Profile – Disease Detectives Zone

Education:

Salvatorian College (highschool)
St Dominic’s Sixth Form College (A levels)
University of Northampton (Bachelors degree)
Queen Mary’s University of London (Masters degree)
King’s College London (current) (PhD)
Qualifications:

At GCSE 6A*’s 3A’s
At A level B B C (with a D in AS chemistry)
At UoN a 2:1 in BSc Biology
At QMUL graduated with distinction in MSc Bioinformatics
Currently PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Science at KCL (EPSRC DTP)
Work History:

From the ages 16-18 I worked in a Cafe in a garden centre. From ages 19 to present I work for a pub chain called Wetherspoons part time.
Current Job:

PhD Student

About Me:

Bioinformatician from King’s College London whose parents told him as a kid that he spent too much time on computers and now he does it for a living.
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My work is to examine the relationship between a persons DNA and their heart. The DNA data comes from sequencing experiments, and the heart data comes from a mix of ECG scan images, and 3D models built using heart scan images.

Having just started the project I am currently creating the 3D models of people’s hearts using their scan images and information about their heart taken from machine learning for comparison later with ECG data and DNA.

In the future I will be creating my own machine learning algorithm to examine someone’s heart, their ECG scans and their genes to make predictions about their health and their future.
My Typical Day:

I wake up late, rush to my computer and turn it on, from there I could be doing anything but that’s where it starts.
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As a PhD student my days are always incredibly varied based on the work I have to do at that time, however for me 99% of it is always at a desk in front of a computer and that’s where I’m happy.
What I'd do with the prize money:

Data science and coding is something I only learned at the age of 22 in a Masters project, despite it being incredibly accessible and perfectly suited for teaching younger minds. I would organise some sort of event for teaching anyone who is interested fundamentals of data science and or coding.

Richard Burns