The Campus Stars campaign has been launched to showcase the colleagues still working on campus during the lockdown and highlight the crucial work they do.

Matt Carlile, Chris Moore and Nadine Holmes work as DEEP Seq Technicians in the School of Life Sciences and Chris Moore is also part of the Future Food Beacon team. Matt has been working at the University for 18 years, Chris for eight years and Nadine for four years.

DEEP Seq is the department’s next generation sequencing (NGS) facility, specialising in Nanopore, Illumina, single cell and Sanger sequencing as well as optical mapping. Matt, Chris and Nadine assist and advise colleagues throughout the University who need to use their services in their research.

Matt, Chris and Nadine are currently involved with the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium. Their work involves using nanopore technology to sequence viral genomes from individuals who have been diagnosed with Coronavirus to help map how COVID-19 spreads and behaves in the community. This work would not be possible without considerable support from the VRG group who obtain the samples and convert RNA to cDNA.

Chris Moore

Due to current restrictions, only two technicians can work in the lab each day and must observe strict social distancing guidelines. Most are partially working from home, however Lead Technician, Nadine Holmes, has worked on site every single day since the lockdown began.

Nadine Holmes

Matt’s wife is a nurse and together they have two young children at home. In his spare time Matt has enjoyed reading The Remains of the Day and watching the Taskmaster television series. Matt’s favourite thing about working for the University is the sense of purpose he feels, which is created by realising work being done will provide opportunities for others to grow and realise their own ambitions. Matt’s also enjoys the cheeseburger sold at the cafe on A Floor of the Medical School!

Matt Carlile

Their team message to the University community is to stay safe.