ILYA HENNER - DNA sequencing facility manager
Salary range
AUD$60,000-80,000 p.a.
My advice for students
“Failure is when you stop wanting to learn - not when you get a bad grade.”
What I studied
Bachelor of Technology (Biotechnology), Macquarie University
Career path
Storeman: Gradipore Ltd
Production scientist: Gradipore Ltd
Having passions in both classical guitar and flying, I dabbled a little in both areas - recorded an album of solo classical guitar for SBS television and went to British Aerospace in Tamworth to undertake flight screening for the RAAF.
Research assistant: Garvan Institute of Medical Research
DNA Sequencing Facility Manager: Westmead Millennium Institute
Ilya Henner likes being the manager of the DNA sequencing facility at the Westmead Millennium Institute (WMI), and not just because he has a nice office with a big window.
It's more because he gets to use a wide range of skills and can see direct results from the work he does. And if ever he needs extra motivation, he just heads over to the Children's Hospital Westmead and suddenly his work becomes very real.
“We do sequencing and genotyping work for the hospital, the institute, several private pathology labs and interstate universities. We have between 250 and 300 customers and they can provide us with everything from genes that have been manipulated in the laboratory to prenatal testing samples. It's really important to make sure the results we provide are accurate, as they can directly affect people's lives.”
Ilya did a Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology (now called the Bachelor of Biotechnology) and had a range of jobs before he started working as a research assistant at the Garvan Institute, looking at different cellular receptors that HIV use in infection. When he decided it was time to move on, it was his technical skills that landed him the job at WMI, but he finds that he also needs his customer service, business and management skills to run the facility efficiently.
In addition to preparing, loading and running samples in the automated DNA sequencing machine, he also spends some of his day maintaining and optimising sequencing processes. Troubleshooting is a great challenge for Ilya.
“I love taking something that is working well and making it work even better. That does it for me, anyway! I program the machines to get them working at full capacity and efficiency as well as customising software to work better with the cutting-edge machines we use.”
This troubleshooting can also be on a more social level. Ilya really enjoys spending time with scientists, doctors and students to work out why their experiments didn't work as planned. There can be wide range of possible reasons, from the samples and reagents to the instruments and it is Ilya's expertise that helps scientists get the best results possible.