Ajay Mishra joined EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute as a scientific training officer in the training team in July 2019. Get to know Ajay in our blog post.

Ajay Mishra, EMBL-EBI. Scientific Training Officer – Digital learning. Image credit: Jeff Dowling/EMBL-EBI

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background before joining EMBL-EBI’s training team.

I am essentially a learner on a journey, someone who enjoys picking up new things and making sense of them along the way. After finishing my Master’s in India, I moved abroad to do a DPhil in biochemistry, where I studied how chromosomes segregate during cell division. It was fascinating to explore such a fundamental process that keeps life going from one generation to the next.

From there, I moved into postdoctoral research, exploring how adult stem cells help maintain our skin over a lifetime. I also had a short adventure in ageing research, looking into natural bioactive peptides and their effects on cell division.

What has stayed with me throughout all these stages is a love of learning – and an even stronger sense for sharing what I have learned with others. This is why joining EMBL-EBI’s training team felt like such a natural next step, where I now have the opportunity to help learners around the world access and understand life sciences data and tools.

What are some of the events or projects you’ve been working on since joining the team?

There have been many diverse activities that I have been part of, from organising on-site courses on multi-omics data integration and cancer genomics, to running webinars and putting together e-learning materials with the help of subject matter experts. 

You’ve seen some big changes in your time in the team. What is the feature you’re most proud of?

When I joined the training team, the website was just beginning a major revamp. I was lucky to come on board at that exciting time and be part of the team shaping the new version. It was a really enjoyable experience, and now we have a beautiful, user-friendly platform that makes our training resources much more FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

I have also really enjoyed organising several webinar series that align with EMBL’s scientific programme of ‘molecules to ecosystems’, comprising transversal themes, taking us a bit beyond the usual bioinformatics methods. These projects have been especially rewarding as they have allowed me to connect with passionate trainers from across the EMBL family and around the world. Running these series helped us reach new learner communities who are interested in more specialised topics.

And I must say, I am always incredibly grateful to all our trainers. Their generosity and expertise are what make it possible for us to offer high-quality, impactful learning experiences.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to working on in the next 12 months?

We are always looking for ways to improve our on-demand training; it’s a constant focus for us. We are especially keen on making it more interactive and enriching the overall learning experience for our global audience.

Alongside developing new learning pathways, we are also working on an exciting project exploring how open-source large language models can be used to create helpful new features for our learners. So stay tuned, there’s more to come!