Senior Sceintist (Bioinformatics)

For some years now, I have worked in medical research (cancer) and now, latterly, for Concept Life Sciences (CLS, formerly CXR Biosciences) here in Dundee, Scotland. Initially my work was in the field of cancer research having successfully completed my Phd in Liverpool. I worked as a post-doctoral scientist for what is now Cancer Research UK (CRUK) at their Ninewells site in Dundee investigating the mechanism of drug resistance in cancer. I had my first taste of microarray and the concomitant data analysis here and I also attended some of the early microarray workshops held at the Sanger institute. I then worked for two years as an informatician supporting the research effort of the CRUK molecular pharmacology unit. For the past ten years I have worked in the field of toxicology (investigative and exploratory) at CLS. I have continued to develop my bioinformatics skills and I have been able to utilize the microarray approach to elucidate the mechanism of action (MOA) of compounds as diverse as agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial plasticizers and fragrancers! It is very rewarding to see the results of microarray data analysis, liaise with the client and help them to better understand the potential mechanism(s) of action of their molecules. I currently assist in the design, performance and interpretation of pre-clinical investigative, mechanistic and exploratory/discovery toxicology studies for a client base that spans the agrochemical, chemical, consumer products and pharmaceutical industries. Typically these studies are used to identify the toxicological mode of action (MOA)/adverse outcome pathway (AOP) affected by the compound(s) in question. Through an understanding of mechanistic toxicology at the early research stage, we can generate information that informs molecule design, candidate selection and translational risk assessment (human). Approaches used presently include microarray (toxicogenomics approach) and we would like to expand this offering to include Next Generation Sequencing (RNA-seq).