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A journey in ‘omics research from the bottom of the ocean to the top of a mountain

A journey in ‘omics research from the bottom of the ocean to the top of a mountain

This slide deck gives an overview of my career trajectory (from bachelor's degree to post-doctoral research) and describes a current research project. This deck was prepared for a research seminar series (NSM90) at Sacramento State.

Rayna M Harris

April 09, 2020
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  1. A journey in ‘omics research
    from the bottom of the ocean
    to the top of a mountain
    April 9, 2020
    Sacramento State University (NMS90)
    Dr. Rayna M. Harris
    Postdoc, UC Davis
    raynamharris
    1

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  2. What degree are you pursuing?
    2

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  3. Why did you pick that degree?
    3

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  4. What are your career aspirations?
    4

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  5. Part 1: My career path
    Ph.D.
    student
    Unpaid
    intern
    Lab tech and
    manager
    Postdoctoral
    researcher
    By Caitlin Friesen
    By Rayna Harris
    By Rayna Harris
    Etsy
    Teaching
    assistant
    Needpix.com
    5

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  6. Part 2: My current research
    “Transcriptional symphony of parental care”
    6

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  7. B.S. Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin 2006
    Why? It fulfilled all
    the pre-med
    requirements.
    But I soon realized I
    didn’t want to be
    that kind of doctor.
    7

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  8. What do you need to become a
    professor?
    8

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  9. Organic Chemistry Teaching Specialist, 2007-2009
    9

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  10. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica, 2008
    Research-driven scuba diving Culturing aquatic fungi Translating research
    10

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  11. Lab technician and manager, 2009-2012
    11
    Molecular biology, neuroscience Data science, bioinformatics

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  12. Some molecular biology and data science keywords
    DNA
    RNA
    Protein
    genomics, genetics
    transcriptomics
    proteomics
    Molecular
    Biology
    Data Science/
    Bioinformatics
    transcription
    (aka gene expression)
    translation
    12

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  13. PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology 2012-2017
    13
    https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.05.935759v1

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  14. Volunteer Instructor, The Carpentries 2015-2020
    14
    Translating lessons into Spanish Teaching Git in Argentina Instructor training in Latin America
    https://carpentries.org/

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  15. Postdoc: Studying parental care while making science
    more inclusive to working mothers, 2019-current
    Image of parenting pigeons
    by Victoria Farrar
    Calisi & a Working Group of
    Mothers in Science 2018 PNAS 15
    Calisi 2018 Science

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  16. As a data scientist, I can work in the tropics,
    in the city or in the mountains
    16
    Home office
    Truckee, CA
    Coffee shop
    Austin, TX
    Community center
    Old San Juan, PR

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  17. What questions do you have about
    my career path?
    17

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  18. Part 2: My current research
    “Transcriptional symphony of parental care”
    18

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  19. “Transcriptional symphony”: the orchestrated
    expression of genes that regulate a biological process
    19
    DNA
    RNA
    Protein
    genomics, genetics
    transcriptomics
    proteomics
    Molecular
    Biology
    Data Science/
    Bioinformatics
    transcription
    (aka gene expression)
    translation
    Biological
    process of
    interest

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  20. Sonification: Turning data into sound!
    20
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonification

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  21. Parental care: behavior that promotes offspring survival
    21
    Image from Google. Quote from https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-evolution-of-parental-care-9780199692583?cc=ca&lang=en&

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  22. Monogamous Rocks Doves provide bi-parental care
    22

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  23. The Rock Dove Transcriptomics Team
    Dr. Rayna Harris
    Dr. Suzanne Austin
    Dr. Andrew Lang
    Dr. Matthew MacManes
    Dr. Rebecca Calisi
    Rechelle Viernes
    Dr. Jesse Krause
    April Booth
    Victoria Farrar
    University of California, Davis University of New Hampshire
    Funded by the National Science Foundation
    23

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  24. A day in the life of parenting pigeons
    24

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  25. Research question: What genes in the reproductive
    axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, and gonads) promote
    parental care behavior in females and males?
    25

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  26. Boxplots are useful for comparing gene expression
    between groups
    26

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  27. Which groups are most different?
    27
    1. A and B
    2. A and C
    3. A and D
    4. B and C
    5. B and D
    6. C and D

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  28. Prolactin (PRL) gene expression is the highest
    at and around the hatch time point
    https://raynamharris.shinyapps.io/musicalgenes/
    28

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  29. Genes that are co-expressed with PRL are
    known to influence development and cancer
    29
    https://github.com/macmanes-lab/DoveParentsRNAseq

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  30. Musical genes: An app I made to visualize and sonify
    gene expression during parental care
    https://raynamharris.shinyapps.io/musicalgenes/
    30

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  31. Breakout groups
    31
    Visit https://raynamharris.shinyapps.io/musicalgenes/.
    Pick a gene, tissue, and sex.
    Sonify and visualize its expression.
    Repeat and compare.
    Share your favorite.

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  32. Pituitary prolactin orchestrates a symphony of
    gene expression that regulates parental care
    32

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  33. Many thanks to colleagues in the...
    33
    College of Natural Science, UT Austin
    Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica
    Neural Systems & Behavior Course, MBL
    The Carpentries
    Data-Intensive Biology Lab, UC Davis
    Birds, Brains & Behavior Lab, UC Davis
    Science & Technology Studies, UC Davis

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  34. What questions do you have?
    Thank you for listening.
    Dr. Rayna M. Harris
    Postdoc, UC Davis
    raynamharris March 19, 2020
    Sacramento State University (NMS90)
    34

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