Tony Dornan AS spotlightDespite my irrepressible North American accent, I am, in our lab, currently the only person of completely Scottish descent. I was born in Glasgow but moved to Canada when I was 2. I returned to Scotland as an undergraduate at Glasgow University and in 1988 began my studies in Molecular Biology. During this time, I was introduced to the absolute joys of Drosophila genetics during a mad summer elective in the lab of Kim Kaiser where I was befriended by a then PhD student, Stephen Goodwin. I was also lucky to have my undergraduate project placement with Julian Dow while he was in Cell Biology.

After graduating in 1990 I continued my love affair with Drosophila, characterising nervous system specific enhancer trap expression patterns in flies, in the old Departmentof Genetics, while working weekends as a steward in Queen Margaret Union alongside (the now) Dr Martin McBride and Prof Stephen Goodwin. However, after 3 years, my PI moved the group to the University of Sussex while I chose to remain in Glasgow. I had, as an undergraduate, begun practicing Shorinji Kempo, attained my black belt and was one of the instructors for GUSKC, and this fascination for martial arts has continued with me to this day. I have studied Kempo, Karate and Aikido and nowadays attempt to overcome the depredations of age by practicing Muay Thai.

After this I had a brief rock’n’roll moment working as a security manager for a company that owned clubs and pubs in Glasgow, as well as freelancing for Mercury Records.

In 1999 I joined Stephen Goodwin’s new group in Molecular Genetics as a research technician, and in 2007 I began a Wellcome Trust-funded part-time PhD student, characterising how the fruitless and doublesex genes specify sexually dimorphic neural circuitry in the fly.

During this time I developed my love of imaging, borrowing time on confocal microscopes in Neurobiology and Physiology as well as at the Beatson on weekends, before finally a joint grant between Stephen, Julian and Shireen allowed us to procure our own system.

In 2001 I married my wife Kirstan, an artist, and in 2004 we had our first daughter Darcy prompting a move from a flat in the Westend to a house in the Southside. In 2008 we had our second daughter, Marley. The family was completed in 2017 when I finally crumbled to constant filial pressure to adopt our rescue greyhound, Teddy.

In 2009, during the 3rd year of my PhD, Stephen’s group moved to the University of Oxford. I remained in Glasgow (there’s a theme going on here). The University supported me to continue with my PhD research, parachuting me into the labs of Julian Dow and Shireen Davies to act as their lab manager. With support from the Institute, Julian, Shireen, and Stephen, I completed my PhD and graduated in 2011.

Since this time, I have remained within the Dow-Davies lab as research technician/lab manager. I’ve also specialised in managing and training users of our confocal microscope, and in 2019, along with John Pediani, became coordinator of the MCSB BioImaging service. Providing imaging support and expert assistance to researchers, PG courses and groups throughout the College. I am also the safety coordinator for the Davidson Building and part of the Institute’s Health & Safety committee.

I am passionate about promoting our research to the wider public. I have participated in a variety of STEMM engagements from Glasgow Science Festivals, Explorathons, school visits and science fairs. A highlight of this was producing the ‘Glowing Flies’ poster for the exhibition on the Clyde Walkway and having my images featured in the College’s ‘Excellence with Impact’ calendar (I was April).

In 2019, with the arrival of Adam Dobson’s and Alberto’s Sanz’s groups, Drosophila research has again blossomed in the Institute. I continue as Julian and Shireen’s lab manager, supporting the research that has led to their spin-out company Solasta Bio, while now also acting as research technician/lab manager for the Dobson group.

While I promote science as an opportunity to travel, both physically, and intellectually, I recognize how unusual my own journey has been. I have ended up 10 km from where I originally began, working in the same University throughout my academic career largely on the same model organism. But that journey involved me travelling 5600 km to get here, supported throughout, by the University, my colleagues, friends, and family and always by a deep underlying passion in the research I am given the opportunity to witness going on around me, and that I love to engage in.

First published: 29 April 2021

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