Meet Flori

It’s a great team.  There’s lots to do, but we help each other out

Meet Flori, Lead Clinical Scientist at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Flori’s career is built on strong academic foundations, including a MSc in Human Molecular Genomics, research on rare genetic eye disorders (retinitis pigmentosa) and a PhD in Clinical Medicine.

Flori joined the NHS in Birmingham as a pre-registration Clinical Scientist. Her MSc gave her foundations in analysing genomic data for patients with rare diseases to inform clinical diagnoses. During her two-year on-the-job training to enable her to register with the HCPC as a  Clinical Scientist, Flori got exposure to a variety of genomic services including neurology, cardiac conditions, common genetic conditions and developmental disorders.

Once qualified, Flori joined Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London where she focused on rare diseases and hereditary cancers but also contributed to 100K genomes project. She later moved back to Birmingham to focus on somatic (acquired) cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia which is common in children and is caused by different types of genomic variants affecting the white blood cells.

Your genome is not just you. It’s what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.  People don’t realise how valuable a genomic test result can be.

With her diverse knowledge as a Clinical Scientist, and with experience in training colleagues on the NHS Scientist Training Programme and delivering lectures to medical students and doctors, Flori was ready for a new challenge. She joined Sheffield Children’s as a Lead Clinical Scientist in January 2023.

In her current role as Lead Clinical Scientist, Flori is responsible for the smooth running of the gastrohepatology rare diseases and inherited cancers services, including a team of 3 Clinical Scientists and other staff members.   Flori is passionate about public engagement in science, likes to go hiking in Scotland and is a keen photographer in her spare time.

I love my job! I get satisfaction out of solving complex cases where I can bring all my current and previously acquired knowledge from different areas of genomics and from all sites I’ve previously worked at.  You get to see how genomic testing and personalised treatment makes a difference to a patient’s condition.

This is a great team. There’s lots to do, but we help each other.

Join us – there’s no better place to be.