Erin Tranfield
Future Proofing Core Facilities with a Seven-Pillar Model
Erin Tranfield obtained her PhD at the University of British Columbia (Canada), did a postdoc at NASA Ames Research Center (USA) and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-HD, Germany). From 05.2013 – 02.2024 she built and managed the biological electron microscopy facility at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. Since 03.2024 Erin is the Head of the BioImaging Core at the VIB in Ghent Belgium. Erin has more than 25 years of biological electron microscopy experience with expertise in room temperature EM, cryo-immobilization, electron tomography, and CLEM and has used all of these techniques in influenza A infected samples and virus isolates. She was the President of the Portuguese Microscopy Society 2019 - 2023, she co-chaired the ESA Topical Team on Celestial Dust Toxicity from 2018 - 2022, and she has been a member of the EMBL Alumni Board since 2020. Erin is part of numerous evaluation panels and editorial boards including the Editorial Board of Wiley Analytical Science. In 2020 Erin founded the TechEM Seminar Series which aims to bring advanced technical seminars to EM Facility staff all over Europe and Asia. Erin received the 2023 Alan Agar Award for Electron Microscopy from the Royal Microscopy Society.
Fanny Yuen
Green Your Lab: Practical Tips for Every Scientist
Dr. Fanny Yuen is passionate about Sustainable Science. She is a Green Lab expert and through Green Your Lab (https://greenyourlab.org), she partners with industrial and academic labs to develop science-based action plans that minimises carbon footprint without compromising great research. Fanny has over 15 years of hands-on lab experience from top academic institutions and has helped some of the world's largest companies start Green Lab programs. Her expertise covers a wide range of sciences including Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Process Scale-up.
Peter O'Toole
Money talks! A 360 degree look at how to make it work
Peter is Director of the Bioscience Technology Facility covering the broad spectrum of technologies required for a multi-disciplined science wide user based at the University of York. These include Data Science, Genomics, Imaging and Cytometry, Metabolomic and Proteomics, Molecular Interactions and Biophysics, Protein Production, with 30 expert staff.
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Within the Facility, he has also built up and still heads the highly successful Imaging and Cytometry Labs which includes an array of confocal microscopes, flow cytometers, electron microscopes and novel instrumentation. The Facility is now a flagship EuroBioimaging node, and Zeiss Labs@Location, as well as hosting multiple demo instruments for Carl Zeiss, Beckman Coulter, PhaseFocus and Tomocube for which he has helped design, and BD.
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Pete is the President of the Royal Microscopical Society, whilst also an active member on many other international bodies, including CTLS, the Technical Specialists Network, and ELMI and Chairs and serves on multiple national funding grant panels.
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Peter gained his PhD in the Cell Biophysics Laboratory at Essex and has been involved in many aspects of fluorescence imaging. Current focus is on both technology and method development of novel probes and imaging modalities including label-free. His lab also provides research support to many academics and commercial organisations and he has ongoing collaborations and consultancy contracts with many leading microscopy and cytometry companies.
Finally, Pete is also heavily involved with microscopy and cytometry training through a variety of international courses and wider communication via his podcasts ‘The Microscopists’ and ‘Flow Stars’.
Tech Talk
Mercedeh Yeganeh
UC Enuity: Enhancing Efficiency and Accessibility in Ultramicrotomy for Core Facilities
Mercedeh Yeganeh received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from Florida State University under the mentorship of Prof. Ken Taylor. Her doctoral research focused on cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) of thick filaments isolated from Drosophila and Lethocerus flight muscle, utilizing single-particle analysis and tomography to study their structural organization.
In 2023, Mercedeh joined Leica Microsystems as an Advanced Workflow Specialist, supporting Leica’s sample preparation portfolio, including ultramicrotomy and other advanced techniques for electron microscopy. She works closely with researchers and core facilities to optimize workflows, improve reproducibility, and integrate automation solutions to enhance sample preparation efficiency.
With her expertise, Mercedeh is passionate about advancing imaging technologies and making complex EM techniques more accessible. She is dedicated to supporting researchers with Leica Microsystems' cutting-edge sample preparation instruments, helping to streamline imaging workflows and improve data quality.