Dr Megan Hasoon BSc, MRes, PhD

Personal Statement

I am a Data Scientist working within the Computational Biology Facility (CBF) as part of the Liverpool Shared Research Facilities.
My role at the CBF primarily involves performing analysis for academic and industry collaborators. I also demonstrate on a range of CBF-led courses, including 'R for Beginners' and 'R for Data Science'.

Prior to joining the CBF, I completed a PhD in Evolutionary Ecology at the University of York. The aim of my PhD was to investigate host-symbiont interactions in the pea aphid, with a particular focus on host defence and immunity. My PhD involved both wet lab and computational work and this where I first embarked on my bioinformatics journey, building and analysing novel genomes of newly discovered symbiotic bacterial species.
Following my PhD, I worked for two years as a Bioinformatician within the Bioinformatics Support Unit at Newcastle University. Here, I grew my Bioinformatics and data science skillset further working on a diverse range of research projects.

I enjoy the challenge of working across a variety of biological fields and have a keen interest in engaging with new emerging technologies, such as single cell sequencing and utilising these to answer exciting research questions.

I am also passionate about public engagement and widening participation - in particular, helping create opportunities which aim to break down some of the barriers for under-represented groups in biology and data science.