Darragh Ennis
Lab Manager and Postdoctoral Researcher.
I am Ilan's lab manager and also a postdoctoral researcher, and I have been in the lab since 2013. In the Davis lab I am working as part of a team on a wide-ranging RNA localisation screen. This screen is based in the Drosophila nervous system and I am working primarily on screening the larval brain. Prior to this project I had worked on another screen project in which we collaborated with several other research groups from across the world. This project was published in G3 pdf .
Current Project
Along with several other Davis lab members I am working on a large-scale screening project, looking for localising RNA and proteins in the larval nervous system. This screen will include both the central and peripheral nervous system and will cover hundreds of genes. In the course of this project we will generate thousands of high-quality images using advanced imaging techniques in collaboration with Micron, the imaging unit housed within our department. My tissue of interest is the brain of the third instar Drosophila larva.
Contact
For any lab business please contact me:
email: darragh.ennis@bioch.ox.ac.uk
Tel: 01865 613271
See Below for The Chase related enquiries
The Menace
My other job is as one of the chasers on ITV's quiz show The Chase. For all Chase related press enquiries please contact ITV's Press Office.
Selected Publications
Previous Career
Despland Lab, Concordia University, Montreal
Prior to working in Oxford I was a postdoc in Concordia University in Montreal. Here I worked for Dr. Emma Despland on behavioural studies of two economically important forestry insect pests. The spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana, top) project involved investigating the influence secondary foliar chemicals had on feeding stimulation, while the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria, bottom) project involved the testing of different aspen and maple cultivars for resistance to forest tent outbreaks.
Buzzing with bees
I also worked in partnership with a Montreal biotech company working on honeybees. This project involved testing of contaminants in honey as well as working on developing automated assessment of brood-combs using image analysis. Since then I have started beekeeping in Oxford, with my first bees due for delivery in Summer 2021
Battling Weevil
For my PhD, I worked in NUI Maynooth in Ireland in Dr. Christine Griffin's lab. I worked on a project involving behavioural interactions between a major forestry pest, the large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) and a proposed biological control agent, entomopathogenic nematodes. This involved working on long-term field trials under Dr. Aoife Dillon as well as lab-based experiments.
