Sheila Potter isn’t content with just being a lab manager and genetics technician in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. She also works as a science writer for UVic’s Centre for Biomedical Research. Sheila can also be found teaching journalism courses at Western Academy of Photography.

Working in a genetics lab

On a typical day in the lab, she’ll answer questions from undergraduate students who are training in the lab, while working on her microbial genetic projects. Sheila’s specialty is moving DNA around from one species or strain of bacteria to another.

She explains, "The research focus in the lab is very diverse, but at some point all of the projects involve manipulating and controlling genes." Some student projects include:

• working on making a biofuel with blue-green algae
• working on a tuberculosis vaccine using genes from Arctic bacteria
• understanding a pump system in a model organism for tuberculosis

Sheila supports everyone's research by keeping protocols updated, equipment maintained, supplies stocked, and the storage systems for biological samples well organized.

Science and journalism: a good match

Journalism and science don’t appear to have a lot of common, but they both very much involve figuring out what's true and sharing that knowledge.

Sheila finds her two backgrounds complement each other. She earned a BSc in biochemistry and a Harvey Southam Graduate Diploma in Writing and Editing from UVic.

Inspired by women instructors

During her biochemistry degree, Sheila particularly admired and enjoyed the lab instructors who taught the upper-level lab courses. “There were several women instructors that stood out in particular because they seemed to have it all figured out. They were having fun life adventures, enjoying a good life-career balance, and they had an infectious enthusiasm for their topics.  I found it very satisfying when I had a chance to fill in for a term and teach a term of the third year microbiology-biochemistry lab course a few years ago. Then, I learned so much about teaching from my fellow instructors that it paved the way to teaching journalism.”

Learn more about biochemistry and microbiology at UVic.