Sian Spinner was appointed Oxitec’s Head of Research in 2021.  She has 15 years’ experience as an agricultural and public health entomologist, with a career focused on the development of Oxitec’s self-limiting technology across a range of insect species. Sian is responsible for the genetic transformation and characterization of self-limiting insect products in preparation for field validation.  

Sian joined Oxitec in 2007 as a research scientist in the Research and Development team, focused on developing self-limiting products in a range of agricultural crop pests including work on our 3G medfly stain, before changing her focus to public health. She gained valuable field experience as a key team member in our first open field releases of Oxitec’s 1st generation Aedes aegypti product (OX513A) in Grand Cayman, before setting her targets on the generation of Oxitec’s 2nd generation Aedes aegypti product, OX5034, ultimately leading the team that made the strain and prepared it for the field.  Sian is now leading all strain development working, including three externally funded collaborations driving the development of Oxitec’s technology in two malaria-transmitting mosquito species, in the agricultural pest, Soybean looper, and in our first non-insect pest, the Asian Blue Tick.  

Sian lives in Oxfordshire, England with her husband and daughters.