In this post, we are getting to know Aleena Mushtaq from the Outreach team, who are (interestingly) also in charge of the Ensembl blog! Aleena tells us of the diverse workload of an outreach officer, the public engagement programmes she is involved in, and what she does in her free-time.
When did you join and what is your job in Ensembl?
I joined Ensembl in February 2021 whilst we were working from home due to the pandemic. I am an outreach officer for Ensembl and this mainly involves delivering training workshops to scientists on our resources and supporting our community with their helpdesk queries. I am also involved in usability testing of our tools and APIs and I also manage our blog, Twitter and YouTube pages and help create documentation web pages for our site.
What do you enjoy about your job?
Each day is different! I might be answering helpdesk queries and updating our training materials at the campus one day and off travelling to another country (like Austria!) to deliver Ensembl workshops the next day. I have enjoyed meeting new people through my role and chatting with them about the cool stuff that Ensembl offers and how they utilise it within their research.
I also love that Ensembl is very keen on public engagement. I am part of the ‘Adopt a scientist’ programme that tackles assumptions and stereotypes about science by directly connecting primary schools with researchers. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to speak with the children about their ambitions and the path I followed to become a scientist.
What are you currently working on (e.g. any particular projects, datasets, species)?
I have several different projects ongoing at the moment. The summer months are usually quieter in terms of training workshops compared to the rest of the year.
I am currently updating our training materials for different resources and species. We will deliver these in our Virtual Open Ensembl browser and REST API workshop in November 2022.
I have a few training events lined up for Autumn, so I am also preparing materials and travel arrangements for these events such as Cambridge Bioinformatics Training, VEPTC and ASHG in Los Angeles.
How did you end up here?
I joined Ensembl in 2021 immediately after my PhD in molecular biology. I studied the impact of gut microbiota on metabolic health and used BioMart and BLAST quite a bit. Although I really enjoyed my time working on my lab experiments, I also loved the opportunity to train MSc. students on experimental techniques and editing theses and manuscripts.
Throughout my postgraduate years, I was heavily involved in student seminars and associations so it was apparent that I needed to find something that allowed me to communicate with the scientific community. I have definitely made the right decision in joining Ensembl at EMBL-EBI, as the role has allowed me to stay very close to cutting-edge scientific research (Hello AlphaFold!) and I get to do what I most enjoy with a very friendly team.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your / your team’s way of working?
The pandemic meant that we had to reassess our training methods and switch to a virtual platform. Although our team was already equipped for making webinar videos available online, lockdown meant that we had to go 100% virtual. Since 2021, Ensembl has delivered over 100 online workshops in various different countries and this has also allowed us to reach the scientific community in lower and middle income countries, which I believe is a massive positive for us.
As things are opening up, I am thrilled that we can now travel to different countries to deliver in person training to our community as I have missed this aspect of the job.
What do you do when you are not working?
I love travelling and experiencing different cultures. If the place I am visiting has a hiking trail, I try my best to fit that in.
When I am not travelling, I am usually planning my next trip and watching videos about new places to visit.