{"id":80121,"date":"2026-07-16T09:37:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T07:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=80121"},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:10:57","slug":"cath-brooksbank-what-ive-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/people-perspectives\/cath-brooksbank-what-ive-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Cath Brooksbank: What I\u2019ve learned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Within six months of joining EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Cath Brooksbank managed to delete the Gene Ontology knowledgebase \u2013 one of biology\u2019s most widely used resources \u2013 and reinstate it at 6 p.m. on a Friday. \u201cIt was a steep learning curve,\u201d she laughed, remembering the moment. It was also a fitting start for someone whose whole career has been all about throwing herself into unfamiliar territory and making it her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over 20 years, Brooksbank and her team have been developing EMBL-EBI\u2019s leading bioinformatics training programme<\/a>. This was not quite where she expected to be when she was growing up. Now freshly retired, she looks back on her career with a mix of nostalgia and pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooksbank is the first person in her family to go to university. At the age of 12, she wanted to be a pathologist, and she went on to study medicine at the University of Oxford. \u201cI soon realised that it was going to be very hard for me to be a doctor because I got too involved in patients\u2019 stories,\u201d said Brooksbank. Along the way, Brooksbank uncovered an interest in molecules, so she swapped the clinic for a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cath Brooksbank as an undergraduate (just after her first Bachelor of Medicine exams as a young medic in 1988) and PhD graduation (1993). Credit: Cath Brooksbank personal archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next career turn came from a friend, Phillip Hawkins, who noticed how much she enjoyed writing and suggested she try scientific editing. Brooksbank took a job as an editor at Trends in Cell Biology <\/em>for six months. There she met Jo McEntyre \u2013 the current Interim Director of EMBL-EBI \u2013 who gave her the opportunity to stay in science publishing, working on the journal Trends in Biochemical Sciences<\/em>. In 2002, after a couple of years in the Nature Reviews<\/em> editorial team, she spotted a scientific database curator role in the Gene Ontology<\/a> team at EMBL-EBI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after joining EMBL-EBI, Brooksbank \u2013 a self-declared introvert \u2013 got to know all of the 200 people then working at the institute, persuading many of them to get involved in the fledgling training programme. She became the Scientific Outreach Officer at EMBL-EBI in 2006, then Head of Outreach and Training, and finally Head of EMBL-EBI Training in 2012, a role she maintained until her retirement in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Cath has an abounding enthusiasm for science. She can be very bold, both in terms of adventures and what she wants to say.”<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n