It was an unusually overcast day in the middle of summer. I stared into the endless Arctic tundra stretched ahead of me, my hiking boots deep in the bogs, as a swarm of mosquitoes hovered over my head. By my feet lay paper bags of moss, our treasured collection from the field expedition that took us to some of the most rugged corners of Alaska. I was well into the second year of my postdoctoral research then—one season of fieldwork already under my belt. We had accomplished what we had set out to do that summer: collect moss specimens from across Northern Alaska to study the impacts of climate change. Soon, we would return to the lab to begin extracting DNA from the mosses for sequencing. But as I took in the magnificent, treeless landscape in front of me, I realized that I no longer looked forward to the lab work that awaited me.
By then I had worked in a lab setting for nearly a decade. In the beginning, I was invigorated by lab work; every successful experiment gave me a sense of accomplishment. But 10 years in, I started to find lab work tedious and monotonous. Still, one aspect of my job continued to excite me: the process of analyzing the large amounts of data that our sequencing experiments generated. Putting together the puzzle pieces to reveal the often complex stories of biological systems was proving to be more exciting than the long hours at the bench. That summer, after I returned from the Arctic, I started spending more time learning new skills in bioinformatics—slowly at first, but gaining confidence as my new analyses produced interesting results. As my postdoctoral research came to an end, I made the decision to pivot entirely to bioinformatics. Little did I know then that this decision would come to my rescue years later when life took unexpected turns.
As a computational biologist, I rediscovered my scientific curiosity. It drove me to learn advanced skills in bioinformatics, and I even delved into software development. Energized by my newfound knowledge, I started working on developing bioinformatics tools for the broader scientific community. But as I was starting to establish myself in a new role, my spouse received a job offer that required us to move to a different state. Finding a job in a new state was a daunting task, but as an immigrant on a work visa, there was added pressure to do it within a very short window. Luckily, seeing that my bioinformatics work only required a computer and access to the internet, my supervisors at the time agreed to let me work remotely, a privilege that would not have been possible if my work was tied to the bench. Years later, when I became a mother, the same flexibility that came with remote work proved invaluable, especially as an immigrant navigating motherhood far from the village that typically helps raise a child. These days, as I get ready for the day, my toddler prancing around me and her cereal bowl overturned on the floor, I can’t help but feel grateful that I traded busy commutes for mornings at home, chaos and all.
My decision to pivot to a career in bioinformatics did not stem from a desire to work from home or work on a flexible schedule. Instead, that decision was the culmination of years spent paying attention to the parts of my daily work that excited me: solving puzzles. The serendipitous outcome of that decision was the flexibility it gave me when I needed it the most. For someone else, it could be their choice to pursue management roles that opens the door to meaningful connections at work. For another, it could be their interest in fieldwork that takes them to some of the most unexplored regions of the world and new experiences.
Puzzle-solving is still at the heart of the work I do every day—only the nature of the puzzles themselves has changed over the years. Instead of climate change and Arctic ecosystems, my puzzles now focus on human health. As a computational biologist in the biotech industry, my days are often spent digging through genomic sequences and developing tools to uncover patterns that help us diagnose diseases early or treat them better. Looking back, I am grateful that I followed my curiosity into bioinformatics; it not only led me to a fulfilling career but also gave me the flexibility that I never knew I would need.
