Team – Lab Services LTD

Laboratory Director

Dr Libby Graham MVB MVM PhD Dipl. ECVM MRCVS

Laboratory Director

Libby graduated as a veterinary surgeon from UCD, Ireland, and has 20 years’ experience working in clinical and research microbiology, predominately at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow where she gained her PhD on FeLV. More recently she led the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Unit there, including the world renowned feline virus unit. She is now Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow. Libby is a Founding Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM), and current College Secretary. She is particularly interested in new diagnostic technologies, feline viruses, emerging veterinary pathogens, and antimicrobial resistance.

Veterinary Team

Dr Melanie Craven BVetMed PhD DSAM DipECVIM-CA MRCVS
Internal Medicine Specialist
Melanie graduated from the RVC, and undertook an internship and residency in small animal medicine at the Royal (Dick) Vet School in Edinburgh. There followed a PhD attained at Cornell University, USA in clinical gastroenterology, including comparative research on Crohn’s disease, an IBD of people. Whilst there she worked as a clinician with Cornell's medicine service for one year providing sabbatical cover, and on a part-time basis for the following 3 years. Melanie’s PhD discovery of a candidate gene for Boxer dog colitis led to the unmissable opportunity of a 2 year post-doctoral fellowship in the department of clinical human immunology at the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC, USA from 2011-2013. Since 2013 she has worked exclusively in private referral practice in the UK and overseas. Melanie’s subspecialty is small animal gastroenterology (intestinal, pancreatic and hepatic disease), endoscopy, and nutritional support, but she is genuinely an all-rounder in medicine with wide-ranging experience in critical care, nephrology, endocrinology, oncology, haematology, pulmonology, infectious and immune-mediated disorders.

Dr Robert Lukacs DVM PhD MRCVS

Veterinary Clinical Pathologist
Robert started his journey in the veterinary field qualifying initially as a veterinary nurse. Subsequently, he joined the USAMVBT (Romania) to train as a veterinary surgeon. After four years, he transferred his studies to the University of Bologna (Italy), where he graduated as DVM with honours in 2010. He spent the following year working in a referral clinic laboratory in Italy. A year later, he returned to the University of Bologna to pursue a PhD, which he defended in 2014. In 2016 he started a residency program with VPG Synlab in Exeter, which he concluded in 2020. He is currently board-eligible and awaits to take his exams. He joined Lab Services Ltd in January 2021.

Robert’s main professional interests are cytology, oncology, infectious diseases, and haematology.

Dr Dania Villarnovo BSc DVM MVSc PhD DACVP MRCVS
Veterinary Clinical Pathologist

Dania is originally from Miami, Florida and attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, qualifying with a Bachelor of Science degree (Biology). She trained as a veterinary surgeon at the University of California in Davis, and completed a residency and Master of Veterinary Science program in Veterinary Clinical Pathology at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island. She next went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for a doctoral research program in Translational Sciences before moving to the UK. In her free time, Dania joined Lab Services in January 2021. Dania enjoys spending time with her 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 angora bunnies.

Technical Management

Helen Taylor BSc

Technical Manager

Helen joined Lab Services in 2019 as Technical Manager, responsible for facilities and equipment maintenance, and assigned project management. Helen is also Deputy Quality Manager and Training Officer.

Quality Management

Nichola Tinsley BSc MSc

Quality Manager

Nichola graduated with an Applied Biomedical Science degree in 2012, and completed her MSc in Biomedical Science in 2021. Nichola has over ten years’ experience as a Biomedical Scientist in both public and private sectors. As Quality Manager, Nichola is responsible for ensuring Lab Services complies with the ISO 17025:2017 standard

Hasmita Thakar BSc

Quality Assurance Assistant

Hasmita graduated in Computer Sciences. She has since pursued a career in the healthcare sector, working to GMP standards, progressing to Team Leader. Hasmita joined Lab Services in 2021 to support the Quality Manager.

Haematology

Pius Boso BSc MSc FIBMS

Head of Haematology

Pius is an experienced haematologist, with expertise in exotic animals. He began his scientific career in the human field, progressing to Senior Biomedical Scientist at The Doctors Laboratory before switching to veterinary patients in 2011. Pius was Head of Haematology and Biochemistry at Greendale Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for 8 years, before joining Lab Services in 2019.

Akruti Patel BSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Akruti has a BSc in Microbiology with a postgraduate diploma as a medical laboratory technician from Gujarat, India.

