Nowadays, we are increasingly witnessing women exerting their influence by dedicating themselves to STEMM, contributing significantly to advancements and progress in these fields. As International Women’s Day (IWD) approaches, we stand in solidarity with the IWD 2024 initiative "Inspire Inclusion" by celebrating women's achievements.

In this spirit, we are excited to present an exclusive interview with Sharon Song, the Technical Service Manager at MGI Australia. She recalls her career journey into NGS and her significant accomplishments, and provides useful advice for women to establish leadership in science.

Q1: Would you please introduce yourself and your work at MGI?

My name is Sharon Song, before I joined MGI in 2019, I managed a next-generation sequencing facility within Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, which provides NATA-accredited whole exome sequencing test for a wide variety of cancer patients attending the public hospital. I have over 13 years of experience in NGS including both short reads and long reads. I am currently working as the regional technical service manager. The main role of our team is to provide support to all MGI customers in ANZ region, including instrument installation, customer training, system repair and troubleshooting.

Q2: What motivates you to pursue a career in genomics?

Science was my favorite subject since high school. Then I decided to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biotechnology after that. During my Masters. A professor specialized in genomics and Arthritis gave us a few lectures talking about how genetics was helping Arthritis research and assisting doctors chose the right l drug for different patients. I was fascinated by the great impact genomics could have for improving human health, which then motivated me to start my career in genomics. 

Q3: Since you’ve specialized in NGS for over 13 years, I believe that you must have some unforgettable moments. What’s the proudest moment in your science journey?

Yes, of course. That was a few years ago, we received an urgent sample for a very sick and young AML patient. Once we received that, we prioritized that sample for extraction which took about 2 hours, and started the whole exome lib prep next day, which again took about 2 days, followed by one day of PE150 sequencing and one day of data analysis, and our team managed to deliver the report to clinician within one week’s time. and we have successfully found a few mutant variants which were perfect for a drug in clinical trial, patient’s condition gets greatly improved after one week on medicine. We received a very happy thanks email from the clinician. That would be the proudest moment in my genomics journey.   

Q4: Before you joined MGI, you worked in the Queensland University of Technology for 3 years. Was there a specific reason that drove you to MGI?

I had been working in research for a long time before I joined MGI. I always wanted to get into industry to expand my knowledge and gain different experiences. I chose MGI initially because of its unique DNBSEQ technology in the NGS field and because MGI has been one of the few companies in the Genomics era.

Q5: What are the unique strengths of MGI’s NGS technology from your perspective?

DNBSEQ with rolling circle amplification method, we can achieve very high accuracy and high quality data with very minimum PCR bias and no error accumulation, our platform is the only platform proving complete PCR-free workflow.

Q6: Since you worked as an application specialist and sales support for customers after joining MGI, I believe there must be some interesting stories regarding dealing with customers. Would you mind sharing with us one of them?

Yes, of course. We had a customer who was interested in our G99 sequencer, then we organized a demo lab visit for this customer, he was very impressed with the super fast speed and ease-of-use function G99 has. After seeing some demo data, this customer happily placed an order for G99. We also support their business by doing some co-marketing activities.

Q7: I notice you’ve taken the role of technical service manager for your team since 2022. How many staff are in your team? What is the ratio of men to women in the team?

We have 8 team members in total, including 6 men and 2 women, ratio is 3:1.

Q8: As a women leader, what’s the biggest challenge you think for women to step into leadership? How do you overcome it?

Similar with other fields, genomics is a male-dominated field, I think the biggest challenge for women to step into leadership is managing negative beliefs and being confident. As a working mother, I always feels like I am not good enough to take up the leadership roles and I feel guilty not spending a lot of time with the littles ones. However, after knowing where I want to be for my career development, and with the encouragement and support from my family, I took the opportunity to become the team leader.   

Q9: You are leading a group of technical service, a field where males are usually domain. How do you create a work environment that is women-friendly?

Provide women the same opportunities for career development as men, so I ensure that women are being offered pathways for advancement.

Q10: If you were asked to use one word to describe your leadership style, what would it be? And why?

I would use the word “亦师亦友” in Chinese, which means “both a mentor and a friend”. As a member with richer work experience and better knowledge reserves - also being relatively older in the team, I can not only work with team members as a friend who listens to everyone's opinions and suggestions, but also as a mentor to provide guidance and encouragement.

Q11: Would you mind sharing with us some useful tactics in team management?

Provide equal opportunities to every team member. Find out each member’s specialty and guide them to utilize their specialty in the proper area. Offer flexibility benefits for working mother in particular.

Q12: We’ve witnessed more and more women playing important roles in fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). What suggestion would you give to women who want to participate in STEMM?

It’s important to know what you want to achieve, once you set your target, you need to work hard and be prepared for hurdles and difficulties during the Journey. It’s always good to go back to review and adjust the directions.

Q13: Aside from work, what do you do in your spare time?

I am a mother with 2 kids age at 6 and 3, I spend all my spare time with the family. But I love yoga and reading when I get time from the family.  

Q14: Can you share the coolest thing you ever did in your daily life?

In the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, I worked as the front liner to support customer to setup their covid test workflow for 6 individual pathology labs across Australia within 4 weeks' time.