Larry O’Connell, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Imperial College London’s Bioengineering Department
Micro- and milli-fluidics, bacteriophages, surface plasmon resonance, protein immobilization, lens-free microscopy, rapid prototyping…
Currently pursuing organ-in-chip approaches to personalised medicine in ovarian cancer.
PhD Defence Presentation
In May 2022 I defended my doctoral degree awarded by Université Grenoble Alpes with specialization in biotechnology, instrumentation, signal processing and imaging for biology, medicine and the environment.
Publications
L. O’Connell, P. R. Marcoux, P. Perlemoine, Y. Roupioz. Approaching the Geometric Limit of Bacteriophage Conjugation to Gold: Synergy of Purification with Covalent and Physisorption Strategies. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.2c00386
Our article was featured on the cover of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
L. O’Connell, B. Poirier, O. Bratash, C. Plénière, L. Leroy, Y. Roupioz, P. R. Marcoux. Rapid Fabrication of Interdigitated Electrodes by Laser Ablation with Application to Electrokinetically Enhanced Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging. Optics & Laser Technology (2023) doi:10.1016/j.optlastec.2023.109167
L. O’Connell, O. Mandula, L. Leroy, A. Aubert, P. R. Marcoux, Y. Roupioz. Ultrafast and Multiplexed Bacteriophage Susceptibility Testing by Surface Plasmon Resonance and Phase Imaging of Immobilized Phage Microarrays. Chemosensors (2022) doi:10.3390/chemosensors10050192
L. O’Connell, Y. Roupioz, P. R. Marcoux. Container Material Dictates Stability of Bacteriophage Suspensions: Light Scattering & Infectivity Measurements Reveal Mechanisms of Infectious Titer Decay. J. Appl. Microbiol. (2022) doi:10.1111/jam.15581
L. O’Connell, Y. Roupioz, P. R. Marcoux. Optical bacteriophage susceptibility testing by SPR (surface plasmon resonance). Proc. SPIE 11661, (2021). doi:10.1117/12.2578753
P. Perlemoine, P. R. Marcoux, […], L. O’Connell, E. Lacot. Phage susceptibility testing and infectious titer determination through wide-field lensless monitoring of phage plaque growth. PLoS One 16, 1–14 (2021). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248917
L. O’Connell, P. R. Marcoux, Y. Roupioz. Strategies for Surface Immobilization of Whole Bacteriophages: A Review. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2021, 7 (6). doi:10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00013
Our review article was featured on the cover of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
Patents:
O’Connell, Larry et al. 2023. [Method for detecting sensitivity of a bacterial strain to phages or to antibiotics] FR Patent FR2302364, filed March 14, 2023.
Journal Covers
Qualifications
2022
PhD in Biotechnology and Instrumentation
Université Grenoble Alpes
My doctoral work was highly interdisciplinary, drawing from topics such as surface plasmon resonance, protein chemistry, electrokinetics, phage and bacterial microbiology, lens-free and phase imaging microscopy to name just a few.
2017
Master’s in Nanoscale Engineering (cum laude)
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon
Recipient of the Projet Avenir Lyon Saint-Etienne (PALSE) Scholarship
2013
B.A. (Hons) Physics
Trinity College Dublin
Employment
July 2022 - present
Imperial College London
Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Overby Group
Organ-in-Chip Approaches to Personalised Medicine in Ovarian Cancer. Development and optimization of microfluidic platforms for ex vivo drug screening on ovarian cancer explants.
2018 - 2022
CEA-Leti, Grenoble
PhD Candidate with speciality : Biotechnology, instrumentation, signal and image processing for biology, medicine and the environment
Optical bacteriophage susceptibility testing by surface plasmon resonance
Development of a surface plasmon resonance-based biosensor for rapid parallel screening of bacterial susceptibility to bacteriophage lysis by an immobilized array of bacteriophages.
Culture and manipulation of pathogenic bacterial strains in a biosafety level 2 environment. SEM analysis. Characterisation of bacteriophage solutions by dynamic light scattering (DLS), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), transmission electron microscopy. Data analysis in MatLab and ImageJ. Finite element analysis in COMSOL. Rapid prototyping by laser ablation. Covalent conjugation of bacteriophages to bioactive surfaces.
