Dr Lana Talmane on Mutations and Superhero Enzymes

Please tell us about your research project, research interests and how your work involves genomics or makes use of genomic technologies

My research interests focus on the fascinating world of genomic mutations – how, where, when, and why they arise. More specifically, in my current project, I'm investigating how interactions between DNA damage from chemotherapy agents (and other mutagens) and cellular repair processes can induce additional mutations. Think of repair enzymes as superheroes battling the villains (damage from chemotherapy agents), but sometimes causing unintended chaos in the DNA town. My goal is to identify these "messes" to understand the actions of these enzymes better. This work relies entirely on data obtained from next-generation sequencing of large number of samples, so it’s very much only possible thanks to the great genomic technologies we have access to nowadays.

Please summarise your previous work and career so far.

I began my academic journey with a degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of Dundee, though I briefly considered shifting my focus to immunology throughout my studies. Ultimately, I pursued a PhD in bioinformatics at the University of Edinburgh with Prof. Martin Taylor, where I am still to this day! My doctoral research delved into mutation rate variability in the non-coding genome (regions of DNA that do not directly code for genes) and interplay between mutation occurrence, replication, repair, and transcription factors (TFs), classes of proteins that bind to DNA to control the expression of genes. I explored how these interactions influence heritable variants in the male germline and in cancer. After my PhD, I continued expanding on these research topics within the same group.

What inspired you to follow your career path?

I became super fascinated by genetics the first time I learned about DNA in school, despite the main focus of my high school department being foreign languages. What, one single molecule holds all the instructions on how to make a person, and can determine what you are going to be like, what you are going to like, and even how soon you might die?! How insane is that? And it’s in this cool helix shape as well? I was sold. So, I went to University to learn more about that in my undergraduate degree, then got a PhD position and ended up staying in academia afterwards.

If you could have tea with anyone (alive or dead), who would it be? What would you talk about?

I guess the idea here is not name someone famous, but I would have to say my grandmother! I mean, who wouldn’t want to spend some time with their beloved dead relative, right? But it’s not just that, she was a biologist as well, and I never got to chat to her much about my work, I think she would love to hear about all the new developments in science and about what I do.

What is the most unusual thing you have done during your career?

During my PhD, I found myself in a surgical theatre, ice bucket in hand, collecting fresh human tissue samples. As someone with little exposure to practical medicine, observing operations first-hand was surreal.

Do you have any advice for people wanting to pursue a research career? What do you like best about your job? What do you like the least?

I would say apply for different things, and unless you have a very clear idea of what you want to study, don’t limit yourself, try to get a bit of experience in different fields/sub-fields. You might be surprised by what captures your interest, and sometimes things you think you want to work on turn out to be not for you. Like me, when I stumbled upon bioinformatics during a brief lab rotation and realized it was my path.

In my job I really enjoy solving everyday puzzles – how to make a piece of analysis work, digging around in data, or even just finding errors in my code. The thing I like the least is probably writing up the results for publications and such – I much rather prefer doing something new, rather that describing what I have done or what it means!

How do you spend your time outside of research? Is there anything else you would like to tell us about?

I used to play a lot of volleyball and do things like cycling and outdoor fitness, but haven’t managed to get back it yet after having a baby.  At the moment I’m using all my free time to spend as much of it as I can with my son, going for walks and exploring the world through the eyes of a child. Soon, when he is a bit older, we'll embark on bigger family outdoor adventures together!

Links

Lana Talmane LinkedIn Profile (external site)

Lana Talmane EdWeb Profile

Martin Taylor Research Group

Institute of Genetics and Cancer