IMSS Committee 2024
Initially educated/trained as a Protein Biochemist, I transitioned to working as a Forensic Toxicologist in the MBRS, UCD, where he has been for the last 12 years. In my role as toxicologist I am responsible for performing routine analysis of drugs of abuse from blood/urine samples provided by An Garda Síochána from drivers suspected of being impaired. Our toxicology analysis is performed using a combination of LC or GC mass spectrometry. Specifically we utilize LC/GC-QQQ or LC-QTOF. All of our work is MRM based and focused on small molecules. As an Mass Spec user I have extensive hands-on expereince with Sciex, Agient, and Thermo instruments. I joined the IMSS in 2019.
Dr. John Bradley
MBRS
UCD
I am the newly elected chair of the IMSS for the upcoming 2024-2025 meetings. Building on the success of my predecessor, Mike Kinsella I will continue to ensure that the IMSS represents the interests of Mass Spectrometry users across Ireland. This year I am delighted to be co-chairing the IMSS with Dr. Susan Joyce in UCC. We're working together to deliver new and exciting content for 2024. It's our ambition to keep the contents of this conference relevant and topical to all MS users. As always, the IMSS is an all-Ireland community and we strive to represent the activities and interests within industry and academia alike. Join us at our 2024 meeting to hear the latest news in Mass Spectrometry. We look forward to seeing you there!
IMSS Chair
2023-2024
Dr. Roisin O'Flaherty
Maynooth University
Assistant Professor with a 10+ years relevant experience in glycoscience and biopharmaceutical design and characterisation. Interested in probing the role of protein glycosylation in our immune system as a tool to understand diseases such as cancer or arthritis.
Conor Noone B.Sc
Chemist II
The State Laboratory
Conor graduated from Dublin institute of technology in 2015 with a Bsc. In Forensic and Environmental Chemistry. Since 2016 Conor has worked at the national reference laboratory for persistent organic pollutants in food and animal feed, located at the State Laboratory Backweston.
Conors' area of expertise is in the use and method development of high resolution Mass Spectrometry, specifically high resolution double focusing magnetic sector mass spectrometers. He joined the IMSS in 2018, and has acted as treasurer since.
Dr. Diego Cobice
Director of MS
Ulster University
Dr. Cobice has been in the field of Mass Spectrometry for more than 20 years. He obtained his BSc in Medicinal Chemistry in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He then headed-up the MS facility at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, Argentina. From there he relocated to Edinburgh to pursue a MSc in applied MS, specifically, Mass Spectrometry Imaging or MSI. He continued at Edinburgh to complete his PhD in MSI. Dr Corbice then re-located once more to work as a Senior Research Scientist in AstraZeneca Cambridge, UK using MSI. He is currently the Director of the Mass Spectrometry Centre at the Biomedical Research Institute at Ulster University, where he continues to use MSI in his research.
Dr. Mike Kinsella
Lecturer
SETU
Dr Kinsella is currently project manager of the HIPODERM EU Fp7 project, a collaborative research project investigation the delivery of drugs into the through the human skin barrier for treatment of conditions such as skin cancer. He is also co-PI on an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership project investigating novel extraction techniques for isolation of high value components from processing streams. To date Dr. Kinsella has secured over €280,000 in research funding and has published in the area of organic metal-free catalysts and applications of LCMS in biological and clinical applications.
Prof. Lorraine Brennan
School of Agriculture and Food Science, UCD
Professor Lorraine Brennan (UCD) leads a research team at the forefront of nutrition and metabolomics research. She is involved in a number of European consortia such as FoodBall and SusFood. Professor Brennan was a member of the EU Food2030 expert group and is currently Editor in Chief of Nutrition and Metabolism and Associate Editor for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She has published over 170 research articles. She has an active Outreach programme engaging with the local community in areas relating to Food and Nutrition.
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Dr. Susan Joyce
APC Microbiome Institute UCC (IMSS Co-Chair)
Dr. Susan Joyce is a lecturer in Biochemistry at UCC and Head of Mass Spectrometry at the APC Faculty, UCC. Her research focuses on host microbe interactions relevant to the gut. Mass spectrometry plays an essential role in her research activities, allowing her to address diverse topics such as antibiotic characterization, cell signalling, bacterial statin utilization, and the role of steroids in health and disease. Her team specializes in developing MS based solutions to understanding microbial/metabolic interrelated processes. She has developed system biology approaches for analysis of large "omics" datasets relating to the microbiome/metabolite/host setting.
Prof. Stephen Pennington
President of Human Proteome Organization
Steve is a Professor of Proteomics in the Conway Institute (UCD). His team's current research and development efforts are focused on bringing protein biomarkers to clinical utility and value. He is currently President of HUPO and following the cancellation of the HUPO 2020 Congress in Stockholm, he chaired a virtual organising committee to produce and deliver a highly successful HUPO2020 Connect virtual Congress that had 1,000 delegates.
Dr. Jonathan Bones
Principal Investogator
NIBRT
Dr. Bones obtained his BSc in Analytical Science (Chemistry) and PhD in Analytical Chemistry from DCU. Currently working as a PI in NIBRT, Jonathan has previously worked in Northeastern University in Boston, USA. His research activities have been internationally recognised being in the top 100 most influential scientists in the field of biopharmaceutical manufacturing and analysis.
Dr. Patrick Ward
Applications Manager
Alltech
Experienced Application Chemist with a demonstrated history of working in the biotechnology industry. Patrick is skilled in Method Development, LCMS, GCMS, ICP-MS, HPLC, in addition to Method Validation. Patrick is a strong research professional with a PhD via the Employment Based Postgraduate Programme scholarship funded by the Irish Research Council. He currently manages a high throughput analytical lab while incorporating project management techniques.
Dr. Eileen Ryan
MSCA Fellow
UCC
Dr. Ryan obtained her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from UCC. Returning from Australia, after over ten years in research positions in both Monash University and the University of Melbourne, she is now an expert in Mass Spectrometry (MS) applications for the detection, identification, and characterisation of small drug molecules, metabolites (metabolomics) and lipids (lipidomics).
She has gained considerable experience in problem solving, project management and "big data" analyses. For the latter, she is learning python and "R" to further improve her data analyses skills.
Hilde Kneblewski
Scientist
Coca Cola
I work for Coca Cola as a Scientist for "Incident Management and Crisis Resolution". Our mission is to refresh the world and make a difference. With a flavour chemist background my job consists of looking into consumer complaints about our products when they are related to chemical issues. I need to connect the dots between what I smell and taste from the samples, to the root cause by using analytical mass spectrometry (GCMS). This work requires investigator skills as well as curiosity, and an understanding of beverage processes, packaging and logistics