Fly Facility

The mission of the Fly Facility is to fully support research conducted at NOVA Medical School using Drosophila melanogaster (popularly known as the fruit fly) as an animal model.
The Facility promotes good scientific practices and ensures the well-being of both animals and users, thereby supporting high-rigor scientific research practiced at NOVA Medical School. Additionally, the Fly Facility provides research support through training for new users, technical assistance for scientific projects, and efficient management of equipment and materials. The Facility also strives to facilitate scientific interaction among different research groups at NOVA Medical School and other institutions, as well as to promote and disseminate scientific advances made with the fruit fly to the general public.

EQUIPMENTS

Fly Room number 1.14 – the main room:

  • Bench space for up to 20 researchers
  • 8 CO2 stations installed, equipped with 5 scopes
  • 3 dissecting scopes available with no CO2
  • 5 controlled environment chambers with regulated temperature and humidity: two set at 18°C, two at 25°C, and one at 29°C. Moreover, there is one chamber with temperature control adjustable, with no humidity, to any desired setting upon request
  • 2 stations equipped with fluorescence microscopes, each connected to a computer and supplied with CO2
  • 2 injectors for transgenics
  • 1 water bath for heat-shocking flies
  • 1 upright freezer
  • 1 mini refrigerator
  • 1 computer accessible to all researchers for conducting research, checking central stocks, updating tables, etc.


Fly Quarantine number 1.23:

  • a dedicated room used for quarantining flies upon their arrival at NOVA Medical School
  • 1 scope without CO2
  • space to store newly arrived NMS stocks and a separate space for storing stocks contaminated with mites.

 

SERVICES

A variety of technical services and scientific advisory (internal and external), including animal quarantine, collecting fly virgin, stock maintenance, genetic crosses and cages setup for experiments.
Management and maintenance of over 4,500 different Drosophila lines.

To use the Fly Facility, Drosophila researchers, including visitors, must complete a mandatory induction.

Contact the Manager at fly.facility@nms.unl.pt to schedule your induction (normally scheduled within 48 hours of the request).

The induction lasts approximately 30 minutes for users with previous experience working with fruit flies and 2 hours for inexperienced users. After induction and before beginning any work with flies, users must be officially registered as users of the Fly Facility. To do this, visit https://fcm.agendoscience.com/ and follow the instructions below:

  1. Register in Agendo – the new user must register in Agendo using the institutional email provided by the HR service or register using the institutional email from your organization.
  2. Requests – after registering on Agendo, you should click on "requests" in the menu bar on the left side and open the "Fly Facility access and services"
  3. Accepted request - the request on Agendo will only be accepted by the Facility Manager after you complete the mandatory induction.
  4. Calendars - in the menu bar on the left side you will find the “calendars” here you will find all the scopes available in the unit, which must always be reserved each time a user needs to use them

Facility Manager

Ana Raquel Machado
Fly Facility Manager