Healthcare Science Week: In Conversation With… Vikki

To celebrate Healthcare Science Week, we caught up with Vikki, a Research Assistant in Metagenomics, to hear about her journey into healthcare science and her tips for those thinking about starting a career in the field.

Can you tell us about your career journey so far?

I studied a BSc in Biology at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by a MSc in Medical Microbiology. After graduating, I joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and have been there ever since! I’ve done a few different roles, but now I’m a Metagenomics Research Assistant.

What inspired you to work in healthcare science?

I’ve always found science to be such an interesting subject, even from my school years. I remember discovering microbiology as a potential scientific field to pursue when considering applying to university. However, I had not been exposed to much microbiology during A-levels, so decided to pursue a BSc in Biology. I ended up loving microbiology during my degree and was certain on it as my career.

I found it fascinating that millions of microbes can live symbiotically with us (most of the time), and we do not even realise. The applications of microbiology are so widespread that opportunities can vary from vaccine development, clinical microbiology, development of probiotics and gut microbiome research or sequencing and metagenomics, like I do currently!

In my personal life, I have seen various family members require some form of medical intervention at one time or another. I believe these experiences pushed me further towards healthcare so that one day I could help other families too.

What does a typical day in your role look like?

Typically, our day starts around 8am by picking up Metagenomics samples. We begin processing the samples by depleting any human DNA present to enhance bacterial or viral capture during extraction. The extracts go through library preparation for PCR amplification and subsequently sequencing using nanopore sequencing.

By around 4pm, we start generating the first reports for the samples and begin blasting all the weird and wonderful things we find, before senior members of staff start sharing the results back to the intensive care wards.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

There are millions of microbes living with, among and in us. Every sample that we see is unique and no two are ever the same. Metagenomics has been such an insightful opportunity to learn more about microbiology, whilst also applying sequencing results to real life patient cases to understand how infections are impacting their health, treatment and recovery.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about a career in healthcare science?

Learn about quality! I think having a career in healthcare science is about knowing how the laboratory runs, as much as what to do in the laboratory. There are so many terms and abbreviations to get your head around and understanding quality helps you to build the bigger picture of how laboratories function day to day, how to uphold laboratory-specific standards, and more importantly keeping yourself safe.

Finally, as a scientist, I think it’s important to always show enthusiasm, curiosity and to never be afraid to ask the question ‘Why?’.