A (Virtual) Sit Down with Dr Catalina Vallejos
As a new PhD student in the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, I was very excited to get the opportunity to pick the brain of an inspiring young female group leader from the MRC Human Genetics Unit: Dr Catalina Vallejos. Just returning from maternity leave, Dr Vallejos outlined her impressive career development and successes, from her background in pure Mathematics and Statistics, to ultimately finding a passion for medical science and biostatistics.
Dr Vallejos established her group in the Biomedical Genomics Section in the MRC Human Genetics Unit in 2018. Her group focuses on developing new statistical methods in which to process heterogeneous data, both in a healthcare setting (using electronic health records) and at the basic science level (single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis). Her group has expanded over the years and supports multiple PhD students and post-doctorate researchers from diverse academic backgrounds.
Dr Vallejos began her academic studies at The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where she achieved a BSc and MSc in Mathematics and Statistics. She then continued her mathematics and statistical research in her PhD studies at the University of Warwick. During her PhD, she had a particular interest in relating her work to education and social science, and published a paper modelling risk factors effecting university dropout rates[1]. She continued to explore different avenues in which to apply her deep statistical knowledge. Whilst looking for post-doc positions, she came across an interesting opportunity exploring high-dimensional biological data, hosted between the MRC Biostatistics Unit and the European Bioinformatics Institute. This position was particularly attractive to Dr Vallejos, as it offered great new skills and was different from anything she had worked on before. However, she described herself as having ‘zero-hopes’ at the interview stage, as she did not have a biological background past high school – “I kind of knew what DNA was, and that’s it.” However, in her interview she expressed that she was keen to learn, and was ultimately successful. She took up the post-doc position, integrating herself between statistics and biology.
Dr Vallejos’ description of her switch in career towards biology is particularly inspiring as she does not pretend it was easy, but expressed that it required hard-work and initiative. She described to me how overwhelmed she felt at her first lab meeting, where ‘wet-lab’ members were describing their work, which was all completely new to her. Her advice? “It’s a matter of listening again and again and again…I did a lot of asking stupid questions…I couldn’t even judge if my questions were stupid or not.” She also highlighted the importance of her co-workers, who would sit with her over coffee and hash-out the details of their research. A supportive work environment is something that Dr Vallejos stresses is key in a research career. She looks back at her time at the MRC Biostatistics Unit and the European Bioinformatics Institute as a great opportunity with fantastic mentorship, both during the post and long after she left.
Following on from the post-doc position, Dr Vallejos took up a prestigious position at the Alan Turing institute, first as a research fellow and leading to a group leader position. This experience allowed her to further explore other exciting research areas, including working with engineers to monitor gas turbines. However, her interests kept circling back to one thing – health and clinical applications. She said, “every time I was thinking of the engines, I thought ‘ohh, this could be a patient!’” She decided then that she wanted to focus on helping people through medical research, rather that the commercial applications of her skill-set. Overall, she was very grateful that she had the opportunities to explore different fields and make an informed decision on where to focus her research career. She even compared her experiences to the MRC Human Genetics Unit rotation PhD programme in which I am enrolled, expressing that the programme is a great initiative to explore different areas of study and find the research topic which excites and inspires you the most.
Every time I was thinking of the engines, I thought ‘ohh, this could be a patient!’
Dr Vallejos currently holds fellowships at the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Edinburgh, and has a group here at the MRC Human Genetics Unit. She greatly appreciates the research community and collaborative nature of the Institute, saying that science “can’t be done as a single research group as it doesn’t have all the expertise. You really need to understand the biology, statistics, software development… there’s so many pieces where you need to work collaboratively.” She also expressed her gratitude towards the supportive nature of the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, particularly due to the many young PIs in the institute in a similar position to her. She described her learning curve in transitioning from a research fellow to a group leader in her approach to mentoring, “You need to stop yourself from doing the things, because you need to help people learn.” She particularly emphasised the community-feeling at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer when describing the help and support she received from her colleagues during her maternity leave, in which she is gradually returning from now. The ‘To-Do’ list of a PI, or any scientist for that matter, is always long and never-ending, but things have particularly piled up for her whilst taking her maternity leave. She highlighted how great her colleagues were for taking-on various projects and aiding in the supervision of her students.
Overall, Dr Vallejos has had a very interesting, exciting and successful research career so far, taking many twists along the way in and out of pure statistics and biomedical applications. I really enjoyed hearing her non-conventional career pathway, as it is a reminder that there are so many options and opportunities in a research career, and you should always be taking a look around for opportunities. It was great chatting to Dr Vallejos, and I will take her advice on-board as I progress in my career.
To conclude, I asked Dr Vallejos if she had any advice for young researchers and it was this, “You should really look at the environment and who you work with. It is almost as, or even more important, than the project. You can do good science anywhere – but you need to have good mentorship and support.”
[1] Vallejos, C. and Steel, M., 2016. Bayesian survival modelling of university outcomes. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 180(2), pp.613-631.
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