Working in the fly room

Published on Author Giorgio Gilestro

Contents

The flyroom

The flyroom is located on the third floor of this building and it is space that we share with other three fly groups. Therefore, it is paramount to keep a nice and collaborative behaviour. This means, above everything, to respect common spaces and common resources.

  1. Clean after yourself.
  2. Do not leave rubbish around.
  3. Familiarise and comunicate with all the people working in the fly room.
  4. If you find a problem, sort it or report it.

To comunicate with every user of the flyroom, send an email to flyroomSEC@imperial.ac.uk

The hackspace

The hackspace is almost exclusively used by our laboratory. It is equipped with a soldering bench, a 3D printing bench and a builiding bench. The same rules of behaviour apply to the hackspace. Be tidy and responsible.

Discarding flies

Flies that need to be discarded must be trashed in the orange bags. When the orange bag is 75% full, close it using a blue, coded zip-tie and place it in the -20C freezer for at least 24h. Remove well frozen bags and place them next to the freezer. They will be collected and autoclaved once a day.

Safety in the fly room

Things that could go wrong in the flyroom:

  1. We use boiling water to clean fly food tubes. Boiling water can be very dangerous. If you need to clean tubes, make sure the water is handled with care and make sure people around you are informed that you are going to use boiling water. Do not walk around with containers filled with hot water.

  2. We have three CO2 cylinders in the flyroom. They are periodically replaced by the BOC people and you should not move them around for any reason. As part of your induction, you will be shown how to replace the CO2 regulator. Always make sure the CO2 is closed when not in use and if you suspect a leak, inform one of the PIs immediately.

  3. The Dionne lab uses pathogenes to inflect flies and study their immune response. These pathogens are not airborne and are not dangerous for humans. However, be careful of your movements when injections are performed: you don't want to inject yourself with those. If an accident happens, contact Marc Dionne immediately.

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Preparing fly food

We have a rota for fly food cooking. Ask Gabriel to be added to the rota and do a cooking induction with whoever is next in the rota.