From waiting tables to studying the genome

Leslie Wyard holds up a glass slide that contains thousands of human genes. Before becoming a lab technologist, the 2002 Seneca graduate worked as a waitress for 15 years.

Leslie Wyard used her Seneca training to go from waiting tables to working in a high-tech research lab.

The 40-year-old lab technologist's career shift began five years ago when she was the first co-op student selected to work in Seneca's Biotechnology Centre for Applied Research and Training (BCART).

During her eight-month placement at the $2-million biotech research facility, she received hands-on training in the latest laboratory techniques and technologies.

"I learned specific skills at BCART that I'm applying to my career," says Wyard, who graduated in 2002 from Seneca's Biotechnology Technologist Research (BTR) program. "I'm not sure how marketable I would have been without the experience I had."

At BCART, Leslie was given the opportunity to assist in the lab's first applied research study, which was done in collaboration with St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto.

The study's results were published in a peer-review journal and Wyard was given the rare honour of having her name listed as an author -- a credit usually reserved for the scientists or researchers who lead the study.

"BCART enables our students to develop cutting edge hands-on skills," says Xiaomao Li, principal investigator and co-ordinator of BCART. "Keeping on top of the fast-paced and fast-changing biotech industry is not easy, but it is something that BCART strives for."

MAPPING DNA

Prior to enrolling in the three-year BTR program, Wyard worked as a waitress in the restaurant industry for 15 years. She decided to go back to school as a mature student after becoming interested in biotechnology and, specifically, the work being done with the Human Genome Project -- a 13-year project that mapped out the complete sequence of human DNA.

Since graduating, Wyard has applied what she learned at Seneca working for The University Health Network Microarray Centre.

The Toronto-based research facility specializes in creating microarrays, which allows biologists to analyse thousands of genes simultaneously instead of one at a time.

Wyard worked at the centre for two years, and was part of a research team using microarrays to study the difference between cancer tissue and normal tissue. The team's ultimate goal is to find the gene switch that turns cancer off.

Wyard worked on the production end of the study, but recently left the research team to pursue a career in forensics with the Toronto police force.

She is now working as a police constable with the City of Toronto.

"I realized I couldn't stay in the restaurant industry indefinitely," she says. "I knew I needed to make a change and college was the obvious choice for me because it was going to get me a job."

Seneca's Biotechnology Technologist Research program prepares graduates for successful careers in research laboratories of university, hospital and government institutes, as well as in the research and development areas of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

For more information visit: www.senecac.on.ca/fulltime/BTRC.html.

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