Jessica Kan

"I think my personality types match fairly well because as a bioinformatician you have to think logically. We use computer programming languages to solve biological problems. This requires good problem solving (developer) and attention to detail (influencer) skills."

"Ok, so you’re absolutely baffled. Let’s imagine you’re baking a cake. Your “input” is a bunch of ingredients which don’t appeal to your bake sale audience (who wants to each flour, egg, and butter separately?!). Your job is to produce a yummy “output” i.e., a cake. So, you pop it through a “pipeline” of tools which include a set of scales to weigh out our ingredients, an electric whisk to mix them, and an oven to bake them. Ta-dah! Cake. Still confuzzled? Right, this time your “input” is a bunch of reads from sequencing genomes. Your aim is to produce an “output” which is a file of variants (e.g., SNPs, indels, CNVs). So, we check the quality of our reads, trim them, align our reads to the reference genome, convert files, call the variants, and then annotate them. Simples!"

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do coming out of school - it's hard when you're 16 and need to decide your career! Many people switch careers throughout their life so don't worry if you are in a similar position. I like biology at school so I decided to do BSc natural sciences (biochemistry with pharmacology) at Bath. I applied for the NHS STP (degree apprenticeship) but was not successful the 1st time. So then I did a panic masters at Bath in Bioinformatics (because I decided I didn't enjoy lab work anymore) and reapplied for the NHS STP (2nd time lucky!). "

"I love doing a range of things in my spare time, for example, volunteering at the food bank, swimming teaching, and doing ParkRun. I also like baking, reading, playing piano, and watching Taskmaster."

"As a 1st year trainee I am doing rotations in different hospital departments and shadowing scientists who analyse patient data. I reflect on these experiences for my portfolio. Also, I have university assignments and exams :( I look forward to 2nd/3rd year when I can get stuck into developing pipelines for processing patient DNA sequencing data and doing a university project!"

"MSc BioinformaticsBSc Natural Sciences (Biochemistry with pharmacology) with a year-long work placement at GSKA-levels: Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Further maths"