Bioinformatician Spotlight: Bettina Meier

Bettina joined Fios Genomics during lockdown and has now been with us for a year! Read on to discover why she pursued a career as a bioinformatician and learn what her role at Fios involves.

Fios Bioinformatician, Bettina Meier

My Journey To Fios

I received my PhD from the LMU Munich, Germany, with an interest in how proteins work together to repair the damage that our genetic information, the DNA, experiences every day. My general interest in how our genome is maintained, both in its structure and the information it carries, led me to move to North Carolina, USA, for a first postdoc and eventually to Dundee, Scotland.

Here, I initiated a research project that used a model organism, C. elegans, to understand the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to genomic mutations. In addition to the wetlab research, I became proficient in analysing large scale next-generation sequencing data in collaboration with colleagues at the Sanger Centre and the EBI, Hinxton. I very much enjoyed asking scientific questions and visualizing biological data that were too big and complex to comprehend i.e. from looking at a table.

Following a 3-month data science bootcamp in NYC, USA, where I expanded my data analysis skills and which confirmed that I wanted to work in a role that combined my interest in biological research and data analysis, I joined Fios Genomics remotely in 2020.

My Role

I am a bioinformatician at Fios and I am responsible for analysing our clients’ research data. Once I have conducted the analysis, I write reports (like this one) that highlight various aspects of the data and the results of our analysis. I will then discuss the reports and our findings with the client.

What Is The Most Challenging Aspect Of Being a Bioinformatician?

Coming from academia, where I have worked on a single project or topic for a long time, it has been a big change to work on several, quite different projects within a few weeks’ time. I may be working with RNA-seq data one week and on microbiome data or a data mining project the next; analyses which may require different skills. Although challenging, working on diverse biological questions with diverse data types makes being a bioinformatician at Fios also really interesting.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Working At Fios?

Fios’s company culture makes it a great place to work. I enjoy being among the first to look at data for a specific biological question and understand what the data can tell us and what the limitations are. Although we work individually on a given project, we are very much a team; with discussions about analysis decisions and internal review for each project. Moreover, I find it rewarding when clients gain new insights from the analysis we provide.

Do You Have Any Pawleagues?

I have a 1 ½ year old cat, Koko. Right now she is probably running after insects in the garden or walking around on the roof. She is a bit of a magpie and brings presents home all the time; the latest was a children’s toy arrow she found somewhere in the neighbourhood.

Bettina’s cat, Koko

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