ABOUT YOU
When did you first find out that you wanted to be scientist?
Although I always lived on the countryside with my parents, and I had some affection for computers and programming at early age, it was only at university that I discovered Bioinformatics which combines the best of both of these worlds.
Tell us something about your background and main research interests
I am trained as a Master in Biotechnology. In my lab we try to address specific biological questions using computational biology. Through the development and application of various bioinformatics methods, we try to identify new aspects of genome biology, especially in the area of gene function prediction, gene regulation and evolutionary/systems biology.
In plain words…what is the principal aim of your current investigation?
We try to get a better insight what the function is of each gene in a genome, how these genes have evolved over time and how genes work together to exert a specific gene function.
What do you like doing in your free time?
Going back to nature: enjoying the country side at home, gardening, and through travelling discover new countries, landscapes, cultures and good food.
Which is the best advice you have ever received in science?
Not sure where I got it from, but try to have fun and be creative while doing research.
_
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In non scientific words… What is your role in SINGEK project?
I am involved in training an Early Research Scientists (ESR) in a project where we develop better tools for biological data analysis.
How do you think your work in SINGEK will contribute to the research field of Single Cell Genomics of microbial eukaryotes?
We want to develop efficient and user-friendly bioinformatics tools to extract biological knowledge from large sequence datasets.
In plain words…how do you think SINGEK will contribute to better understand the living world?
SINGEK is training a new set of future scientists and will generate new insights about the function and lifestyle of a diverse set of organisms which currently are not well-studied.
How do you recommend people to follow your research activity?
The SINGEK project page, my twitter account @plaza_genomics or via public tools like ORCID or Google Scholar. If funding allows, we are supporting Open Access for all our publications.
