Dr. Emily Paulson

So, I really first became interested in science when I was around eight or so. My parents gave me a microscope as a gift, and I found that I really enjoyed doing all sorts of things with the microscope, like collecting pond-water samples and looking at slides of blood cells and bacteria. I was also a voracious reader and I was inspired by books that featured women scientists. A good example of one of my favorite books when I was a kid was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. The main character’s mother is actually a scientist who studies mitochondria. So, I found that to be really fascinating. I also remember reading a biography of the astronomer Maria Mitchell. And then later on I had some really inspirational teachers who made biology even more interesting to me. So, for example, I recall some really interesting college labs, where we got to some exciting experiments such as identify the mystery microbe or isolate DNA.

2020 was definitely an unusual year, just because of the pandemic, obviously. So, a lot of the conferences ended up getting cancelled or postponed or held digitally rather than in person and then a lot of research projects got put on hold. So, it was very different in that sense. Like many other biotech companies, Illumina also shifted to working on developing corona virus-related products. So, they recently launched a Covid-19 test, as well as a variety of different research products and software for studying the immune response to the corona virus, as well. And so, many people across the company, many of my immediate coworkers and myself, as well, have been involved in one way or another with the Covid efforts, working really long hours trying to help scientists find answers as quickly as possible. It’s been really exciting for me to be involved in these valuable efforts to help advance Covid-19 research and testing capabilities for what is definitely one of the biggest scientific challenges of our time.