PUTTING COVID TO THE TEST

TESTING for Covid-19 is key to slowing down the virus and keeping people safe – and boffin Tony Fearns, 31, is right at the heart of it all.

Since the start of the pandemic, the senior laboratory research scientist, who works for the Francis Crick Institute in north London, has been hard at work testing samples and training others to work with the swabs coming in from testing centres and hospitals across the country. that samples are properly assigned to their correct barcodes and none are lost.

From early on, we were asked if we’d be interested in volunteering to help train scientists who don’t normally work in the same type of facilities we do. I leapt at the chance. diseases, is so important.

I live with my girlfriend Patty, her brother and another housemate. Patty and I are both scientists and have been together for almost eight years, so she’s used to the idea of me working with infectious diseases. The others have taken everything in their stride.

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE Tony in lab