Process Improvement Ability to Drive Quality

Member of Dicot Plant Transformation Team producing 100K+ transformed soybean, cotton and canola plants each year for Monsanto pipeline. Point person for growing Agrobacterium for daily transformation. Received and shipped USDA regulated materials. Confirmed monthly upgrades of LIMS and RFID programs. Assisted IT manager with updates and issues.• Developed method increasing number Agrobacterium strains 50% for daily transformations, allowing team to transform twice as many constructs each month with 30% decrease in consumable costs.• Implemented method storing Agrobacterium stains for 2 days, enabling production schedule to be more flexible and increased daily number of constructs to be transformed.

Member of Molecular Breeding Quality and Characterization (MBQC) team. Performed high throughput analytical lab methods producing quality copy number data for transformed R0 and R1 soybean, cotton, canola plants and seed. Contributed in ISO audits and authoring BPD. Maintained instrumentation according to SOP, GLP, and QC requirements. Contact for equipment vendors and technicians. Member of Safety, Hazard Analysis and Wellness Committees.• Assisted in establishing Quality Management System from ground up authoring and reviewing BPD, and took part in very 1st ISO9001 audit at the site, auditing for lab procedures, obtaining ISO9001 certification.• Documented and developed continues improvements, enhancing data quality and creating more efficient lab processes.• Developed and incorporated Agracetus Bead Base Assay (ABBA) into production setting, removing need for southern analysis of soybean and cotton plants, which increased data turnaround time by 7 days and improved data quality.• Implemented an automated liquid handler ABBA wash step, eliminating ergonomic burden.• Created, validated, and implemented multiple automated methods for assays in 96, and 384 well formats, improving data quality and removing ergonomic strain.• Trained multiple colleagues on troubleshooting, programming, error recovery and development of automated assays on multiple automated platforms.• Implemented new automation, increasing DNA extraction capacity by 25%.TECHNICAL SKILLSLiquid Handlers Biomek FX, Biomek NX, Agilent Bravo, Hamilton Starlet and StarPlus, Platemate, WellmateAutomation Software Agilent BenchWorks, VWorks 3.0, VWorks 4.0, Hamilton Venus One, Biomek FX, and SAMI EXAutomation Devices Agilent BenchCells, VSpin and VCode, Liconic Incubator, Sigma 6-KR centrifuge and Porvair Ultravaps