Eilidh Ward – Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Where did you go and what did you do?

I attended Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a company that creates next generation sequencing technologies for long read sequencing of cDNA or direct RNA, enabling the detection of interesting features such as modifications and splicing.

I specifically worked within the RNA modifications team, and was given various computational biology tasks from creating bioinformatics pipelines for aligning and quantifying sequencing data to creating an application to try out alternative metrics for aligning sequences to a genome and training machine learning models.

What made you want to do that particular PIPS?

I primarily wanted to further develop my machine learning skills and knowledge of nanopore sequencing, but more importantly further develop my software engineering interests while integrating this with biology, a high interest area of mine for future careers and development. Undertaking a PIPS at Oxford Nanopore therefore felt like an excellent fit, at least for further understanding of nanopore sequencing technologies point.

What skills have you gained from your PIPS?

I gained various additional hard skills such as the analysis of nanopore sequencing data, especially into the insights of the raw signal layout of resulting files generated by the sequencing software and various machine learning techniques. My main takeaway however would be a deeper understanding in how existing aligners function and the format of aligned data.

However, I also developed a number of soft skills, from working closely with wet-lab scientists on project requirements, to communicating projects to individuals not directly involved.

What has been the impact (or likely future impact) of your PIPS?

I went into this expecting it to be 3 months of something different, to learn some additional skillsets and maybe contacts within the industry. However, it was so much more. I now know I enjoy every week, almost every day, being different and fast paced. I also enjoy the challenge of deadlines and schedules to meet. I already knew eventually I would move to industry, but I now know a research and development role would be the right fit for me to bring in those interesting challenges and diverse tasks in an every day role.

How would you sum up your PIPS experience?

Fantastic! I quickly integrated into the team and felt a part of their group, learning invaluable knowledge from people with a wide variety of skills. I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to undertake my PIPS with Oxford Nanopore, an experience I would repeat, given the chance.

What advice would you give to other PGRs about PIPS?

Don’t be afraid to contact companies not currently advertising positions on the PIPS pages, and find something that you think you will enjoy and expand upon your interests and skills!