“Starting analytical characterization at the earliest opportunity means it can be used to enable innovation, to design better molecules from the beginning, and ultimately to create better products.”
What does your research focus on, and what problem are you trying to solve?
I work on developing Illumina’s next-generation sequencing technologies, creating new chemistries and workflows that help customers unlock deeper biological insights. As analytical scientists, my team and I characterize novel molecules and reagents to understand and improve their performance and stability so that groundbreaking genomic technologies can move from concept to real-world impact.
What aspect of your current research excites you most – and why is this an important moment for it?
The first human genome was published not long before I began my degree. Now genomic testing is becoming widely accessible, and we are expanding into multiomics to deliver a more holistic view of chemical biology. We’re moving beyond simply making sequencing faster and cheaper toward extracting richer insights from every sample.
For analytical scientists, that’s incredibly exciting. It has meant evolving to face new challenges, a wider variety of molecule types, and more complex reagents to deliver on our roadmap.
Looking five to 10 years ahead, what emerging trend do you think will have the greatest impact on analytical science?
Many careers are having to adapt to the rapid development and adoption of AI, and analytical science is no different. With increasing automation, our ability to generate vast amounts of data from analytical tools has never been greater, and AI will become an increasingly powerful partner in processing those data to draw out meaningful information and accelerate discovery.
As analytical scientists, we will need to evolve too, focusing our expertise on designing robust experiments, asking the right questions, and applying scientific judgment to interpret and challenge the insights that AI delivers.
What is the biggest challenge facing analytical science today?
The pace of innovation in biotechnology and chemical biology has been incredible, bringing ever-greater analytical complexity. Whether it is larger molecules, lower concentration limits, or an expanding variety of formulations and matrices, analytical scientists face a broad range of challenges.
At the same time, research is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, and rarely does a single technique provide the full answer. Today’s analytical scientists need to be able to interpret and consolidate multiple types of data from multiple sources to translate them into a meaningful scientific understanding of a problem.
Do you have any strong opinions with which the rest of the field tends to disagree?
Analytical chemistry is too often thought of as something to be done at the end of R&D, when it’s time to think about quality control and transitioning into production. I think that’s a missed opportunity.
QC will always be a crucial application of analytical science, but applying those skills earlier in R&D can be hugely beneficial. Starting analytical characterization at the earliest opportunity means it can be used to enable innovation, to design better molecules from the beginning, and ultimately to create better products.
What decision, opportunity, or unexpected event has had the greatest influence on your career so far?
I started working in industry as a temporary step while writing my PhD thesis, but I was still strongly considering an academic career and was mostly applying for postdoctoral and research associate positions. Then Illumina approached me with a role that was ideal for my academic and industrial experience, and I decided to go for it.
I joined Illumina just as it was increasing its focus on the clinical adoption of sequencing and investing in better characterization of its technology. I was the first purely analytical chemist hired into the chemistry development team. Over the last 10 years, I have had a fantastic opportunity to define my own role, grow my own team, and influence the way analytical science is deployed within R&D.
Who has changed the way you think about science – or life more broadly – and how?
I have been fortunate to benefit from many outstanding teachers, managers, and colleagues throughout my career. Each of them has taught me something new about science, how to approach problem-solving, and, more recently, how to lead projects and teams.
Learning to assess, make decisions, and prioritize based on technical or design risk is key to doing R&D well in a commercial setting, and that has been a great learning curve as I transitioned from academia to industry.
What interest or skill outside science has made you a better researcher?
Outside science, I have competed internationally in long-range target shooting, representing Great Britain. The sport demands precision, discipline, and the ability to perform consistently under pressure. It has also reinforced the value of preparation, teamwork, and continual improvement.
Those lessons translate surprisingly well to scientific research, where success often depends on controlling variables, maintaining focus, and delivering reliable results when the stakes are high.
Henry Day is Senior Staff Scientist at Illumina in Cambridge, UK.
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