ScienceOnline’09 – interview with Erin Cline Davis

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked Erin Cline Davis of 23andMe to answer a few questions.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your (scientific) background?
I’m Erin Cline Davis. I grew up in southern California, then headed east for college at MIT. I liked it, but those winters are killer, so I returned to sunny CA for grad school at Stanford. I got my PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology in 2006. My thesis work was in James Nelson’s lab. In general, the group studies epithelial polarity and adhesion. That’s what I meant to study. But I ended up working on all sorts of random stuff as I tried to understand the role of Par 6, a protein that has been implicated in the establishment of polarity in multiple species, in the nucleus. After finally becoming Dr. Erin, I decided to make a change and become a science writer. Just a few days after my defense I headed down to the L.A. Times as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow. After that, I landed at 23andMe.
What is your Real Life job?
I’m a science writer for 23andMe, a personal genomics service.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
In addition to creating content for the 23andMe website, I write for our corporate blog, The Spittoon (get it?). It’s really satisfying to be able to help our customers see how their data fits in with the very latest in genetics research. At this point I don’t have my own personal blog, but I would like to in the future if I can ever find the time.
When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while at the Conference?
I started reading science blogs once I became a blogger myself. I read Genetic Future a lot. Everyone at the conference had such cool blogs, but one of my favorite finds was Miriam Goldstein’s The Oyster’s Garter. She is so smart and funny! It’s great that she’s on DoubleX too.
It was so nice to meet you and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
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See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.