Committee staff
George Merces
Experimental Scientific Officer Bioimage
- Email: george.merces@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 01912086813
- Address: Image Analysis Unit
William Leech Building
Second Floor, Room M2.088
The Medical School
Framlington Place
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE2 4HH
Background
I am a biologist with a background in translational medicine and microscopy. During my BSc(Hons) in Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia (2012-2015) I shadowed the microscopy facility manager, and followed my budding interest in imaging and microscopy to a MSc program at University College Dublin, Ireland (2015-2016). Here I gained experience in the practical and theoretical aspects of microscopy from a wide range of imaging modalities, from the very small scale of super-resolution microscopy to the larger macro imaging of CT and MRI. I studied my PhD in Translational Medicine (2017-2021) where I both performed research and taught human anatomy to medicine and allied health science students. My research involved studying a bioadhesive used by a species of Ctenophore, Pleurobrachia pileus, in prey capture. I developed open-source microscopy systems to assist in answering key questions relating to this adhesive, including the bio-economics of how the adhesive cells are utilised in prey capture, and how the adhesive interacts with human cell lines in vivo. I am now working as an Experimental Scientific Officer here at Newcastle University, where I am assisting researchers in the design, development, and implementation of novel image processing and analysis techniques, including custom pipeline design to maximise what researchers get out of their imaging experiments.
Teaching
My previous teaching involved human clinical anatomy demonstrating within University College Dublin, where I focussed on applying 3D printing and innovative practical session design to improve the education of medicine and allied health students.
Publications
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Articles
- Hunter B, Nicorescu I, Foster E, McDonald D, Hulme G, Fuller A, Thomson A, Goldsborough T, Hilkens CMU, Majo J, Milross L, Fisher A, Bankhead P, Wills J, Rees P, Filby A, Merces G. OPTIMAL: An OPTimized Imaging Mass cytometry AnaLysis framework for benchmarking segmentation and data exploration. Cytometry Part A 2024, 105(1), 36-53.
- Milross L, Hunter B, McDonald D, Merces G, Thomson A, Hilkens CMU, Wills J, Rees P, Jiwa K, Cooper N, Majo J, Ashwin H, Duncan CJA, Kaye PM, Bayraktar OA, Filby A, Fisher AJ. Distinct lung cell signatures define the temporal evolution of diffuse alveolar damage in fatal COVID-19. eBioMedicine 2024, 99, 104945.
- Pelliciari S, Bodet-Lefevre S, Fenyk S, Stevens D, Winterhalter C, Schramm FD, Pintar S, Burnham DR, Merces G, Richardson TT, Tashiro Y, Hubbard J, Yardimci H, Ilangovan A, Murray H. The bacterial replication origin BUS promotes nucleobase capture. Nature Communications 2023, 14(1), 8339.
- Merces GOT, Kennedy C, Lenoci B, Reynaud EG, Burke N, Pickering M. The incubot: A 3D printer-based microscope for long-term live cell imaging within a tissue culture incubator. HardwareX 2021, 9, e00189.
- Courtney A, Alvey LM, Merces GOT, Burke N, Pickering M. The Flexiscope: a low cost, flexible, convertible and modular microscope with automated scanning and micromanipulation. Royal Society Open Science 2020, 7(3), 191949.