Our guest speaker for Genomics: Lite is Valerie Vancollie, an Advanced Research Assistant working on whole genome sequencing projects, including COVID-19 sequencing as part of Wellcome Sanger Institute COVID-19 Surveillance Team. Valerie will highlight what genomic surveillance is, how advancements in sequencing technologies has improved genomic surveillance, and how this has been used in recent outbreaks such as COVID-19 and Ebola. She’ll also highlight her career journey.

About Genomics Lite in Focus

Genomics Lite in Focus is a programme of live webinars to inspire and engage upper secondary school students, teachers and other educational groups. Each talk explores a different field in biology in focus, highlighting how genomics research contributes to understanding the topic.

Each 75 minute session includes a 30 minute talk on the topic, a 15 minute talk about the speakers career journey, and time for Q&A with the audience. Polls and audience questions are used throughout to encourage interaction betweent the audience and the speaker.

"This event was amazing. I learnt many valuable lessons and fact that would help me in my future career." - feedback from a school student from a previous Genomics Lite session.