Meet the Team
Facility Director
- Mark JepsonMark has 40 years experience using a broad range of microscopy techniques in cell biology, microbiology and toxicology research. He came to Bristol in 1996 to lead the newly formed Cell Imaging Facility, which evolved into the Wolfson Bioimaging Facility in 2008. Director of both LM and EM units since 2018. General microscope support and admin roles in addition to facility management.
The Team
- Dom Alibhai (LM)Dom completed his PhD in Biophotonics at Imperial College developing a high content FLIM-FRET plate reader. Following a microscopy support role in London, Dom joined the facility in 2015. He supports users of confocal, widefield and multiphoton systems and provides specialised support for FLIM and all the enhanced and super resolution techniques available within the facility.
- Stephen Cross (Image analysis)Following a PhD centred on microscopy at the University of York, Stephen joined the facility as resident bioimage analyst. Here he primarily helps users through creation of automated analysis workflows as well as providing tuition in image analysis software packages. He is also the developer of the ModularImageAnalysis (MIA) ImageJ plugin for workflow automation.
- Dani Franchini (LM)Dani completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2019. During 5 years postdoctoral research at University of Bristol she gained experience in widefield, confocal and 2-photon microscopy, as well as intravital imaging. She joined the facility in 2025 to train and support LM users.
- Lorna Hodgson (EM)Lorna gained experience with a broad range of light and electron microscopy techniques during her PhD and postdoctoral cell biology research before joining the facility in 2021. Lorna mainly supports TEM and SEM users in sample preparation and image acquisition (including immuno-EM and CLEM) and provides additional support to LM users.
- Katy Jepson (LM)Following PhD and postdoctoral research in Biochemistry at Newcastle University, Katy joined the facility in 2007 and is a technical specialist in light microscopy. As well as general confocal and widefield microscopy, Katy is responsible for the lightsheet system, X-Clarity tissue clearing, the IncuCyte and CellDiscoverer live imaging systems and the slide scanner.
- Alan Leard (LM)Alan joined the imaging facility back in 1997 and is a technical specialist in light microscopy. He provides support for multiphoton, TIRF, spinning disk and CellDiscoverer systems in addition to general widefield and confocal system training and support.
- Chris Neal (EM)Chris gained extensive experience of TEM and SEM as a technician before applying it in physiology research during his PhD and post-doc career. He joined the facility in 2016 and continues to apply his broad experience of biological sample processing and image acquisition to support users across multiple research areas, especially in TEM and Serial Blockface SEM.