Matthew Mingay

Your UBC Experience

Beautiful natural landscapes, a world-class reputation and cutting edge facilities all contributed to my decision to pursue graduate studies UBC. However, the high-impact leukemia research I was able to conduct and the bright and motivated scientists I was fortunate enough to work with made UBC an obvious choice. Some of my best memories were during the holiday season at UBC. Alongside a motley crew of professors and department members I performed hilarious covers of rock songs at the annual holiday party. It was also a blast to making funny holiday videos with my lab mates for the annual holiday video competition. Learning to code and apply data science approaches during my research project was on of the best choices I made and has greatly contributed to my academic and career success.

Thesis Title

Vitamin C induced epigenomic remodeling in IDH1 mutant acute myeloid leukemia

Clubs/Programs involved in at UBC

Founder of DataSense

Awards

TFRI Top Trainee

Your Career Journey and Achievements

My first job after graduation was as a Data Scientist at the Joint Genome Institute where I helped scientists and facility users analyze DNA sequencing data. This type of work is exactly what I intended to do after acquiring a wide range of laboratory and computational skills at UBC and developing an affinity for the latter. This career path is a niche so tailoring a resume and getting it to the right people can be a challenge. However the wealth of support and networking connections I received through M&I faculty members eased the transition into employment. The thing I like most about my current job the freedom I have to develop new skills while solving exciting science problems.

Advice to current students

With access to the internet and sufficient time and motivation, anything can be learned and applied.

Grad Year:

2017

UBC Degree/Program:

MSc/Microbiology&Immunology

UBC Supervisor:

MSc supervisor: Dr. Martin Hirst

Other Education:

University of Western Ontario, 2013, Honors BSc Double Major/Medical Sciences and Genetics

Hometown:

Tecumseh, Ontario

Job Title & Employer:

Data Scientist/Joint Genome Institute (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)

Current Location:

Berkeley, California