Robert Syme
Scientific Support Lead at Deel
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolRobert Syme is a Scientific Support Lead and bioinformatics specialist with 15 years of experience bridging molecular biology, genomics and data engineering. Based in Montreal, he has progressed from academic research and postdoctoral work into industry roles at McGill and Deel, where he moved from Bioinformatics Engineer to leading scientific support. He is a hands-on contributor to high-profile open-source pipelines like nf-core/scrnaseq, improving data accuracy and workflow robustness through back-end, DevOps and Nextflow work. Passionate about open data and decentralised publishing, he combines practical tooling (samplesheet checks, GTF filtering, Salmon/index fixes) with clear technical writing and documentation improvements. Known for integrating wet-lab insight with scalable computational pipelines, he brings a rare mix of domain expertise, reproducible workflows and operational support.
15 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
BSc, Molecular Biology, H1 (First class), BSc, Molecular Biology, H1 (First class) at Murdoch UniversityDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bioinformatics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bioinformatics at Curtin University
English
Stackoverflow
362reputation
10kreached
5answers
7questions
Github Skills (20)
python10
work-flow10
workflow-engine10
nextflow10
rna-seq10
bioinformatics10
documentation10
reproducible-research9
clojure6
ggplot6
subset6
glade6
docker6
ruby-gnome26
semantics6
Programming languages (23)
Github contributions (5)
nextflow-io/nextflow
Sep 2014 - Nov 2022
A DSL for data-driven computational pipelines
Role in this project:
Technical Writer
Technical WriterContributions:19 reviews, 11 commits, 26 PRs in 8 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Robert primarily contributed to the project by correcting typos and making minor wording adjustments within the documentation files. These changes were focused on improving the clarity and accuracy of the documentation, specifically within the `docs` directory. The edits include fixing grammatical errors, updating links, and improving the examples presented in the documentation, ensuring better understanding for users. The work also included adjustments to code examples to align them with the latest versions.
singularity-containersbioinformaticsawsdataflowslurm
nf-core/scrnaseq
Sep 2022 - Oct 2022
Single-cell RNA-Seq pipeline for barcode-based protocols such as 10x, DropSeq or SmartSeq, offering a variety of aligners and empty-droplet detection
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & DevOps Engineer
Back-end Developer & DevOps EngineerContributions:2 releases, 5 reviews, 15 commits in 24 days
Contributions summary:Robert significantly contributed to the nf-core/scrnaseq pipeline, focusing on enhancing its functionality and robustness. They added a Python function for samplesheet checks and implemented a filter to remove extraneous features from GTF files, improving data processing accuracy. Additionally, the user addressed a bug related to the Salmon index and made changes to integrate with iGenome for data retrieval. These changes also involved updating module definitions and workflow configurations within the Nextflow pipeline, as well as whitespace and linting fixes.
nf-core10xrnaseqpipelinegenomics-data
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