Early Career Symposium

Katherine Paine

Early Career Committee Chair , University of Edinburgh

Katherine completed her PhD in Chris MacDonald’s lab at the University of York using yeast as a model organism to study membrane trafficking. This project involved using a wide range of microscopical techniques such as SIM and FRET study the regulation of cell surface membrane proteins. She is now a postdoc in Simon Wilkinson’s group at the University of Edinburgh in the field of autophagy where she continues to use a variety of microscopical techniques to answer biological questions. 

Alex Payne-Dwyer

University of York

Alex is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York. He specializes in studying  biomolecular condensates, and their capillary and single-molecule physics, using fluorescence coupled with optical tweezers. These condensates have diverse functions, underpinning antimicrobial resistance, managing biological memory, and even contributing to carbon fixation.

His background is in physical chemistry and optics, but during his PhD at Durham University, he developed into a multidisciplinary light microscopist and image analyst.  He has subsequently designed and delivered projects ranging from a clinical trial on human fertility, to postdoctoral work in cardiac imaging, and a JSPS Fellowship focused on molecular cell signalling in cancer. He constantly seeks new models, organisms, and condensates to investigate and finds ways to measure their behavior on the smallest scales possible with light. 

He is a leader for the representation of ECR scientists at York and informs strategy for improved Research Culture. He also advocates for Open Research standards in light microscopy through the QUAREP-LiMi network.

Liam Rooney

Early Career Committee Vice Chair , University of Strathclyde

Liam is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Liam has a background in mammalian cell and molecular biology but developed his skillset as an optical microscopist and microbiologist during his PhD. Since 2016, Liam has focussed his research on the development and application of optical microscopy methods to study how bacteria interact with each other and their environment. His research involves various bacteriological phenomena; from understanding bacterial gliding motility, visualising colonisation behaviours using transparent soil, observing nutrient transport channels in bacterial biofilms, and super-resolution imaging of bacterial and fungal cell-to-cell interactions. Liam’s current research focuses on developing open microscopy solutions for the life sciences. He is the current Chair of the RMS Early Career Section and has sat on the RMS Life Sciences Section Committee since 2018, and is also heavily involved in the Microbiology Society.

Tim Young

Light Microscopy Section Representative , University of Cambridge

I qualified as a Biomedical Scientist in 2012 after completing my bachelor’s degree at The University of Essex but never entered practise. Instead I moved towards research; my first job was a technician with the MRC Epidemiology Unit, here I used a variety of methods to perform batch analysis of large cohorts of samples.
After this I moved towards cancer research and worked as a research assistant for Prof. Bruce Ponder in conjunction with the NHS Papworth Histology team. The research was directed towards the investigation of DNA repair dysfunction which can cause a genetic predisposition to lung cancer, particularly in smokers.
Then, in 2016, I joined the lab of Christian Frezza at Uni. Of Cambridge as part of the mass spectrometry team before becoming the lab manager and microscopist. When the lab moved out of the country I joined Prof. Paul Lehner’s team in CITIID and am continuing my RMS diploma here.

Lisa-Maria Needham

University of Cambridge