Capstones to Careers: Alex La Berge

Alex La Berge is a 2022 graduate of the M.H.Sc. in Medical Genomics program. She now works as a research technician within the Nika Shakiba lab out of The University of British Columbia. Alex performed her Medical Genomics Capstone Practicum at SickKids Hospital as a pharmacogenomics data analyst, before moving to BC to conduct laboratory research on human and mouse embryonic stem cells. Prior to entering the MedGen program, Alex received a B.Sc. in Honours Biology from The University of British Columbia, Okanagan.

As a self-proclaimed ‘science kid’, Alex feels her passion for scientific research started from a young age: “I used to do science camps in the summers, and then all throughout high school I was really into Biology – so that’s why I started getting into this field.” She continued, “when I was at UBC Okanagan I had two classes on genetics (all that was offered) and I [felt] like ‘no, there’s so much more to learn about genetics’, and then I found the MedGen [Masters of Health Science] program.” She liked how the MedGen program at UofT teaches a unique blend of interdisciplinary skills in genomics, positioning students to pursue a myriad of clinical and/or research roles within the field of Medical Genomics after graduation. The M.H.Sc. in Medical Genomics program is not thesis-based, and with its emphasis on dry lab work, Alex found that she missed some of the practical aspects of laboratory research. This pushed her to seek out wet lab experiences both during the professional master’s program and afterwards. From May to September of 2021, La Berge leveraged the wholly online nature of her graduate programming – mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic – and worked as a Microbiology Medical Technologist at her local hospital in Kelowna, BC while she remotely attended the MedGen program: “I was doing COVID-19 testing for the most part, getting hundreds of samples from all over the interior of BC […], and we would send [positive] samples off to the [BC Centre for Disease Control] to get whole genome sequencing done to identify the variants and keep up with [health] regulations in British Columbia.”

Alongside her capstone practicum at SickKids, graduating from the Medical Genomics Master’s program, and taking a short break from working, La Berge started as a research analyst at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health (March 2022). Here her research centered around smoking and vaping cessation among young queer and trans adults: “We were looking at how stigma and stress from being within the 2SLGBTQAI+ community leads to these individuals smoking and vaping.” La Berge also spent three months working as a field specialist at Poppy Health, a Toronto-based air safety company: “At Poppy, we had these air quality devices that would [sample] the air at [various] facilities searching for SARS-CoV-2 [circulating] the air. As a field specialist, I went and collected [samples] from all these machines and then sent those off to the lab to get the genetic testing done to see if [coronavirus] was present at one of these facilities.” Now working as a research technician at UBC, La Berge is exploring how cell-to-cell interactions during embryogenesis play a role in cellular fate determination and lineage formation, using mostly human (and some mouse) pluripotent and embryonic stem cells.

In the Shakiba lab, Alex spends most of her time doing benchtop laboratory science: “I do a pretty good amount of wet lab work on the day-to-day. I do a lot of cell culture maintenance, I do a lot of PCRs, gels - kind of the standard [molecular biology] stuff.” Initially brought on board as a next-generation sequencing (NGS) expert, she is currently working to implement a DNA barcoding system in the lab: “We’re trying to get this DNA barcoding technology in place, and a lot of [research] students here are engineers by trade, so they [initially] didn’t have a good grasp of what NGS is, and the full capabilities of this technology.” Alex continued, “Getting this DNA barcoding system in place [will allow us to] track [stem] cells as they divide and they start to form proper lineages in embryogenesis.” La Berge’s subject area expertise in NGS has proven instrumental to the Shakiba lab, where she frequently finds herself answering questions about next-generation sequencing and assisting students with their projects, sometimes employing her bioinformatics computational skillset: “It’s a cool feeling to be able to apply the things I learned in the MedGen program every day, [when] people ask me all these questions [and] I’m like, ‘oh, I know that!’” Alex’s work also includes day-to-day managerial tasks, such as making sure orders are placed for laboratory equipment and reagents and keeping tabs of the stock.

Reflecting on her pharmacogenomics data analysis practicum at SickKids, Alex feels the experience allowed her to gain a deeper understanding of clinical genetics, and she appreciated the opportunity to learn more about clinical genetics, and genetic variations within key genes involved in drug metabolism affect an individual responses to medications: “[The practicum] gave me such a deeper understanding of pharmacogenomics.” She continued, “A huge part of what I did was searching the databases and the literature for different pharmacogenes that we could maybe add to the [NGS testing] panels […], and it gave me an idea of how everything we learned in the Medical Genomics program can be applied to professional [healthcare roles] after graduation.” Alex cites her capstone practicum experience as having fostered her passion towards progressing precision medicine: “What motivates me is [wanting] to help people and to help precision medicine bloom into what it could be.” La Berge mentioned that she is considering returning to school in a couple years to do a PhD, again citing her time at SickKids as having made her passionate about pharmacogenomics.

For people interested in learning more about the field of Medical Genomics, Alex offers the following advice: “I think it’s really important to figure out what you enjoy from the field, whether it’s cancer genomics, or pharmacogenomics (like I was interested in) and explore that portion of the field; find someone to talk to, do informational interviews, if you can volunteer with a resource like ClinGen if you’re into variant interpretation, do that.” Since the field of medical genomics is so vast, Alex really emphasized the importance of finding what’s important to you.

The M.H.Sc. in Medical Genomics program wishes Alex continued growth and success in her endeavours.