Curriculum Vitae

email: jasonasomers@gmail.com
website: www.jasonsomers.net

WORK EXPERIENCE

Principal Lab Research Scientist

The Francis Crick Institute 2021 – Present

Principal researcher and lab manager in the Neural Circuits & Evolution Lab (group leader Lucia Prieto-Godino). Responsible for day-to-day running of the lab while providing practical and project level supervision to students and other researchers. Lead researcher on a comparative genomics project studying tsetse fly olfaction.

Postdoctoral Research Associate

University College London 2015 – 2021

Postdocotal researcher studying mechanosensation and circadian rhythms in flies (fruit flies & mosquitoes) in the lab of Joerg Albert.

Research Assistant

The University of Melbourne 2015

Research assistant

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy – Genetics

The University of Melbourne 2009 – 2015

Thesis title: Using Insecticides to probe nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in Drosophila melanogaster

Bachelor of Science (Honours) – Genetics & Biochemistry

The University of Melbourne 2005 – 2008

Thesis title: A novel mechanism of spinosad resistance

PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

2020 – ANTI-VeC 3rd Annual UK Meeting, Webinar series - In the eye of the swarm: Mapping the acoustic landscape of mosquito disease vectors (Talk) 
2019 – Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology Plön, Germany – Activity and the clock: who is driving whom? (Lab talk) 
2018 – FlyingSenses Symposium Göttingen, Germany - Stretch Receptors and the Elasticity of the Clock (Poster) 
2018 – Neurofly Krakow, Poland - Dissecting Mechanosensory Input to the Drosophila Circadian System (Poster) 
2017 – European Drosophila Research Conference London, United Kingdom - Circadian Control of Mechanosensation (Poster) 
2016 – Neurofly Chania, Crete - Chordotonal Organs as a Site of Multisensory Input to the Drosophila Circadian System (Poster) 
2013 – Australian Insect Molecular Biology Conference Sydney, Australia - Insecticides - Past, Present & Future (Talk) 
2011 – nAChR Conference Cambridge, United Kingdom - The cellular genetics of Drosophila melanogaster Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors (Poster) 
2010 – Fly Club Melbourne, Australia - Ends-out gene targeting and P[acman] Recombineering (Short talk) 
2008 –  Talkfest Melbourne, Australia - Mapping a novel mechanism of Spinosad resistance (Short talk)