Two return-to-research fellows appointed at the Sanger Institute

Sanger Institute and Daphne Jackson Trust support career-break fellowships

Sanger Institute, Genome Research Limited

Dr Catherine Onley has been appointed as the first Daphne Jackson Fellow sponsored by the Institute and Dr Celia Martinez has been appointed as the inaugural Sanger Institute Fellow.

The Sanger Institute Fellowship was launched in June last year to support talented scientists returning to research after a career break of 12 months or more. The Daphne Jackson Trust is the UK’s leading organisation dedicated to realising the potential of scientists and engineers returning to research following a career break of two years or more, taken for family, caring or health reasons. The charity, founded in 1992, has to date supported over 270 individuals returning to STEM careers.

“Celia and Catherine are talented researchers whose work will be a great asset to the Sanger Institute and the wider research community. It is clear that return-to-research fellowships are greatly needed and we are thrilled to be able to offer the Sanger Institute Fellowship as well as sponsoring a Daphne Jackson Fellowship.”

Professor Ele Zeggini Member of Faculty at the Sanger Institute and leader of the Wellcome Genome Campus’ Sex in Science programme

Working in the laboratory of Dr Duncan Odom, Research Group Leader at the University of Cambridge and Associate Member of Faculty at the Sanger Institute, Dr Martinez will spend three years investigating links between cancer and aging using single-cell sequencing. Her work will also be in close collaboration with researchers in the groups of Dr Sarah Teichmann, a Member of Faculty at the Sanger Institute and a Group Leader at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute, and Dr Stephan Lorenz, Head of the new Single Cell Genomics Centre.

“I have been always fascinated by the transcriptional regulation processes that take place in a cell, and this fellowship offers to me the unique opportunity to study, at the single-cell level, how ageing is affecting gene expression in homogenous populations of cells and across different murine species. Dr Odom has been pioneering research into liver transcription as well as evolution and modern genetics for over seven years; therefore his lab is the perfect research environment to acquire knowledge and skills that will lead me to resume my scientific career.”

Dr Celia Martinez Inaugural Sanger Institute Fellow

Under the supervision of Dr Gavin Wright, a Member of Faculty at the Sanger Institute, Dr Onley will spend three years in the Sanger Institute’s Cell Surface Signalling Laboratory advancing the search for an effective vaccine for babesiosis, an important parasitic disease of humans and livestock. While Daphne Jackson Trust Fellows are usually appointed to sponsoring institutes for two-years on a part-time basis, the Sanger Institute will sponsor Dr Onley under the same terms as the Sanger Institute Fellowship, offering a three-year placement and the option of full-time hours.

“Previously my work has been on interactions between platelet receptors and collagens in cardiovascular disease. I then worked within the biotechnology industry before returning to academic research. My primary interest is in interactions between proteins that are involved in cellular recognition and activation events. During my fellowship, I will identify and characterise protein interactions that allow Babesia spp parasites to recognise and invade human red blood cells. The technologies developed in Dr Wright’s laboratory allow large-scale identification of parasite proteins that bind host cell proteins and has been used to find novel interactions, and promising vaccine candidates, for the related parasite responsible for malaria.”

Dr Catherine Onley First Daphne Jackson Fellow sponsored by the Sanger Institute

The Sanger Institute Fellowship is an annual scheme; the next call for applications will open in June 2015. To be eligible, candidates must have taken at least a 12-month career break from postdoctoral research for any reason. Candidates will be able to choose between a number of research projects at the Sanger Institute. While the Sanger Institute actively takes into account career breaks when assessing applications for all roles, this fellowship is exclusively open to those who have had a career break of 12 months or longer.

The Sanger Institute Fellowship is just one of the initiatives that supports the Sanger Institute’s commitment to the aims and objectives of the Athena SWAN Charter. Last year the Sanger Institute became one of the first research institutes to receive an Athena SWAN Bronze Award, recognising its work in highlighting issues traditionally facing women in science, and driving policy and practice changes to redress them.