Meet Christine Hemming, Group Leader QC at Atlas Antibodies

For our employee spotlight series, it is now time for another member of the Atlas Antibodies brilliant team. Meet Christine Hemming, our excellent Group Leader in quality control (QC). Read below to find out more about her and her exciting career path.

Q1: Hi Christine, could you list 4 hashtags that describe your personality and interests? 

Christine: Hi! of course,

#ilovehistology #baking #pipingtechniques #fleamarketfinds  

Q2: Do you have any great 3 o’clock” Fika” moments you would like to share?

Christine: Yes, I enjoy baking which also means I like to test new recipes that I find in magazines or online. I think the most popular thing I ever made for a “Fika” at work was a pie with Japanese quince curd and meringue. 

Q3: Could you briefly describe your background and the road you took that led you to Atlas Antibodies?    

Christine: I studied Biomedicine at Uppsala University and did my Master's thesis in a neighboring group to the Uppsala site of the Human Protein Atlas project (HPA). When I finished my thesis, the HPA was looking for staff, so I applied and got my first job there. There I annotated the digital IHC images, trained other annotators, and curated their annotations. I also worked with TMA production and sectioning.

At the same time, Atlas Antibodies was growing and looking for a Laboratory Engineer to do IHC, QC , and mAb validation. I applied and got the position. In the beginning, I had a shared role between QC and R&D, working both with QC on established products (then mainly polyclonal antibodies) and testing the monoclonal antibodies that we were developing.

As the company continued to grow, I moved on to working full-time at QC. As the QC team has grown, I have had the opportunity first to become a team leader and then the Group Leader for the QC group.

Q4: Could you tell us a little bit about what the most rewarding aspect of your role is?

Christine:  In the Operations department, we focus on lead time and getting everything through the processes and out the door to customers in time. Approving a large batch of a product that I know is in great demand is always rewarding. 

Further, I would say that building a great QC team and making sure we have stable processes in place is very rewarding to me. Sometimes we might seem a bit pedantic to others in the company, but we need to have order to be able to deliver what we should. 

Q5: What would you say is the best thing about working in life science? 

Christine: I would say that everything we do is so important. Even though we do not do any research of our own in my group, we make sure that the products are delivered to our customers and that they have the tools they need to continue their work of finding out more about diseases or even future cures.

Q6: Could you tell us one of your favorite memories at Atlas Antibodies? 

Christine: One memory I have is when I went to the USCAP (the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology) Annual Meeting in Seattle. That was a great trip, a fun conference with many interested customers, and a great city to visit.

I specifically remember a Japanese restaurant we visited on our last evening and an amazing exhibition of the Chihuly Garden and Glass we also saw.

Another great memory I have is how much I enjoyed planning the move from our old location to our current one in Bromma. It was great seeing the place before, planning how we would use it in the best way possible, and working at that location for several years. 

Thank you, Christine, for sharing your story with us.