Name:

Beth Sampher

Job:

Bioinformatics apprentice – Wellcome Sanger Institute

What do I do?

Bioinformatics is a combination of biology and computing. As an apprentice, I study part-time as well as having a job at the Sanger Institute, where I work on computer tools that help scientists with their experiments.

Me in 3 (Three words to describe me)

  • Conscientious
  • Friendly
  • Reliable

Fascinating facts about me

I am a keen swimmer and have been swimming regularly as part of a club for over 10 years now! My favourite food is Italian food and I would love to visit Italy one day. I am also a dog- lover, although I don’t own one (yet!)

Skills I use in my job:

Problem solving - When my code isn’t working properly I have to use problem solving skills to get to the bottom of it (sometimes it turns out to be a really silly mistake!)

Organisation - I have to be very organised to manage studying and working at the same time

Communication - I use both written and verbal communication skills to communicate with a variety of people

Teamwork - In my team, we often work on our own tasks, but we still need to help and support each other in order to be as effective as possible

Can you crack the code?

A genome is a set of DNA instructions found in all living things- it is like a code made up of 4 letters- A, T, C and G. There are 3 billion DNA letters in our genome! Every three letters in the DNA sequence codes for 1 amino acid. Each Amino Acid is represented by a letter (shown in the table opposite).

Can you use your problem solving skills to decode the DNA sequence ? Use the table to help you.

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