The Crick has a specialist Fly Facility, which takes care of 15,000 different fly families.
Technicians working in the facility run a constant, complex breeding programme; if a single tube of flies is mislabelled or neglected, a unique family could be lost forever.
Technicians in the Fly Facility know this insect’s anatomy like the back of their hand, but it would be impossible to memorise the myriad differences between thousands of fly families.
Completed A level equivalent including Biology, Physics, Maths and Chemistry, Scotland
Diploma Higher Education in Biological Sciences at University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Scotland
Bachelor in Natural Sciences at Open University
MA Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Fly Facility Technician, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Fly Facility Technician
Completed A Level equivalent including Biology and Geography, Germany
MA Biology, Aachen University, Germany
PhD in Plant Molecular Biology and Plant Disease Resistance, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
Research Technician and Laboratory Research Scientist, National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK
Fly Facility Supervisor, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Fly Facility Supervisor
Here are the top three skills needed to work in the Fly Facility:
For more information on the different skills required for technical roles in science and beyond, have a look at the Technicians Make it Happen prospectus:
