Meet the team
Prof Nick Smirnoff
Professor of Plant Biochemistry and Director of the Mass Spectrometry Facility
Nick's long-term research interest is in the metabolism and functions of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in plants. Nick is developing LC-MS and GC-MS metabolite profiling methods and mass spectral databases for plants and algae, and imaging plant chemical composition and metabolism using Raman microscopy.
Dr Nefeli Boni- Kazantzidou
Experimental Officer for Mass Spectrometry
Nefeli is the interim Experimental Officer of the Mass Spectrometry Facility of the Biosciences Department. She supports the development and delivery of the Facility's proteomics and metabolomics workflows for internal and external collaborators.
Nefeli holds a BSc in Chemistry and MSc in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Athens, Greece. She obtained a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Liverpool, under the supervision of Professors Claire and Patrick Eyers. Her doctoral thesis topic was global (phospho)proteomics for the elucidation of cancer resistance mechanisms to EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. She has also worked as a Scientist in Kinomica Limited, as part of the mass spectrometry team supporting the development of a phosphoproteomic diagnostic platform. Nefeli’s expertise extends across multiple LC-MS platforms, including multiple Thermo Orbitrap systems coupled with Dionex U3000/Thermo Vanquish Neo HPLC, Agilent and Waters LC systems and SCIEX ZenoTOF MS. She joined the Facility in December 2025.
Maciej Trznadel
Experimental Officer for Mass Spectrometry
Chris de Wolf
Technical Specialist for Mass Spectrometry
Chris joined the Facility from the University of Warwick, where he worked for 10 years across microbiology, biotechnology, and chromatography. He specialises in Reverse‑Phase Liquid Chromatography and has extensive experience running and maintaining a wide range of chromatography systems, as well as managing the Life Sciences metabolomics mass spectrometry platform. He relocated from Warwickshire to join the team in Exeter in January 2026.
Dr Danielle Kay
Technical Specialist for Mass Spectrometry
Danielle is a technical specialist within the Mass Spectrometry Facility of the Biosciences Department. She is involved in supporting the set-up and delivery of the Facility's proteomics and metabolomics workflows.
Danielle graduated from the University of Leeds with an MBiol in Human Physiology and then worked as a Research Technician at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM). She subsequently completed her MIBTP PhD (co-supervised by Dr Aneika Leney and Dr Tim Knowles), where she used native mass spectrometry, bottom-up proteomics and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) to study the cancer drug target prolyl isomerase (Pin1) and 14-3-3. As part of this work, she established a home-built HDX-MS system at the University of Birmingham. Danielle brings hands-on expertise across multiple platforms, including Q Exactive HF, Q Exactive Classic, Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid, and Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid. She joined the Mass Spectrometry Facility in February 2026.