Tania Miguel Trabajo, PhD - Knowledge Management Coordinator

Tania Miguel Trabajo, PhD - Knowledge Management at SOPHiA GENETICS

Where are you from? And what is your educational background?

I am from Galicia, Spain. After finishing high school in my hometown, I moved to Barcelona to study a bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Then, I came back to Galicia to do a master’s in molecular and cellular biology.

In 2018, I started a PhD in Biochemistry at the Arizona State University that I quit right after passing the candidacy exam. In 2020, I started a new PhD at the University of Lausanne in Life Sciences, from which I graduated last year. Currently, I am finishing an online MBA at the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja.

What were your different research projects?

[For my bachelor’s thesis] Unlike most of my peers who went for an internship to do a practical thesis, I worked independently on a science communication project, based on literature research. I created an interactive website for the public to learn more about Río Tinto, a peculiar river in Spain that NASA uses as Mars analogue to carry out research (you are welcome to check it out but is it in Spanish! https://tamitra93.wixsite.com/deriotintoamarte)

For my master’s thesis, I did an internship at a research lab at the university, in collaboration with a biotech company. The goal was to find suitable cellulase enzymes (enzymes that can break down cellulose, e.g., for the paper industry) that could work at high temperatures.

During the year and a half that I spent in the US, I came up with a project to study nitrifying extremophiles -microbes that like extreme conditions- in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Later on, when I started my new PhD in Lausanne, I investigated soil microbes and how they interact with each other using microscopy to observe them. My last thesis chapter, however, was dedicated to science communication and the educational board game I developed. For my MBA thesis, I am developing a business plan for a science café.

You were a PhD student at Arizona State University for a year and a half before joining the University of Lausanne. What motivated you to apply for the position in the US, and what led you to continue your PhD at Lausanne instead?

Joining Arizona State University was a dream come true, something I worked very hard for a very long time to get. By the end of my bachelor's degree, I knew I wanted to be an Astrobiologist; a scientist who studies the origin of life and its potential existence beyond our planet. My bachelor’s thesis was already focused on astrobiology and during my master’s I tried to keep it close enough to extremophile organisms.

However, I failed to fit in with both the social and scientific culture of the United States (or at least, Arizona’s). Living my dream come true was feeling quite miserable and I decided to quit once I passed the candidacy exam; hardest decision I have ever made. I concluded that I was not suitable to pursue a PhD and thus started looking for jobs that would allow me to stay close to science, since I still loved it.

After contacting my former thesis supervisor regarding a research assistant vacancy in his lab, he replied with a slightly different offer: a PhD position to collaborate with a mathematician in understanding soil microbial communities. This, of course, sounded very cool to me and, after a lot of thought (A LOT) I ended up accepting it and moved to Lausanne once the COVID19 pandemic allowed me to.

I discovered your LinkedIn profile thanks to a post about the scientific board game BACTTLE, which you created during your PhD. You were celebrating a successful pre-order launch on Kickstarter. Could you walk us through the full story of BACTTLE, from the idea, conception, and design?

Bacttle started as a modest science activity at the Mysteres de l’UNIL science fair in Lausanne. As a volunteer for the Department of Fundamental Microbiology, I had the opportunity to develop my own activity and fine tuned it with the help of my colleagues. At the beginning, the activity that would be named Bacttle later on consisted of a magnetic board with a bacteria cartoon represented on it, given to each participant. I would then describe an environment to the players where their bacteria were supposed to live. Then, they would get to choose from a variety of magnets or “superpowers” to arm their bacteria with, and I would explain to them how each tool could be used by their bacteria.

For instance, one scenario pictured their bacteria infecting a healthy individual. Their challenge was to avoid the immune system of the host. In order to do so, they had to use the mask to cover their bacterial faces and go unnoticed. This was my opportunity to talk about how our bodies respond to infections and how bacteria can trick our bodies.

One year later, after working on the idea in my free time, I found a way to make the activity into a card game that could be played without a game master. However, board games need a lot of testing, since it is the only way to see if the game is balanced or has dead ends. I was lucky that my colleagues were always happy to play. After a lot of adjustments, the first version of the game was ready for the second year of Mysteres de l’UNIL.

In parallel, as the idea of creating a functional educational game was growing, I joined the entrepreneurial program that UNIL offers, UCreate, to learn more about how to start a business. I was studying the idea of producing Bacttle as a board game (contacting manufacturers, publishers, trademarking the name, etc.). Unfortunately, my project was not selected for the second round of the program, which offered the opportunity to get financial support.

However, after the publication of the scientific paper that describes the game, an educational board game publisher based on the UK contacted me with a one-in-a-life-time offer: if I could gather enough funding to support the production of a batch of Bacttle games, they would take care of adapting the design, producing all its components and selling it through their online website. Since the university was not interested in making an investment and I had no personal savings to spare, I jumped into a crowdfunding campaign. I would never have expected the support and awe it gathered; and after a successful campaign, Bacttle is now being produced as an educational board game that will be available worldwide.

You also published a paper about BACTTLE. Could you tell us more about it? Was your PI supportive of the conception of this educational board game?

