International Women's Day is globally celebrated and falls on 8 March every year. It highlights the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and encourages people to work together to accelerate women’s equality.
At the Wellcome Sanger Institute, we work with incredible women all supporting our life-changing science in different and valuable ways.
The theme of this year's International Women's Day is ‘Inspire Inclusion’. To mark this, we have asked colleagues from across the Institute to talk about their journey, what inspires them, and why inclusion is important.
Cate Knight is Global Mobility and Immigration Lead at the Sanger Institute. In this role, she supports the incredible international community we have at the Sanger Institute, and those who wish to join, navigate the UK immigration system.
How did you get into your role?
“Both serendipity and my partners’ hidden gift for recruitment played a part. Academically, I pursued social sciences studying Sociology, before a Master’s in Criminology. However, my interests while studying, and the themes within the roles I have undertaken since, strongly lean toward supporting and championing others. The role profile for my original position coupled with the ambitions of the Institute therefore really resonated with me, and I knew that given the opportunity I could make a really positive impact. Visiting the Campus, meeting the team and feeling the role had scope and direction to not only achieve my goals at the time but so much more, and well, the rest is herstory.”
What inspires you?
“This is difficult to distil and something I indulged in overthinking. For me, it is really whatever energises me on that day, or in that environment. In my role at the Institute — it is those I support, whose courageous ambitions have brought them to the UK. At home, it’s my partner who supports and empowers all aspects of my identity. As a parent, it’s my child who expanded my world and perspective more than I could ever have imagined.”
Why is representation important?
“Seeing yourself reflected in those in positions of influence, who are change-makers, and drivers of positive progress sends a powerful message of belonging — this in turn inspires and empowers those next in line. Simply put, diversity of thought, approach and experience is essential to understanding and addressing our biggest challenges to date. Representation is not a nice to have, it’s a must-have.”
Hanna Najgebauer is a Computational Biologist at the Sanger Institute where she studies how well experimental models used in the lab recapitulate human disorders using genomics data.
Tell us about your research
“I joined the Sanger in 2018 as a visiting postdoctoral researcher in the Cancer Dependency Map Analytics team. Here, I led the development of new algorithms and computational tools for assessing the clinical relevance of current cancer models based on the genomic characteristics observed in primary cancers. This work allows researchers to make informed choices about whether to include or exclude models in studies and to identify cancer subtypes currently lacking in vitro models. Building on this experience, I moved to the Human Genetics programme to study the relevance of the in vitro cellular models for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) driving computational analysis.”
What inspires you?
“I am inspired by the work that has been done here at the Campus, and the ambition and scale of research projects. I feel lucky to be part of the diverse research community at the Wellcome Genome Campus and contribute to our understanding of genomes.”
Why is representation important?
“Representation is important as it fosters inclusivity, equity and respect. It drives innovation and expands perspective allowing us to think outside of the box. But most of all, life would be boring if everyone would look and think alike.”
Priyanka Surana is a Senior Scientific Manager who is responsible for building the Institute's technology capabilities and forming communities to promote knowledge sharing and enhance thought leadership. She founded and leads the Biodata Developers' (BioDev) Network which aims to provide open and accessible science, empower current and future computational scientists in biology, and inspire further improvements in technology.
How did you get into your role?
“I joined Sanger in 2021 to implement a new workflow solution. As part of this, we started to do hackathons to ensure that everyone using the technology could learn and develop best practices. In 2023, I organised a hackathon for the Campus. This brought together over 60 people for 3 days, working collaboratively to build pipelines and develop new collaborations, leading to the start of a new community. Since then, the community has come together for regular seminar series, symposiums with 147 people and 57 organisations, advanced training, and hackathons. Besides the bioinformatics community, now there are two other communities – artificial intelligence and DevOps. This experience led to me applying for my current role.”
What inspires you?
“Science for everyone. I want science and scientific knowledge to be available to everyone in an accessible manner. People learn in different ways. Sometimes, it can be a matter of format — video or text, language, or platform. But generally, the issues are more complex. COVID really highlighted the need for scientific understanding and access to current knowledge in easy-to-understand ways. In my current role, we support scientists, and anyone interested in building tech skills.”
Why is diversity and inclusion important?
“Diversity is critical for robust science. Currently, most scientific funding and leadership in projects is focused in certain countries, but this means we are losing some fantastic ideas from elsewhere. To make our partnerships with other countries equitable we need to involve them in the planning stages of projects and then help them upskill in technologies they don’t currently have access to. I am really excited about the new BioDev mentorship programme, which pairs scientists and students from low- and medium-income countries with tech teams in the UK to help build data analysis skills. This will create new knowledge hubs and means more people will be skilled in computational sciences, accelerating science. Bringing new voices into partnerships helps strengthen everyone’s science.”
Jessica Cox is a Software Developer who creates websites to share information and support the ongoing research within the Cellular Genetics Programme at the Sanger Institute. She is a full-stack developer, which means she is responsible for the development of entire projects and uses tools such as Python and JavaScript among others.
How did you get into your role?
“When I was in high school, I began Computer Science lessons. I was excited by the idea of applying technical skills in a creative way to solve problems. When I left school, I completed a degree apprenticeship specialising in software development – over three years I worked in a technology role and gained my Bachelor’s degree. I found I had a variety of roles including embedded software development, safety analysis and machine learning. My enjoyment of full-stack development and excitement for contributing to an important cause is what attracted me to my role here at Sanger.”
What inspires you?
“The fact that software development is actually very creative! The blend of gaining new technical knowledge and solving problems means that every day is different. Additionally, the fact that I am contributing to something meaningful here makes a huge difference. The role requires some biological knowledge, and the people around me have helped me to understand my work’s impact in a biological context.”
Why is representation important?
“When I was at school, I was the only girl in my A-Level Computer Science class – female representation within Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) roles was rare, and I found it hard to fit in. One of the people who inspired my career most was my Computer Science teacher – hearing her experiences and having her support kept me in the field when I was considering further education. While there is still more representation needed, there are more women in STEM roles now who are passionate about showing the younger generation that this career is possible. I hope that this will encourage more women at a younger age to consider a role in STEM.”
Lorenzo Mazza is an Advanced Research Assistant at the Sanger Institute. Here he talks about the women who have inspired him over the years.
“I am grateful to many women for shaping the man I am today. Numerous female figures have inspired me, and even now, I recognise parts of them within myself. However, the person who has had the greatest impact on me has been my mother.
“Throughout her life, she imparted to me the true values of respect, work ethic, and perseverance. She did not just explain these values to me; she demonstrated them through her example. Her strength through her grief after losing my brother when we were younger will always stay with me. She was an unstoppable woman, refusing to be halted by adversity and pain.
“She didn't allow herself to be defeated by illness or problems. If I were to describe her in two words, as well as many other women, I would choose 'resilience' and 'courage'. My mother taught me never to give up, and to fight with strength. Ultimately, women are true warriors: with resilience, they walk through storms, without pausing for the pain caused by the countless ruins that befall them, facing every obstacle with courage.
"International Women's Day is not only about women inspiring other women. We all have a role to play in creating an inclusive environment. It's important that we listen to women's lived experiences, so we can understand the barriers faced and think about how we could tackle these."
