Episode 11: Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
In this episode, host Chang Sun invited Dr. Martina Summer-Kutmon to join the DSMINDSETS Podcast. Martina is an Assistant professor at the Department of Bioinformatics (BiGCaT) and the Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (MaCSBio).
Research Connection to Data Science
Martina shares her career journey and how she could combine her interest for the human body with her passion for mathematics and also technology. Her research focuses on network and pathway-based integrative systems biology to study the interaction between immune and metabolic systems. She also shared with us that she enjoyed conference travels, networking with other researchers, and teaching experience.
Martina told us that bioinformatics and systems biology for her are closely related to data science as they are data intensive fields. They constantly deal with large datasets, could be molecular data that they measure in cells to understand how they differ between a healthy and a diseased person. The new developments in the data science field can also provide new opportunities for their field to use and apply them on the data. For example, AI, artificial intelligence, and machine learning approaches are regularly applied to our complex datasets nowadays.
Coordinating Amrapali Zaveri Award
Furthermore, Martina shared her experience with Birgit Wouters and Tiffany Leung in coordinating the Amrapali Zaveri Awards for Data Science. Martina shared with us the initiative and background of the Amrapali Zaveri Award, which is to honor Amrapali to recognize inspiring ambassadors of data science and role models, truly in the spirit of Amrapali’s work and personality. She told us the award wants to recognize students and researchers that not only make a difference in the field of data science but also in the community. She also shared her experience in coordinating the award for two years and the stories and work of the winners.
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