Qkine has supported my professional and personal development, by granting me the ability to interact with all different sides of the company and given me the opportunity to learn a variety of skills that can be used not just in the laboratory setting.

I joined Qkine in 2022 as a Senior Cell Scientist and since that time I have had the opportunity to utilise all the knowledge and skills that I had cultivated in previous roles, to have had an input into developing in house quality control testing methods for the functionality and sterility of our growth factors. I have also been able to use our growth factors to develop methodologies for weekend free iPSC culture and using them in several different differentiation protocols.

My journey to Qkine has been a varied one, having completed a placement year during my degree in the Ben-Jonathan lab in Cincinnati, getting to work in cell culture lab supporting their research. Then I have held roles in the Histopathology department at Southampton General Hospital helping with sample diagnosis via tissue sectioning and staining, to Genzyme mixing the knowledge obtained in previous roles alongside learning new techniques for antibody development and testing and then Asterand Bioscience providing services to the scientific community with histochemical testing and learning how to work in a good laboratory practice (GLP) laboratory. I then settled into what has become my main knowledge base now, induced pluripotent stem cells and organoids, with the experience I earned from my time at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Here I was a customer of Qkine, using our growth factors for many of the differentiation protocols and in maintenance of cell lines.

This first hand experience of being a customer was helpful when I first joined the team here at Qkine, by assisting with the training of the some of the newer members of our commercial team. I was also to give them an idea of how a customer meeting can go and the diversity of questions and knowledge they might need to help be better prepared to assist our customers. I have also gone on to help implement 5S into the company and play a role in several internal audits after gaining accreditation from a course I was encouraged to participate in.

While I have been at Qkine, I have had the opportunity to provide support to our customers, helping them with queries and problem-solving issues that they have faced, helping me not only increase my understanding of the science behind what I do but also the skills with being able to troubleshoot complex questions and enquiries. From a scientific standpoint, I have also learned a lot about designing and establishing assays that can be used to test the functionality of several different types of growth factors, and understanding how much work goes into developing a new protein and the challenges faced to get that into the hands of a customer. In addition, I have played a role in several of the collaborations we have with external research groups and companies.

I look forward to seeing what comes next for myself and for Qkine in the coming years and hope I can give back as much of the support and guidance to others within the company as I have received.