Welcome back to Team Insights, where we offer you an opportunity to get to know a bit more about our team at Microbiome Insights. We hope to show you the faces of the people you will be working with and the human element behind the now virtual interaction. For this Team Insights, we want you to meet Ben Tantika, the head of our laboratory team.

You can connect with Ben on Linkedin here.

Hello Ben, It's a pleasure having this chat with you. To start off, when did you begin working at Microbiome Insights?

A: Early 2018.

What do you do at Microbiome Insights? Describe your role?

 A: Director of Lab Operations, oversee all laboratory operations while collaborating with sales and bioinformatics.

What interests you most about the area of the microbiome?

 A: The role of microbiome in health and disease.

What do you think the role of the microbiome will be in health and disease in the coming years?

A: I would say disease monitoring, diagnostics, and personalized medicine. We are living in an era that things are no longer one size fits all, microbiome sequencing is a great tool in providing a quick snapshot into human health.

 What do you enjoy most about Microbiome Insights?

 A: The science and expertise of each team member.

 How would you describe your job to a bunch of five-year-olds?

 A: I Make Science Happen!

 What’s the best advice you can give to someone who just started their career?

 A: Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start!

 What are your passions outside of work?

 A: Hiking, nature, snowboarding, food & fitness :)

 What’s your secret talent that no one knows about?

 A: Solved a Rubik’s Cube in under one minute.

 If you could get a new skill in 10 minutes, what would it be?

 A: Real answer? Master the piano. The fun answer would be to have teleportation.

 How have you made the most of your time working from home?

A: Positivity, Pilates, and Coffee.

 What’s your favorite music genre?

 A: I have been listening to "lofi hip hop" while working, but I am generally ok with all sorts of genres (rock, pop, folk, jazz, etc..)

Can you recommend any "lo-fi hip hop" that you've been really enjoying recently?

A: OSAKA Japanese Lofi Hip-Hop (with a handy link here).

 If you could make any fictional creature real, which would you choose?

A: Grogu aka. Baby Yoda. Obviously, because it can help me eat my "almost expired" chicken eggs.

Last question: recently we went through the CAP accreditation process to certify our methodology on human/animal testing. Could you share what going through that process was like?

A: The CAP accreditation will take both our wet and dry lab processes to a higher standard. Changes are always difficult to implement into an existing pipeline. The process went well and now we have better transparency and traceability of our pipeline, which in turn improves the quality and confidence of our sequencing data.

Thank you again, Ben, for taking the time to answer these questions and share a bit about yourself. To our readers, we hope you enjoyed this Team Insights segment. Be sure to check out Ben's music recommendations if you're interested in some relaxing tunes.