Kathy Deuchars

I spend my time reading, learning, thinking and exchanging ideas with people. I used to spend a lot of time at the bench doing experiments in my early career days but now mostly sit at my desk, using my computer to link to the world. I take the opportunity to meet face to face with people as often as possible, and attend conferences around the world to learn more and meet people in my field. I work with researchers and companies to develop applications for funding for very large scale, multi-million dollar projects that use genomics. If they get the funding, I continue to meet regularly to ensure that the project is on track.

I also work with government representatives to keep them informed of progress in genomics and in particular to help make sure that the government is aware of and will help implement new innovations in health coming from genomic inventions. The problem I am helping solve is how we can best use genomic information to improve health. My undergraduate and graduate degrees all involved genomics, which allows me to understand and keep up with new discoveries in genomics. After graduating I also acquired an understanding of the business side of medical science with experience in a biotechnology company and in a venture capital company that invested in healthcare companies. Both the business experience and knowledge of genomics help me in my current job of helping new genomic technologies get to the market.