Olga Zadic

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Olga studied Medicine in the Republic of Moldova for 6 years before undertaking a further qualification in Laboratory Medicine (2016). Olga has 3 years' experience as a BMS and is HCPC registered.

Maria Ferrari BSc MSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Maria has both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Biomedical Science, from Argentina (2012) and London (2020) respectively. She has 6 years' experience working as a laboratory biomedical scientist.

Biochemistry

Denise Pilkington BSc

Head of Biochemistry

Denise has a BSc in Science from the Athlone Institute of Technology, Limerick (2007). She spent 9 years working for the Dorevitch Pathology service (Australia), progressing to Project Manager for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program before joining Lab Services in 2018. Denise is our current Head of Biochemistry.

Rebecca Cullen BSc

Deputy Head of Biochemistry

Senior Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Rebecca has a BSc in Bioveterinary Science from Liverpool.

Rebecca joined Lab Services in 2016.

Nikita Limbu BSc MSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Nikita has a BSc in Biomedical Science from Sussex, and successfully studied part-time for a MSc in Public Health from University of London.

Paul Morgan BSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Paul graduated from Manchester in 2005 with a BSc in Biomedical Science. Paul joined Lab Services in 2020.

Avanti Nirban BSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Avanti has a BSc in Biomedical Science and had been working as an MLA for a year before joining Lab Services.

Microbiology

Jessica Critchley BSc MSc

Head of Microbiology

Jessica has a BSc in Medical Microbiology and Virology from Warwick, and an MSc in Medical Parasitology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Jessica joined Lab Services in 2015.

Suganthy Mayuran BVSc MSc

Deputy Head of Microbiology

Senior Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Suganthy has a BVSc in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, and an MSc in Medical Microbiology from Middlesex.

Alexandra Nagy-Barsony MSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Alex has an MSc in Molecular Biology, specialising in Microbiology from the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

Evelyne Abrazado BSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Evelyne has a BSc in Biological Sciences from Westminster and is also studying an MSc in Medical Microbiology.

Radia Larkem BSc MSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Radia has a BSc in lactic bacteriology and an MSc in Microbiology both from the University of Annaba, Algeria.

Asifa Ali BSc

Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Asifa has a BSc in Forensic Science from De Monfort University (2017) and is currently combining work with study as she completes her MSc in Microbiology at Birkbeck University.

Tanju Sagi BVSc&AH MVSc

Veterinary Laboratory Assistant

Tanju has both undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry from the Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University in India.

Molecular Biology

Dr Muhammad Kamran BSc MSc PhD

Senior Veterinary Biomedical Scientist

Kamran has worked in research, diagnostic and higher education institutes, and has a wealth of experience in many fields, particularly molecular biology and immunology. Kamran joined Lab Services in 2021 to accelerate the development of the molecular diagnostic service.

Specimen Reception

Ewa Kobiolka MSc

Specimen Reception Manager

Ewa has a Masters degree in Marketing and Management from Poland. She started her science career as an MLA, progressing after 7 years to Deputy Specimen Reception Manager in the same laboratory. She joined Lab Services in 2021.

Charlotte Arnall

Deputy Specimen Reception Manager

Charlotte has qualifications in Animal Care and trained for 4 years as a veterinary nurse. She joined Lab Services in December 2018.

Melisha Jesupeera De Souza BSc MSc

Veterinary Laboratory Assistant

Melisha has a BSc in Biotechnology from the Carmel College of Arts, Science and Commerce for Women (2013) and a MSc in Biotechnology from Mangalore University (2015).

Ryan Woodman BSc

Veterinary Laboratory Assistant

Ryan graduated with a Zoology degree from the Anglia Ruskin University in 2019.

Sadia Firdous DVM MSc

Veterinary Laboratory Assistant

Sadia is a graduate of veterinary medicine from Pakistan (2010) and has a MSc in Biomedical Sciences (2021).

Ola Lichtensztein BSc

Veterinary Laboratory Assistant

Ola has 18 months' experience as a Patient Care Assistant in clinical veterinary practice. She is now studying for her MSc in Animal Nutrition.

Administration

Alison Wall

Head of Administration

Alison joined Lab Services in 2014 and is our Head of Administration. Alison has many years of experience working in demanding administrative and customer service roles.

Katie Zottola

Administration Assistant

Katie is a key member of our Administration Team, with extensive experience in secretarial roles.

Tracey O'Reilly

Administration Assistant

Tracey has many years’ experience in customer facing and administrative roles, most recently as HR administrator in the Medivet Support Centre. Tracey joined Lab Services in 2019.