Cell Imaging Core Personnel

Hilmar Strickfaden

Dr. Hilmar Strickfaden
Cell Imaging Core Coordinator

Dr. Strickfaden obtained his degree as Diplom-Biologe (Masters in Biology) at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). He completed his Ph.D. in human genetics under supervision of Dr. Thomas Cremer at the LMU in Munich (Germany). After that worked as a post doctoral fellow and research associate under the supervision of Dr. Michael J. Hendzel in the Department of Oncology at the University of Alberta. Before becoming the Cell Imaging Core Coordinator, he was a guest at the Institute of Molecular Biology and the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz (Germany). Dr. Strickfaden joined the Cell Imaging Core as the Coordinator in July 2023. During his career, Dr. Strickfaden obtained experience in many different areas of microscopy (e.g., fluorescence-, confocal-, live-cell-, super-resolution-, and electron microscopy). Dr. Strickfaden's extensive microscopy experience will support researchers in planning and integrating imaging into their research programs. 

Kiera Smith

Kiera Smith
Cell Imaging Core Technologist

Kiera received her BSc in Biology from the University of Alberta and has worked in research labs at the UofA since 2016. She began her scientific career as an Animal Technician at Science Animal Support Services in the Biological Sciences Building, providing facility, and research support to several laboratories across various fields of biological research. She then transferred to the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine as a Laboratory Technician to work under the supervision of Dr. Karim Fouad and Dr. Keith Fenrich to assist with their research involving mechanisms of functional recovery, and neuroplasticity following spinal cord injury. As a Laboratory Technician, Kiera became familiar with laboratory maintenance, tissue dissection, microtomy and embedding techniques, immunohistochemistry, various forms of light microscopy including widefield and confocal, as well as post-image acquisition analysis. Kiera is now a Cell Imaging Technologist in the Cell Imaging Core, focusing her knowledge and skill set on educating researchers about sample preparation with immunofluorescence, various forms of light microscopy, image acquisition, and image analysis to best suit their research goals.

Sara Amidian

Sara Amidian
Electron Microscopy Technologist

Sara received her BSc in Biology (Shahid Beheshti University, Iran), and MSc in Biotechnology (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia). She is currently a PhD candidate in Dr Holger Wille’s laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry, Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta. Her PhD research focuses on investigating the structure of chronic wasting disease prions.  During the course of her research she has used techniques such as electron microscopy, image processing, and molecular dynamics simulations to decipher the structure of the cellular and infectious prion protein. Concurrent with her PhD she has joined the Cell Imaging Core at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry as an Electron Microscopy Technologist.