Profile

Every person on the planet has a unique genetic blueprint called DNA 🧬, which is found in every cell of the body. This is what makes us who we are and tells our bodies how to work. Even small mistakes in this blueprint may cause a huge range of genetic diseases, which may be passed on to members of the same family who share parts of their DNA.

In my job, I help to carry out a wide range of tests to read a person’s DNA code who may be at risk of a genetic disease. This is really important as it can help families find answers to why they’re affected with a disease, allow them to access treatments and make decisions on how to prevent other members of their family being affected. Analysing DNA can be very complicated and take a lot of detective work 🔎, as there is a lot we’re still discovering about genetics, however this makes it a very rewarding and exciting area to work in.

Another part of my job is something called ‘pharmacogenetic‘ testing. This is a very new and exciting area of genetics, mostly to do with testing tumour samples taken from people with cancer. By reading the DNA code of certain cancers, we can tell which treatments they might respond to. Some targeted cancer therapies can be life-saving, making this an incredibly important part of our job.