About the Speakers:

Dr Ileana Micu joined the Faculty of Medicine Health and Life Sciences as facility manager and Scientific officer  for Advanced imaging in 2017. Ileana is an interdisciplinary scientist with special interest in non-linear microscopy, nano-resolution microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and image analysis. After  completed her  undergraduate degree and  PhD in Physics  and post-doctoral studies in Neurosciences. Micu worked and studied in Europe, USA  and Canada. She is proactively involved in the organisation and development of microscopy workshops, training courses and outreach events. She is a fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society and serves on several microscopy committees including the Microscopical Society of Ireland and Royal Microscopical Society Committee. She is a member of the Quality Assessment and Reproducibility for Instruments & Images in Light Microscopy group.  

Dr Carmel McVicar is the Histology Unit Manager in the Advanced Imaging and Histology CTU at Queen’s University Belfast’s. Carmel obtained BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology at UCD, M.Med.Sci in Biomedical Science and a PhD at Queen's University Belfast. Carmel has worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Male infertility and Diabetic Retinopathy. Carmel provides expert technical support in imaging and histology, contributing to research on ocular diseases, diabetic retinopathy and cancer. With over a dozen peer-reviewed publications, her work includes key studies on RAGE and EPO-derived peptides in retinal pathology and immune regulation in eye disease. In addition to her scientific contributions, she supports sustainability initiatives within the lab environment. Dr McVicar plays a vital role in advancing biomedical research through both hands-on technical expertise and collaborative scientific projects in microscopy and tissue analysis.