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Seren Aitchison

@serenaitchison

Computational chemistry research assistant at Cardiff University who modelled cancer drug candidates with docking and machine learning.

United Kingdom

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m interested in bioinformatics and pharmacogenomics research, particularly applying genomics and precision medicine approaches to improve healthcare outcomes.

At Cardiff University, I conducted molecular dynamics simulations and protein-ligand docking to study new cancer drug candidates. I used MOE, AutoDock, and PyMOL, and explored Random Forest and Support Vector Machines to analyse docking outputs.

My projects include assisting with a prototype pipeline for integrating genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data, and evaluating Random Forest and XGBoost classifiers on biological datasets. I’m interested in bioinformatics, pharmacogenomics, and applying machine learning to precision medicine and drug discovery.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Pharmacogenomics Laboratory Assistant

IDRL

Aug 2026 - Sep 2026 (1 month)

Selected for a research placement focusing on pharmacogenomics and infectious disease research. Expected to gain experience analyzing genomic and clinical datasets to investigate factors influencing drug response and treatment outcomes.

Pharmacogenomics Infectious Disease Research Genomics Data Analysis Clinical Data Analysis PCR Molecular Biology Bioinformatics Python R

Research Assistant, Computational Chemistry

Cardiff University

Sep 2025 - Present (1 year 1 month)

Conducted molecular dynamics simulations and protein-ligand docking analysis to study new cancer drug candidates. Employed software packages like MOE, AutoDock, and PyMOL to model small molecule-protein target interactions in cancer.

Molecular Dynamics Molecular Docking MOE AutoDock PyMOL Machine Learning Random Forest SVM Cancer Drug Discovery Cross Functional Collaboration

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Cardiff University

BSc, Medicinal Chemistry

2023 -

Grade: Expected First Class Honours

Activities and societies: Relevant coursework: Computational Chemistry & Bioinformatics, Organic Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Data Analysis, Machine Learning for Drug Discovery.

BSc Medicinal Chemistry with focus on bioinformatics, computational chemistry, and drug discovery. Final year project on predictive models for cancer treatment using machine learning and bioinformatics tools.