Profile
Rachel Lau
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About Me:
I’m someone who has not truly left education as I work as a researcher at a university in London after my studies. I love anime/manga and spending time with my friends and family!
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After my A-level studies at school, I undertook a university degree in Biochemistry, which is the study combining chemistry and biology to understand the chemical processes within living things. Forever stuck in education, I completed a PhD in cancer biology where I study a specific research question. I worked in a laboratory during my PhD (where I wore white lab coats) but I also used computers a lot for my analysis. As I loved using computers during my PhD, I now only do computer work and do not work in the laboratory.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I am a Bioinformatician so I use computers to understand clinical and biological data so that we can have better treatments for diseases.
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I handle big data which is why I use computers to help with my analysis as it would take a long time (or be almost impossible) to do manually. By understanding the biology of diseases and linking them to the clinic, we can develop medicine that is more targeted and suited to an individual. This is especially important as not everyone is the same so the same disease may develop differently and people will respond differently to treatment. For instance, it’s like how different shoppers get different t-shirts – you certainly will not get the same style/size as your parents! I used to work on cancer research but I now work on autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, which is wear your immune system goes wrong and attacks your body.
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My Typical Day:
I use computers for my analysis so I can work anywhere – I work some days at home and some days at my workplace. Days can be varied with meetings, analysis using computer, reading papers and guiding students.
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My days are varied because of the many research projects I am involved with. I work with doctors, students and other scientists so a range of people work together to find answers to our different research projects. Doctors run trials to see whether certain medicines are suitable for specific types of people. Students are learning how to become independent researchers so I help them with their analysis. We work as teams so we have meetings to discuss results.
I use computers for my analysis by writing instructions (code) for the computer. The instructions have to be specific and carefully created to answer the question correctly so I spend a lot of time making sure the data is fine and the instructions are clear with no mistakes.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
With the prize money, I would like to undertake a public engagement activity that introduces the idea of targeted treatment. Preliminary thoughts include having lever scales demonstrating a binary ‘yes/no’ of whether a treatment is suitable. There will be different weights representing each characteristic of the disease and a worksheet will describe whether the weight should go to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of the lever scales. Different flashcards will be given to the participant and the flashcard will represent a patient and detail in bullet points the characteristic of the disease. The participant will place weights in the appropriate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of the lever scales to determine whether the patient on their flashcard should have the treatment or not.
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Education:
After my A-level studies at school, I undertook a degree in Biochemistry at University College London. I completed a PhD in cancer biology at the Institute of Cancer Research (in Sutton- south of London).
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Qualifications:
My GCSEs were in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, English, French, Spanish, Latin and History.
My A levels were in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and History.
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Work History:
After my PhD, I went on to be a Bioinformatician at Queen Mary University of London and I am still in that same job a year on.
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Current Job:
I am a Bioinformatician at Queen Mary University of London.
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Employer:
Queen Mary University of London
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
When I was small, I wanted to be a Pokemon trainer but when I got to secondary school, a scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Rarely, too quiet at school
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Probably would be a teacher - never straying far from education still....
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Keeps changing but Sigur Ros
What's your favourite food?
Difficult to pick as a foodie but chicken katsu curry
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
(1) Cure cancer, (2) ability to understand several languages and (3) to teleport to make travel to work (and around the world) easier
Tell us a joke.
How did Harry Potter get down the hill? Walking.....JK Rowling
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