experienced members of the team.
The most exciting thing I’ve done in my job.
Learn to code! I had no idea when I started and I’ve come a long way. Some of the public engagement projects I have been involved in have been exciting. We hosted a week-long workshop and activities on COVID and programming. I had never done it. something like this before. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone and to pull it off is an accomplishment.
Next steps on my journey. . .
I would like to have a bioinformatician, either in my team, in the organization in general, or in Sanger. I hope to be able to locate a task here because we have the commitment of the Sanger technicians.
For information visit: https://www. technicians. org. uk/stories/beth-sampher/