STEM Careers in READING SCHOOL - A range of stories and experiences of Old Redingensians and current and former - Reading ...

READING SCHOOL

 Careers in
   STEM
 A range of stories and experiences of Old
  Redingensians and current and former
parents who have been working during the
            Covid-19 pandemic

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Jonathan Cairns
Data Sciences and Quantitative Biology, Discovery Sciences, R&D,
AstraZeneca, Cambridge.

Developing a new medicine for a particular disease is difficult - to succeed, we
typically need to link the disease to key genes, then work on ideas for compounds
that will target those genes as specifically as possible. The process often takes a
long time (anything from years to decades) and involves many decisions along the
way.

AstraZeneca performs a huge number experiments to guide those decisions,
producing vast amounts of data in the process. But data aren’t enough by
themselves – to figure out the correct decisions, we must interpret the data carefully
and work out what they tell us about biology, at the same time avoiding being misled
by noise or errors that are unavoidable in large scale experiments.

My role is to make sure that we use our data the best we can, and that we make the
right decisions – for example, prioritising the most important genes in a disease, or
choosing whether to advance a project or change course. I'm particularly interested
in analysis methods for "transcriptomics" and "multi-omics" – these are experiments
that measure all ~20,000 genes in one go, helping us push the boundaries of
science. My previous jobs (a PhD and Postdoc position) both focused on the
development of new analysis methods for ‘omics technologies, and I’m building on
that expertise at Astra Zeneca.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Shilpa Govindraj, FFPM
Director, Global Patient Safety Lead at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

My mum is a doctor who specialises in pharmaceutical medicine, and currently works
in drug safety (pharmacovigilance) where she ensures medicines being developed are
safe. In the pandemic, she has had to adapt to working from home full-time. She also
volunteered within the NHS as a Clinical Insights Specialist Advisor and helped with the
effort in bringing back retired medical professionals to the workforce in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, she has also volunteered to help administer vaccines as
part of the government’s vaccination programme. I think the way she has gone above
and beyond to use her skills to help with the fight against COVID as well as doing
everything she does in her regular job is brilliant, and a great example of how science is
a field in which you can help people in many different ways.

Submitted by Aadith Chandra (10W)

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Graham Sewell
Senior Purchasing Manager at Baxter Healthcare Limited

Dr Graham Sewell works in procurement for a major healthcare company, sourcing
specialty chemicals. These include amino acids used in the manufacture of sterile
intravenous nutrition. These bags are used to deliver nutrition directly into the
bloodstream of patients who are heavily sedated, unconscious or in a coma, as is the
case with many who are in intensive care due to COVID-19 infection. Amino acids
manufactured to the required quality standards were in short supply even before the
pandemic, and are now critically short as some are also used in vaccine manufacture,
just at a time when there is increased demand for IV nutrition. To maintain secure
supply of these vital products it has been necessary to work ceaselessly with
manufacturers, governmental bodies and care providers in an on-going balancing act
to keep production running.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Sonia Garcia
Principal Scientist at Johnson Matthey

Sonia García obtained a BSc in Chemistry from the University of La Rioja in Spain. She
joined Johnson Matthey in 2001 where she worked on a Marie Curie funded PhD in
Chemistry from Reading University on Nanocatalysts for Fuel Cell Applications.
Currently she is working in the New Applications Group in JMTC on a variety of
projects developing novel catalysts. The uses of those catalysts include air
purification, processing of cosmetics and materials for sustainable processes
amongst a long list of other applications.

The most difficult thing during the pandemic has been limited access to the lab. She
has also missed the informal conversations (normally by the coffee machine) with
other scientists that often spark new ideas. The limitations of the pandemic have
meant that starting a project in as part of a new team in a different country she had to
make the most of using technology for effective communication. She is looking
forward to meeting her new colleagues face to face and having a coffee with them
whilst developing new products that contribute to a better world.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Mahesh Nanjunappa
Consultant Neonatologist at NHS

My dad is an NHS consultant Neonatologist, meaning he treats new-born babies
who are sick. His role requires him to works nights, some weekends and this
sometimes means that he is away from us in the evenings/weekends.

Both his job and daily life have been affected by the pandemic. He volunteered to
look after adult patients, to support his other colleagues. He now needs to wear
protective gear when treating babies to prevent transmission of the virus. Also,
immediately after he comes home, often tired, he cannot sit down. He must have a
shower and still after that we need to keep a distance from him. When my grandad
had come from India in January last year and stayed with us during the first
lockdown, my dad had to be even more careful and stay further than he does now
as we could not risk it. Last year in April, my dad became positive for COVID-19
infection, could not go to work and had to stay quarantined in a room. We had to
deliver food to the front of the room and later he had to come out and get it after
we had gone. We barely saw him for the 2 weeks when he had to stay locked up.
This experience was a difficult time especially for him, and the way he strongly
came back and continued to work on the frontline was great to see. The way he
helps people even during this time shows how science can make a real difference
to society.

Submitted by Vivaan Chandra (8W)

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Dr Guojie Mao
Lead Scientist (R&T) at Lonza

My dad works in a pharmaceutical company in Slough. He is a research scientist. His
responsibility is to develop test methods for the products that the company produces
and global release testing. The biggest challenge over the pandemic was to keep
production running during lockdown to supply medicine for patients. To overcome
this challenge, my dad and his colleagues took very careful measures to prevent
catching the virus. They implemented a one-way system in the office and the
laboratory. They are classified as key workers. The products that they produce mostly
deal with cancer-related diseases.

Submitted by James Mao (8C)

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2021

Gareth Price CSci CChem FRSC BSc
Deputy Chief Scientist (International) Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston

Gareth Price is a Chartered Chemist (awarded in 2000) and a Chartered Scientist (awarded in 2004), and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Chemistry in 2016. He was obtained a BSc in Chemistry & Chemical Technology at Bradford University in 1989 and a further degree in
Chemistry awarded by Kingston University in 1992. He joined the Ministry of Defence in 1990 at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)
Aldermaston. He has continued to work AWE where currently he is the Deputy Chief Scientist with the key role for international collaboration. He
provides support and guidance to HM Government and internally within AWE on international matters associated with nuclear weapons.

Challenges Faced During the Pandemic
In early March 2020, the world started to change, restrictions on travel started to be imposed. In those very early stages, I worked to ensure all AWE
personnel who were overseas were repatriated back to the UK (one case, an individual was on the last international flight out of San Francisco
airport).

Just like Reading School, everyone has moved to Microsoft Teams! We had to learn new skills (e.g. raise hand during a meeting), new phrases have
become common in the workplace, ‘you are on mute’, ‘be right back, BRB – someone is at the door’. However, the best phrase that describes the
work in the pandemic is ‘Stay Calm and Carry On’. Our U.S. and French partners have had the same challenges and we have maintained our close
links with our international colleagues to continue our collaborative activities. Science and Engineering are by their nature collaborative activities,
where groups of people work together to solve problems and deliver innovative ideas/solutions.

Our organisation never closed, all its staff has been classed as critical workers, as they support the UK’s national defence via the continuous at sea
deterrent. How we work day-to-day has changed, my team was divided into 2, working on alternate days (cohort working). When the newer strains of
the virus appeared, those 2 teams were further divided into basically individual people. Each on a rota designed to ensure minimal time with each
other at a handover. This isolation from colleagues and friends is one of the hardest realities of this pandemic. On the technical side, the
enthusiasm for achieving results, new ways of designing and manufacturing items are never-ending People’s creative minds focused on problem-
solving can deliver spectacular results.

Submitted by James Price (9C)