Profile
Steven Rudder
My CV
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Education:
High School – Taverham High School
College – Norwich City College
University – University of East Anglia -
Qualifications:
1998-2002 GCSE’s – Maths, Double Science, English, French, IT, Design & Technology, PE, Business, Geography.
2002-2004 National Diploma in Networking and IT
2002-2004 A-Level in Business Studies
2004-2004 Foundation Science Degree
2005-2008 BSc in Plant Biology
2008-2009 MSc in Plant Breeding & Crop Improvement -
Work History:
2009-2010 – Research Assistant – John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
2010-2014 – Research Assistant – University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
2014-2017 – Synthetic Biologist – Isomerase Therapeutics, Cambridge, UK
2017-2019 – Researcher – Tropic Biosciences, Norwich, UK
2019-Now – Research Assistant – Quadram Institute, Norwich, UK -
Current Job:
DNA Sequencing Research Assistant
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About Me:
I live to travel and play music. At work I like to study how bacteria survive.
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Hello I’m Steven. I am a Microbiologist and I live in Norwich. I have studied science and worked as a scientist for 15 years. I Currently work in Norwich, but I have also worked in Cambridge and Dublin.
I enjoy climbing, football, making music, and hanging out with friends & family. When it is not raining I cycle to work.
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The overall aim of our work at Quadram is to deliver healthier lives through research in gut health, microbiology and food. At work there are lots of teams of scientists that work in small groups to understand and solve different challenges involving how microogransims effect are health. I work in a core DNA sequencing group. We support lots of groups of scientists at our workplace by sequencing DNA for them.
There are different ways you can sequence DNA and at Quadram we explore and use the most advanced technology available. We have three machines made by a company called Illumina. These machines are very big and heavy. They are the size of a wachine machine. They read DNA in very small pieces using fluorescence and a camera. AS the machine reads the DNA it sees flashes of light which change in colour. It converts the colour into a DNA sequence using powerful computers.
A more recent machine called a MinION is made by a company called Oxford Nanopore. It is smaller than your phone, so small it has been taken to space by astronauts. This machine is my favourite. It can sequence small pieces of DNA or very long pieces. The machine reads DNA by passing it through a small hole called a pore. The pore has an electrical current running through it and as the DNA pass through the pore the electrical current changes. The changes in electrical current can be converted into a DNA sequence by computers. We have a powerful laptop to do this for us.
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My Typical Day:
I get up at 8am and get dressed and ready for work. I nearly always stop at the bakery on my way to work to pick up some breakfast. I start the working day at 9am with a cup of tea, a pastry and a meeting with my boss where we discuss what work needs to be done that day. Around 10am I will go into the laboratory. I will prepare DNA samples so they are ready to be sequenced, I will also check on the machines to makes sure they are happy and have no error messages. After lunch I will go back into the laboratory and load the DNA samples I prepared in the morning onto the sequencing machine and start the machine. When the machine is running I will go into the office and write in my lab book. Around 5pm I will leave work and go home.
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My role in DNA sequencing at Quadram
The sequencing department helps other scientists at Quadram by doing the DNA sequencing for them. We specialise in turning DNA into data that can be analysed on a computer. The DNA sequence data helps the scientist at Quadram understand how bacteria affect human health.
My job starts with DNA in a test tube. You can’t see it, it looks like a tube of water. So the first thing I do is check that the liquid has some DNA in it. I use a machine called a Qubit that can estimate how much DNA is in a sample. I commonly have to check 100-300 samples a week.
Once I know how much DNA I have in each sample I prepare them for a process called library construction. A library is a mixture of hundreds of different DNA samples all in the same tube. Much like a real library full of different books, my DNA library is a tube full of lots of different DNA samples. But before I mix them all together I need to know how to separate them. To each sample I add a DNA barcode. This means the DNA sample has a name. So like a real library where I look for a name of a book, in my DNA library I look for a DNA barcode. This way I can have hundreds of different DNA samples in a tube and I can find the one I want by using is DNA barcode. I use a machine called a thermocycler to do this task.
The DNA library is almost ready to be sequenced. Once again I need to check if I have any DNA in my test tube, and if so how much. The next step is to check the size of the DNA. To do this I use a machine called a TapeStation.
One I’ve done all my checks in the laboratory I go to my desk in the office. I study my results carefully because the final step in the process where I turn the DNA in data costs a lot of money (£3000). I always have a cup of tea and a biscuit when I’m in the office.
The final step is to go back in the laboratory and load my DNA library onto the DNA sequencing machine. One of the black machines you can see in the picture below. Once the machine is running is takes 1 day to turn the DNA into sequence DNA. My job is done and the data is passed to another scientist to analyses.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would like to use the money to bring a group of children with learning disabilities to the Quadram Institute for a day of short talks, science games and entertainment.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
creative, hard-working, nerdy
What did you want to be after you left school?
Website Designer
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I forgot to do my homework a few times to many
Who is your favourite singer or band?
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
What's your favourite food?
Lasagne
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. To be awesome on the piano. 2. To be able to swim like a fish. 3. To invent a machine that could reverse climate change.
Tell us a joke.
What is the single most popular subject at a snakes’ school?............................. Hisssstory.
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