At the beginning of 2023 and after different colleagues encouraged me to do it, I proposed to my PI making Bacttle part of my thesis. This was important for me because communicating science had always been one of my passions and making it part of a doctoral thesis would give science popularization the recognition it deserves. I knew it was a long shot since thesis are usually reserved to formal, technical content, and the playful cards of Bacttle depicting bacteria with arms and legs could be deemed imprecise the least.

However, my PI was very understanding and supportive. He agreed to add Bacttle as a chapter of my thesis as long as I could capture its journey in a well-documented scientific piece that could be published in a peer reviewed journal. If I could do that, then Bacttle could be the last chapter of my thesis. I did not doubt it for a second and started to plan how to scientifically test the game’s educational aspect.

Thus, the Mysteres de l’UNIL and the ETH Scientifica science fairs of 2023 became my experimental ground to test the game and see if it was able to teach microbiology to players. I dived into the psychology of learning, serious games and game design literature, and put together a brief survey that would allow me to measure the declarative knowledge gained by players after playing one game of Bacttle. After gathering and analyzing all the data, it turned out that Bacttle was indeed teaching microbiology, and I could publish a paper describing all the process and its results in the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education from the American Society for Microbiology (https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00097-24).

What were the main challenges you faced while creating the game?

The main challenge for me was to find financial aid. When you do not have the personal financial capacity to move your project forward, you can only ask for help. I tried the entrepreneurial program of UNIL and even UNIL itself when the publisher stepped up with a proposal, with no success. I also pitched at the Swiss Microbiology Forum in 2023 for financial aid, but did not succeed either. Ideally, I should have kept trying in other pitch contests, but during my PhD time was limiting and this was not a priority, it was just a personal project.

Pulling out a whole crowdfunding campaign on my own was not easy. I had to learn how to do it from scratch, manage social media, create the content, market it well, trying to reach as many people as possible, figure out additional costs and taxes… all while working 100% and studying a master online. This was the busiest year of my life, wouldn’t recommend, but totally worth it 😊

Just two months after completing your PhD at the University of Lausanne, you started a new position as Knowledge Management Coordinator. Could you share what steps led you to this role and what your main responsibilities were?

I was lucky enough that a position of this kind appeared right when I was looking for a job, after defending my thesis. I did not even know this kind of job existed! The job description was very inspiring to me. The first sentence of the add read “do you have a strong interest in sharing knowledge?” and I thought “YES! I do!”. They were looking for a Junior candidate, entry level position, which is as much as you can aspire for when you just graduate. Thus, I had to try.

After three online interviews I was informed that I had the job. It was a temporary 6-months contract where I had the chance to implement a knowledge strategy that my manager had been putting together. With my help, we deployed it and put it into practice. The company wanted to expand the offer and improve the quality of their training to employees, keep track of the resources they had and standardize how knowledge was shared. My contract got extended for another half a year, which is now reaching an end. Overall, I created the repository of learning tools available, I managed the learning management system (e.g., publishing new courses, assigning content to learners, following up on completion) and I facilitated cross-functional collaboration and innovation between different teams and departments to make knowledge accessible (e.g., bringing experts together to create quality content, teaching them best practices to do so, reviewing the content).

What do you enjoy the most about working as a Knowledge Management Coordinator?

My contract now reaches the end, and I am very glad I had this opportunity. The thing I enjoyed the most was creating new content from scratch to teach others about a topic. This meant I had to learn a lot about a wide range of subjects, to then teach them to others. The fast learning and research skills that I gained during my PhD were very useful in this context. From sales to supply chain, I got a very good picture of how the company is running.

This year at SOPHiA has taught me how to manage different stakeholders, communicate effectively in a company, and meet the craziest deadlines. It has been very cool to prove myself and I feel more confident about the challenges I can face.

Many researchers face challenges when transitioning from academia to industry. What were the main difficulties you encountered during this transition?

I can relate to how different industry feels from academia. I will never forget my first cultural shock: in a company, time is money, and interactions are essential but very efficient. I loved this. You would get to summarize and transmit a message in 15 minutes; people do not have one entire hour to spare. This also means that your time is valued and respected: nobody would book your time unless it is important, and if a meeting is set up for half an hour, it will end at such time.

Nonetheless, industry felt like a completely new world. Even with a PhD, you know nothing. You are a junior in this environment, and you have to start from scratch. I think it is a pity that at university they offer courses and seminars on how to write a paper or how to submit a funding proposal (things that are essential if you want to stay in academia), but nobody talks about how tightly controlled manufacturing conditions are in a pharma lab or what are the different pieces that compose a company.

Ultimately, this is why I started the MBA. You may be able to learn over time how the company runs, but with what I am studying I now understand the function of each department in a company, what drives them and how everything is connected and synchronized like clockwork. Actually, it has given me a new perspective about how the world runs.

What advice has made the most impact on your professional development?

I do not know if it has had impact on my professional development, but the advice I have cherished the most in my life was “do not change”. In my current situation, looking for a job and facing interviews, I sometimes feel compromised to match an advertised profile instead of being myself.

And, of course, the higher the number of rejections, the higher the feeling that you are not good enough. However, I try to remind myself that the person I am, the knowledge and experience I carry are the most valuable things I have.

Finally, what can I wish you for the years to come?

Well, I can only think of wishing for good health. Having that, the rest is easy. I am very excited about what comes next […]. Looking forward to the next challenge.

Tania’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taniamt/