During Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognises the exceptional contribution of research staff to the University, we speak to Lawrence Bates about life as a postdoc in Jenny Nichols’ lab, which studies the early stages of mammalian development, from formation of the blastocyst to implantation, gastrulation and the onset of organogenesis. What was your route to […]

Facility Manager Lizzie Freyer works alongside Flow Cytometry Specialist Michael Rennie in a state-of-the-art lab in the new North East Building, which they moved to in April from three separate rooms in the West Building. What was your route to becoming a technician? I studied in Germany and by degree I’m a Biotechnology Engineer. I […]

Jonnie works as a Zebrafish technologist looking after several thousand tropical fish spread over three rooms on the ground floor of the Central Building. What was your route to becoming a technician? I did a PhD in Developmental Biology in Aberdeen looking at the mechanism of early eye development. When I came back to Edinburgh, […]

Helen works as Histology Service Manager in the first-floor lab in the South Building of the IGC, running the histology service for users within the university and outwith, including students from other universities who don’t have histology services and some private companies. What was your route to becoming a technician? I have been here for […]

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 […]

Tucked away on the ground floor of the West Building, Stephen Brown and Jeff Joseph are the experts behind the in-house DNA sequencing facility providing Sanger sequencing to all IGC researchers and their collaborators. Facility Manager Stephen started working at IGC 20 years ago after completing his Biological Sciences degree and taking time out to […]

Facility Manager Alison and her Research Technician colleague Camilla Drake work in a bright south facing lab on the first floor of the South Building housing cutting edge protein, antibody and transcriptomic microarray facilities together with a family of cacti called Dr Spike Pickles, Prick Jagger, Cactniss Evergreen and Maximus Cacticus.   What was your […]

Foundation Apprenticeships are a work-based learning opportunity, for senior phase secondary school pupils. It helps us build our skills for work and gives us a recognized qualification without a final exam at the end. Lasting 1 to 2 years, we began our foundation apprenticeship in S5 or S6. The pupils who opt in to do […]

By Cherry Ferrier Communications Manager, Institute of Genetics and Cancer   I recently spoke with the Institute’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Professor Lesley Stark (above), to reflect upon the first year of a new part-time online MSc programme in cancer biology and precision oncology at the University of Edinburgh. Lesley’s passion for the programme […]

As a PhD student on the MRC HGU rotation programme I’ve had the opportunity to work in the Zebrafish Facility during one of my rotations. I was very warmly welcomed into the facility and the whole team were always happy to answer questions and provide support. Their enthusiasm was infectious and I found myself really […]