At airmid healthgroup ltd our mission is to prevent ill health caused by exposure to indoor air pollutants. To achieve this goal we have assembled a unique multidisciplinary team of Clinicians and Specialist Laboratory Scientists in Mycology, Virology, Bacteriology, Allergy and Immunology. Please see below for profiles of our Heads of Department.
Dr Bruce Mitchell
CEO and Chairman
Dr Mitchell is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, the Royal College of Physicians in Canada and is a diplomat of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. He is a director of the Immunology Laboratory, Blackrock Clinic and a past President of the Allergy Foundation of Ireland. He has been a member of the WHO sponsored International Workshop on Dust Mite Allergy. Dr Mitchell has extensive business experience within the allergy and asthma specialties and is also co-founder of Mitest Limited a manufacturer of a patented dust collection device that is distributed internationally. Dr Mitchell practices at the Blackrock Clinic as a Consultant Physician and Clinical Immunologist.
Allergen
Priyadarshini Babubalakrishnan MSc
Priya graduated from Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, affiliated to Bharathiyar University, India with BSc Microbiology in 2016. Later, she moved to Ireland and completed an MSc in Biotechnology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Priya now works at airmid healthgroup as a Scientific Officer in the Allergen Lab and, in Microbiology where she focuses on testing anti-microbial surface coatings.
Francis Lee BSc
Francis graduated from Maynooth University with a BSc in Biotechnology and joined airmid healthgroup after completing a 
college internship. During this internship, he gained experience in the testing of anti-microbial surface coatings, work he will now continue in his role as a Scientific Officer.
Virology
Francesca Rizzo PhD
After obtaining a BSc in Biology, Francesca attended Higher Specialist Training in Microbiology and completed a PhD in Veterinary Sciences, aimed at identifying and genetically characterizing bat viruses, at the University of Turin. She has been working as a researcher in Public Health for the past 13 years, dealing with surveillance and diagnostics of zoonotic infectious diseases such as Avian influenza, Q fever and West Nile disease in the wildlife/livestock interface.
Heena Hussain MRes, MSc
Heena graduated from the University of Delhi with a BSc in Life Sciences, after which she completed a MSc in Biotechnology at Jamia Hamdard University, India. In 2017 Heena was awarded the prestigious Government of Ireland Scholarship and gained a Masters by Research Degree (MRes) in Biochemistry at University College Cork. She then worked at UCC, training and supervising undergraduates in experimental techniques and instruments in biochemistry and microbiology labs. Heena is a proactive researcher with four years cross-discipline research experience in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Molecular & Cell Biology.
Clara O'Brien MSc
Clara graduated from Dublin Institute of Technology with a BSc in Biomolecular Science and completed an MSc in Molecular Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. She has over two years of experience working within the Pharmaceutical Industry to GMP standards, with roles in Quality Control including adventitious agent testing and the production of biologics. Clara has experience in cellular and molecular biology, virology, mammalian cell culture and biochemistry.
Pei Shee Tan MSc
Pei Shee received her BSc. (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Science with Biopharmaceutics from Institute Technology Tralee, with Astellas Award for Outstanding Academic Performance. She completed her MSc in inflammatory biosensor in Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre, Munster Technology University. She has experience in characterisation of human macrophage with flow cytometry, ELISA technique and successfully developed a prototype biosensor for managing inflammatory disease conditions. She has experience in QC chemistry lab and is capable of performing all laboratory duties in accordance with GMP and Safety procedures.
Environmental Test Chambers
Jake Behan BSc
Jake graduated with a BSc. (Honours) in Biosciences with Biopharmaceuticals from the Institute of Technology Carlow in 2013. Since joining airmid healthgroup in 2014, Jake has overseen many of the studies in airmid’s testing facilities, coordinated a significant field study in the USA and contributed to the development of new testing standards across a wide variety of product categories. In 2017, Jake was awarded a Diploma in Project Management from Griffith College, Dublin and was promoted in 2018 to the role of Technical Project Manager where his responsibilities include management of our health friendly air® programme.
Colm Kinsella BSc
Colm graduated from Dublin City University with a BSc in Environmental Science and Health and joined airmid healthgroup after completing a college internship here. Colm is responsible for the maintenance and product testing in the chambers, as well as co-ordinating purchasing in airmid healthgroup.
Colm O'Sullivan BSc
Colm graduated with a BSc. (Honours) in Biotechnology from Maynooth University in 2020. He has experience in organic chemistry, mammalian cell culture, and analytical techniques. At airmid healthgroup, Colm conducts maintenance of product testing chambers, allergen extraction, and microbiological work.
Project Management
Claire Mernagh BSc
Claire graduated with a BSc in General Science from University College Dublin and went on to earn a Higher Diploma and Higher Certificate in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices programme from the Institute of Technology, Tallaght. Claire previously held a position in the microbiology lab in Slaney Foods International, ensuring quality assurance in all their food products. Claire is the Testing Project Manager on our team and coordinates testing for the asthma & allergy friendly™ Certification Program. In addition, Claire has coordinated our field studies in the UK and the US.
Bacteriology
Vivienne Mahon PhD
Vivienne graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. (Mod) degree in microbiology and then remained at Trinity to complete a PhD in molecular microbiology that focused on the regulation of gene expression in enterotoxigenic E. coli. Vivienne then spent two years as a post-doctoral scientist in the National Institute for Bioprocessing, Research and Training (NIBRT) working on mammalian cell culture media development and optimisation.
Dana Ziuzina PhD
Dana graduated with a BSc in Pharmaceutical Technology from Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), where she also completed a PhD in Microbiology. She worked at the interface of applied microbiology and cold plasma technology development for delivering a safe system for surface decontamination of wide range of products. Following her PhD, Dana worked for four and a half years as a postdoctoral researcher in Plasma Research group of TU Dublin.
Mycology
Naga Bonagiri MSc
Naga graduated from GITAM University, India with a bachelor’s in biotechnology and later moved to Ireland to pursue a master’s at NUI Galway, obtaining a MSc degree in Biotechnology. Naga worked in the recombinant protein lab of NUI Galway on a project expressing recombinant antibodies for use in cardiovascular stent biofunctionalization, gaining knowledge and experience on several micro and molecular biology techniques.
As a Scientific officer, his role revolves around the environmental chamber, allergen and helping in the testing of technologies capable of depleting biological contaminants.
Sales
Graeme Tarbox BA (Hons)
Since joining airmid healthgroup in 2012, Graeme has developed a thorough understanding of the company and how the services we offer can add value to those interested in improving health in the built environment. Graeme is involved in managing our relationships with NPOs and government agencies, as well as developing our client base to include some of the world's most innovative companies. Graeme graduated from Exeter University with a degree in Classics and holds a Level 3 Certificate in Investment from the Securities & Investment Institute. In 2017, he graduated with distinction from the Dublin Institute of Technology business school with a Postgraduate diploma, having completed the International Selling Programme, Enterprise Ireland’s sales development programme targeted at maximising export sales for Irish companies. He has previously held senior posts in the residential and commercial property industry in the UK.
Finance
John Carroll FCA
John trained as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst and Young, Dublin and has more than fifteen years post qualification experience in a range of sectors. He has a broad knowledge of licensing gained as a result of his roles as a record company CFO and founder and Financial Director of DP Music Limited, a successful music publishing company.
Administration
Helen Dalton
Helen joined airmid healthgroup as Office Manager in January 2021. Her wealth of knowledge and experience in management and administration has accumulated over a career spent working in diverse industries such as the energy sector, insurance, sales and account management.