INSPIRE News
Dr Maria Kulecka on secondment at the Human Biome Institute, Poland.
Dr Maria Kulecka joined APC Microbiome Ireland, a Research Ireland Centre based at University College Cork as an INSPIRE Postdoctoral Fellow to work on her project Dataset intEgration In ulCeraTIve Colitis. Maria reflects on her secondment at the Human Biome Institute and tells us how the secondment has been an invaluable opportunity for her.
My 3-month secondment at the Human Biome Institute under the supervision of CEO, Jarosław Biliński, provided an invaluable opportunity to gain hands-on experience with bioinformatics standards in an industry setting, with a particular focus on the analysis of microbial sequencing data and machine learning. I advanced my proficiency in Python programming and related frameworks, particularly through the use of Jupyter notebooks, while also gaining experience in machine learning techniques such as neural networks as applied to bioinformatics research.
This placement also enhanced my understanding of how bioinformatics underpins clinical research and practice, including microbial organism modelling for translational applications such as probiotics production. Beyond technical skills, the secondment broadened my perspective on how data analysis is conducted and used in commercial environments (including patent applications), complementing my academic background and equipping me with practical knowledge directly relevant to future research and industry collaborations.