Technician Week 2024: James Iremonger – Advanced Imaging Resource

A change in career direction saw James Iremonger switch from working as a project supervisor at a market research company to his role as a Light Microscopy Technician at IGC.

He is part of the Advanced Imaging Resource team – based on the ground floor of the Central building – working alongside Head of Facility Ann Wheeler and other technical staff Matt Pearson, Laura Murphy, Helen Caldwell and Martin Lee.

What was your route to becoming a technician?

I was doing a job I wasn’t very excited about in my early 30s. I became interested in science and started an Open University course in my spare time. That evolved into undertaking a PhD programme in Edinburgh which I finished in 2021.

My PhD focused on the mitochondrial biology of livestock trypanosomes – parasites that affect livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the time I got to the end of my PhD I felt more drawn to a career as a technician rather than an academic one.

I had done a wide range of techniques during my PhD at Roslin. Part of the work I was doing was in microscopy and I used a variety of metabolic, molecular and imaging techniques to characterise the metabolism of trypanosomes.

I enjoyed the imaging element of my PhD and when this job came up here, I took the part of my PhD work I enjoyed most and made it my main job. I started here in July 2021.

James Iremonger – Advanced Imaging Resource

How does your educational background help you in your job?

I work in a team of four people within the core imaging team. All of us are educated to at least degree level as biologists. There are multiple paths into this sort of career and a PhD is definitely not essential, but can help in a variety of ways.

We’re technicians that specialise in imaging and microscopy but we’re here to support biologists so we often rely on our understanding of important biological processes such as cell division or apoptosis in order to support our users fully with their experiments.

On an empathetic level, it also helps to have gone through the same sort of processes our facility users are going through. If someone is trying to finalise an experiment for publication or doing a PhD, we are familiar with those sorts of pressures and what’s being required of them.

What’s your favourite part of the job?

It’s just so varied. It feels good to be able to offer people the support they really need with their experiments which ultimately can save them a lot of time and stress. Sometimes small changes to someone’s experiment can go a long way.

High quality microscopy is really valued at the IGC, meaning that I’m fortunate enough to be around the most cutting-edge imaging equipment, testing out new techniques and new functionalities. Also, the rest of the imaging team are extremely experienced so I consider myself lucky to be working alongside them and am always in a position to develop my knowledge.

We have more than 20 microscopes here covering multiple modalities. Our wide-fields are named after apples such as Scrumpy, Gala and Granny, and our confocals are name after flies – Fruit Fly, Dragonfly, Firefly and so on. It’s a bit easier for ourselves and our users to keep track of them that way.

What does a typical day look like?

My job primarily involves delivering imaging-specific training, carrying out technical checks of quantitative microscopes and technical troubleshooting. I also assist with image analysis so there is equal parts hands-on and computational work.

I can be doing anything from helping somebody set up a live timelapse experiment to working on a piece of code that will automatically detect dividing cells. I could then go from that to sorting out a broken air compressor.

Would you recommend this as a career?

It would depend on what the person wants to get out of their career. If you are interested in microscopy and imaging, it’s a great place to be. Also having a well-defined working week can be beneficial for parents (like myself) or those with caring responsibilities.

Microscopes are developing so rapidly; they are pretty cool. If you’re a technically-minded, it can be an exciting area to work in.

We’re not only around cutting-edge technology, we’re also surrounded by world class research which is a good combination for the curiously-minded.

It’s a good choice for somebody who is not quite sure about following a traditional academic career.