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PLEASE NOTE: If a candidate gives a layman's talk, the livestream will start fifteen minutes earlier.

Each individual person has differing DNA, the code that tells our cells what to do. However, the cells within each individual have the same DNA but perform different tasks (for example, heart and brain cells). Why is this if they have the same DNA?

We know that there are many layers of control that decide whether genes in our cell’s DNA are switched on or off, dictating the behaviour of that cell. However, we are still understanding how these individual layers function. Further, we now increasingly understand cells are extremely complex and that these layers interact to form vast interconnected networks of molecular control. How these systems interact is only beginning to be understood, partly because we are still developing the technologies required to do so.

Multi-omic sequencing technologies can help us more fully understand gene control in a cell, and how it goes wrong in disease. These technologies measure many of the layers of gene control, and its results, simultaneously. This allows us to understand the connections between the control layers.

Further, each cell is slightly different. If you study mixes of 1,000,000 cells you will only see an average. You will only see the biggest differences between the groups and lots of information will be lost. Therefore, we need highly precise technologies to study individual cells or individual molecules.

I explored developing multi-omic single-cell and single-molecule sequencing methods to help future researchers study the function of a cell more fully. This could enable, for example: improved stem-cell therapy, greater understanding and treatment of cancer and improved drug development.