IMSS Committee 2025
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
2023-2025
Dr. Eileen Ryan
MSCA Fellow
UCC (Vice Chair)
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.
Dr. Roisin O'Flaherty
Maynooth University (Sponsorship)
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
(Finance & Tickets)
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. 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
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. Angela Mc Ardle
B Proteomics
(Social Media)
Angie has over 10 years of experience in translational proteomics. She received her PhD from UCD, where she applied discovery-to-targeted MS to identify diagnostic biomarkers for arthritis. Since then, she has specialized in high-resolution MS, focusing on the development of high-throughput proteomic discovery workflows. Now based in Denmark, she co-founded B Proteomics, a CRO dedicated to robust data extraction of protein PTMs following MS 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.
Vincent O'Brien
Analytical Chemist
Pfizer
(Mentorship & Training)
Vincent is a graduate of the MSc in Analytical Chemistry in UCC where he carried out his master’s research in conjunction with TU Delft and the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Subsequently he worked in the Wageningen Food Safety Institute as part of the Horizon 2020 project FoodSmartphone where he investigated the coupling of lateral flow screening assays to Orbitrap systems for confirmatory analysis. After returning to Ireland, he took up a position in the Analytical Solutions Group in Henkel where he spent 5 years using LCMS to support R&D efforts and solve customer queries. His most recent move is to Pfizer in the Process Development Centre based in Ringaskiddy where he supports second generation drug development. Vincent has a wealth of experience on high resolution mass spectrometry, especially ToF based systems, and is more recently focusing on QQQ and online LCMS analysis.
Paula Meleady
Associate Professor
DCU
Paula has had an impactful journey in biotechnology, dedicating her career to advancing research and innovation. After completing her Ph.D. at Dublin City University (DCU), Paula progressed from a post-doctoral researcher to her current role as Associate Professor at DCU.
Her career includes roles such as Senior Research Scientist, Program Leader at the Proteomics Core Facility, and Associate Director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB). Paula’s research interests are in the area of Biopharmaceutical Research of mammalian cells where she uses proteomics to gain insights to improving productivity of biopharmaceuticals. She also has research interests in clinical proteomics, specifically in pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.