Yun-Yu Chen Joins Team Fios!
We are delighted to introduce you to one of our newest bioinformaticians, Yun-Yu Chen. Yun-Yu joined the Fios Genomics team back in September. With a strong background in plant bioinformatics he has been a welcome addition to the team. Indeed, Yun-Yu’s expertise has already benefitted numerous client projects. Welcome Yun-Yu!
My Journey From Plant Bioinformatics To Fios
I completed my undergraduate and master degrees in Taiwan, with both being heavily plant-focused. My undergrad thesis was about the pathological study of fungal disease in tropical ferns, which I followed up with a master thesis about the development and evolution of the African violet floral crop species. Later, I expanded on this topic for my PhD thesis, which was about bioinformatics and genomic study of the African violet at the University of Edinburgh and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. This was my first point of contact with plant bioinformatics.
After my PhD, I became more interested in applied science so I shifted my focus to food crops. I joined the James Hutton Institute in Dundee for a postdoc project where I used plant bioinformatics to understand barley diversity for potential breeding improvement. The more I learned about bioinformatics and its diverse applications, the more I enjoyed working with bioinformatics, which brings me to my current role at Fios.
My Role
I am a bioinformatician at Fios. Overall, my role involves data analysis and interpretation to produce bespoke reports which answer our client’s research questions. I am also learning about and contributing to our code base.
What Is The Most Challenging Aspect Of Being A Bioinformatician?
For me, the challenging part is also the fun part – shifting quickly between different work topics. It is important to be able to quickly grasp the scope and background of a study as well as what the client wants from the analysis.
What Do You Enjoy Most About Working At Fios?
I particularly enjoy the diversity of the projects I get to work on, as they involve different aims, models and methods. I also enjoy the team work and the great support I receive from my colleagues.
Do You Have Any Pawleagues?
I have two little coding assistants, Booboo and Cookie. Their role involves interrupting internal meetings by chirping into the headset, fortunately my colleagues don’t seem to mind.
You May Also Be Interested In:
How Fios Can Help With Environmental and Agricultural Research
Choosing A Bioinformatics Services Company – Why Fios Genomics?