Mar - Oct 2018
Institut Lumière Matière, Lyon
Research Engineer† with the Biophysics Team under Jean-Paul Rieu
Cavitation Regulation In-vivo: application to the Blood Brain Barrier Opening by Ultrasound
Development of a protocol for culture of MDCK cells on thin membranes. Implementation of a microfluidic circuit for confocal imagery of MDCK cultures.
Mar - Dec 2017
Laboratoire des Technologies de la Microélectronique, Grenoble
Masters Intern, retained as Research Engineer†
Characterization of an Electro-Optical Transducer for the Measurement of Neuron Electrical Activity
I designed a novel hydrodynamic flow focusing microfluidic circuit to characterize the spatio-temporal resolution of an electro-optical transducer for neuroscience applications. Finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics were modelled in COMSOL. Circuit designed in Solidworks, and rapid prototyping enabled by stereolithography.
May - July 2016
Institut Lumière Matière, Lyon
Masters Intern under Christophe Anjard
Characterization of the Eff ects of Cell-Cell Interactions on the Persistence of Polarized Motion in Amoebae
Exploring effects of quorum-sensing on cell motility in dense colonies of amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum. Experience in soft lithography, eukaryotic cell culture, and image analysis in MatLab and ImageJ.
Jan - Feb 2016
L’Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon
Masters Intern under Rosaria Ferrigno
Dielectrophoretic Deformation of Erythrocytes on Transparent Indium Tin Oxide Electrodes
Experience in dielectrophoresis, optical lithography, wet etching, soft lithography, profilometry, handling of blood samples, and image analysis in MatLab and ImageJ.
Aug - Dec 2011
Center for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures & Nanodevices, Dublin
Undergraduate Intern with the Nanobio-Nanomechanics Group under Martin Hegner
Detection of Oligonucleotide-Gold Nanoparticle Conjugates Using Cantilever Arrays Operated in Dynamic Mode
Bio-functionalization and characterization of oligonucleotide-conjugated gold nanoparticles. Experience in evaporative deposition, SEM, spectrophotometry, 3D-CAD software SolidWorks, hardware automation in LabView.
† Research Engineer is a title used in France for a researcher employed in an academic context but outside of a PhD or postdoctoral fellowship
Employment in Industry (Selected)
Apr 2014 - Aug 2015
Janssen Pharmaceutica, Cork, Ireland
Quality Control Analyst
I worked as part of the Quality Control team, monitoring purity of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) using various analytical chemistry techniques including gas chromatography. I was responsible for analysis and verification of all bulk solvent deliveries to the facility. I was quickly promoted from technician to QC analyst with responsibility in the microbiology department for environmental monitoring of critical sterile production facilities.
Portfolio of Technical Skills
Physics
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), lens-free & defocalized microscopy, finite element analysis (FEA) with application to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and electrokinetics (dielectrophoresis/electro-osmosis)
Laboratory Techniques
Microfluidic/soft lithography (PDMS), dry and wet etching, profilometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), evaporative deposition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), confocal microscopy, density gradient ultracentrifugation, tangential flow filtration (TFF), dialysis
Biology
Eukaryotic and bacterial culture in a BSL 2 environment, bacteriophage amplification & purification
Chemistry
Protein immobilization through surface functionalization, gas chromatography, Karl Fischer/potentiometric/coulometric/volumetric titration, various analytical chemistry techniques
Software
COMSOL, MatLab, ImageJ, SolidWorks, Blender
Coding
MatLab, LabView, ImageJ, whatever it takes to get something basic working
Misc. Extra-curricular Learning
Machine Learning - Stanford Online
Introduction to neural networks, gradient descent algorithms, forward and back-propagation, supervised vs. unsupervised machine learning, optical character recognition (OCR).
Arctic Science A, Magnetospheric and Atmospheric Physics - Umeå University, Sweden
A 3-month distance-learning course with a meeting in in Kiruna, Sweden. Coursework includes magnetospheric physics, auroral physics, optical phenomena in the polar regions, meteorology, and the climate's impact on the Arctic environment.
Digital Photography - Stanford
Marc Levoy’s excellent course on digital photography, encompassing chromaticity diagrams, gamut mapping, phase-based autofocus, noise sources, bidirectional scattering distribution functions (BSDFs), demosaicing, gamma curves, and image compression.