AMSI grant recipient profile: Namuhan

My background is molecular biology and start to work on bioinformatics since PhD. I used to study microRNAs and their effects on several cardiovascular diseases, such as aortic dissection and atherosclerosis. I took an introductory bioinformatics course when I was doing my masters at UQ and then decided to do a bioinformatics topic project for my masters thesis. It was challenging in the beginning to transfer from pure wet lab to dry lab when you need to learn every jargon and line of scripts from the scratch. I found I can manage these challenges that I used to fear during and then decide to continue to do my PhD in bioinformatics. I am still studying biology but from a different perspective with different strategies. Now I am working with milk and cells in it using single-cell RNA-sequencing technology. The milk is sampled from different species including humans, camels, and cows. Next, we hope to extend the project to multi-omics.

Can you describe the area of mathematics or bioinformatics you’re focusing on, and what you hope to achieve through your research?

The area of bioinformatics I am focusing on is single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis and computational method development. From the perspective of biology, I am working with milk and lactation process. Single-cell RNA-sequencing is to quantify how much of the mRNA that have been transcribed from each gene in individual cells in the biological samples. Compared to bulk RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq allows us to study cell types in a tissue and the transcriptome profile in each cell type. Leveraging this technology, we study the cells and cell types extracted from fresh milk from different species, including humans, cows, and camels. We hope to study the lactation process through studying cells in milk and the lactation variation in different individuals and species.

What inspired you to pursue a career in bioinformatics or the mathematical sciences?

The event inspired me to pursue a career in bioinformatics must be the COVID pandemic when the Australia border was closed and I had to take all my masters courses online over zoom and I need to find myself a masters project. Two of the lectures in the introductory bioinformatics course I took at UQ were given by my current supervisor. After talking to her and with her encouragement, I decided to challenge myself to start something new to me. My supervisor must be the person who inspired me to take bioinformatics.

If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Learning new skills is always challenging and it applies to everyone. You can always learn new knowledge, correct your previous knowledge, and renew your perceptions. These can all happen at the same time. You might feel overwhelmed in the beginning but you will start to feel good about yourself after you have commanded the jargons and basic rules in your area.

How was your AMSI BioInfoSummer experience?

I have attended BioInfoSummer twice. The first time I attended (2022) was when I just started my PhD and I felt like I needed to know what the other people doing in this field and what options I may have for my own PhD, also I wanted to know some peers working in bioinformatics. And yes I have achieved my goals! The second time I attended (this year) was when I am in the start of my third year PhD and I should start to reach out for my future career. If a peer asked my if they should attend AMSI BioInfoSummer, I will highly recommend it and tell them you will gain more than what you would expect.

You received an AMSI BioInfoSummer travel grant to attend in person. How did this grant impact your ability to participate fully?

BioInfoSummer travel grant makes the travel from my home city Brisbane to Melbourne easy and also makes my staying in Melbourne easy. It might be a bit challenging without the travel grant.

What was the most valuable experience or takeaway from AMSI BioInfoSummer?

I learnt from one of the workshops that (1) machine learning is not as hard as I thought it was (that’s really important to me) (2) datasets splitting used for training machine learning models needs to be carefully designed and avoid test datasets to be exposed to the model in any way. I also caught up with my conference buddy I met two years ago from the BioInfoSummer.

Where do you see your journey in mathematical sciences taking you in the next 5–10 years?

Other than staying in university working as a postdoc after I graduate, I can have more options in other bioinformatics technology companies and projects such as Centre for Population Genomics.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience or feedback on AMSI BioInfoSummer or the travel grant?

The AMSI BioInfoSummer is so organized and the three-day lectures, talks, and workshops are well managed. So impressive. The only thing I can think of is maybe extending the poster presentation session a bit longer (timeframe wise or day wise).