Before entering Skoltech, I graduated from the First Moscow Medical University and thought about what to do next. I wanted to work in life sciences and healthcare, but I didn't really want to work in a hospital.

Then I decided to continue my studies and learn more about biology. Just at that time, my friend was studying at Skoltech and he told me everything about it. Indeed, Skoltech was a young university with modern laboratories, best professors and English as the official language. In the program curriculum there were basic subjects and health-related subjects, such as immunology and oncology. And it turned out to be the best option!

Professor Egor Bazykin became my supervisor. He works in the field of evolutionary genomics, but has quite a lot of topics in his laboratory. There were guys in the team engaged in oncology, so I decided to join them and write a thesis on cancer.

I took courses in oncology, immunology, population genetics, programming, and bioinformatics to succeed. As it turned out, I chose the bioinformatics project correctly because the writing of the thesis coincided with the pandemic and lockdown. And a bioinformatic project can be carried out sitting at home in the kitchen!

I work at an American company with a branch in Moscow — BostonGene,
in the position of Middle Bioinformatician. BostonGene Corporation is pioneering
the use of biomedical software for advanced patient analysis and personalized therapy decision-making in the fight against cancer.

My career in this company began with a summer internship for students. I applied, completed a test assignment, passed an interview and got an internship!
The internship lasted two months. During this time, I completed and defended
the project, showed good results and stayed working as a junior bioinformatician.
The following summer after graduating from Skoltech and receiving my diploma,
I was promoted to a middle bioinformatician.

In my work, I use everything I learned at Skoltech. Without Skoltech, I would not have gained the necessary knowledge and skills, and, most importantly, I would not have learned about this job
at all.

For example, course on Omic Data taught me how to work and analyze Next-Generation Sequencing data. Programming skills and knowledge from the Intro to Data Science course allow me to write scripts to process big patient data. Understanding Molecular Biology enables me to find interesting biological insights. And the practice of Biostatistics taught me to draw confident conclusions. And all together, it helped me to succeed in my career.

Skoltech is a great place! Try to get the most out of this period. This applies to fundamental knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, relationships with people and activity in numerous clubs. The best people are studying at Skoltech and they can become very good friends!

We are Skoltech. A new type of university in Russia, established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT with the vision of being a world-leading institute of science and technology. From the zero stage, Skoltech has rapidly advanced along the way towards a top-100 young university recognized globally by Nature Index.