Ryan Morin
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
The most exciting science is conducted and directed by people with post-graduate degrees. I did not feel properly prepared to do research with only a BSc.
Why did you decide to study at UBC?
I wanted to stay in Vancouver and UBC has a great reputation and a great training program for bioinformatics. The BCCA is an awesome place to do such research owing to the presence of the Genome Sciences Centre.
What was the best surprise about UBC or life in Vancouver?
I hadn't realized what an amazing academic research community there was here.
What advice do you have for new graduate students?
If you are interested in the health sciences, be sure to consider off-campus (i.e. adjunct) faculty as well. In my opinion, some of the best supervisory and research opportunities exist in the BC Cancer Agency.
Learn more about Ryan's research
My project involves the analysis (data mining) of massively parallel sequence data from the tumours of more than 100 patients, mainly with non Hodgkin lymphoma. I am working on methods to identify protein-altering somatic mutations using RNA-seq and whole genome sequence data. By applying these methods to numerous samples, I hope to identify genes likely to be important in the development of these cancers. Finding such genes is the first step in pursuing new targeted therapies and may also enable the development of new diagnostic or prognostic tests that may guide treatment selection in the future.
