Deakin graduates rule in US
SYSTEMS for quick, highvolume sequencing of DNA at relatively low cost have led to many medical breakthroughs.
However, the research that goes into developing such systems has also undergone some big leaps forward and Deakin University alumni are behind some of the most innovative developments.
“We produce tools that enable new biological discoveries and help researchers to see things that couldn’t be seen before, whether they were hidden or couldn’t be found with existing technology,” said Ben Hindson, company executive and former Deakin PhD student.
“Our products give other scientists the means to understand really complex biological problems.”
A post-doctoral position at national security laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory lured Dr Hindson to the US, but the entrepreneurial chemist is now working on his second company specialising in cutting-edge laboratory equipment.
“Rather than building tools solely for government, I wanted to build tools that could be used more widely in the research community, and then build a business out of it,” he said.
Dr Hindson is chief scientific officer, president and cofounder of 10x Genomics, a sequencing technology company in Pleasanton, California. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Deakin in 2001, under the supervision of Alfred Deakin professor Neil Barnett.
His first company, Quantalife, established with fellow scientists from Lawrence Livermore, developed a droplet digital polymerase chain reaction system that provided quantification of target molecules with a previously unachievable level of precision and sensitivity. Quantalife was bought out by Bio-Rad in 2011.
At 10x Genomics, Dr Hindson has worked with an expanding group of Deakin alumni, now numbering five, including his brother Chris, who is the firm’s senior director of chemistry.
Dr Ben Hindson said what stood out about his fellow Deakin graduates was their ability to apply their experience in one field to completely different problems in another.
“They’re good at solving problems. They have a solid understanding of the fundamentals and they have practical experience as well,” he said.
“They might be green with respect to US industry, but they adapt and work really hard to deliver results that people appreciate and that drive the company forward.
“We’ve had a great success rate as well in recruiting Deakin graduates. Everybody who has come over has ended up staying.”
Prof Barnett, who maintains contact with the brothers and has seen a number of his former PhD students join them in California, says the success of alumni demonstrates how well the university trains its students.
“We equip our graduates to deal with new things,” he said.
“I didn’t teach Ben and Chris how to run a business. I taught them chemistry, but if you teach students how to solve fundamental problems they can tackle anything.”