Crunching the numbers

Ashleigh Ratcliffe is a co-lead (and also the University of Leicester Representative) of the Piscopia Initiative, encouraging women and underrepresented genders to pursue a PhD in Mathematics. Through this role, she has promoted the initiative at Undergraduate student induction sessions. She is also an editor of Chalkdust Magazine, a magazine for the mathematically curious.

The field of Genomics has benefitted enormously from technological advances in recent years. It is now not only possible to analyse whole human genomes at record speeds, we are also able to establish rapid communication across the world, so scientific collaborations are easier than ever. One major limitation, however, is that large amounts of data are not easy to store, share or analyse. In order for us to get the answers we need, to understand how our genomes determine our risk to disease, response to treatment and many other factors, we need to make use of statistical and mathematical models. Not only that, we need to make sure that sharing this information is done in a way that preserves peoples right to privacy and that individuals are informed and in control of their genetic data. Maths can also help with that!