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