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.

Transcript

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
   

   View Slide

2. What degree are you pursuing?
   2
   

   View Slide

3. Why did you pick that degree?
   3
   

   View Slide

4. What are your career aspirations?
   4
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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

   View Slide

9. Organic Chemistry Teaching Specialist, 2007-2009
   9
   

   View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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&
    

    View Slide

22. Monogamous Rocks Doves provide bi-parental care
    22
    

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

24. A day in the life of parenting pigeons
    24
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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.
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide