Meet the Team

  • Owen Hazelby

    General Manager

  • Mark Staplehurst

    Enviroscreen Manager

  • James Salmons

    Microbiology & Parasitology Laboratory Manager

  • Sammie Lupton

    Office Manager & Digital Marketing

Owen Hazelby BSc MSc AUS

Owen spent 2 years in Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy research at Veterinary Laboratories Agency, involving prion research into the cross-species barrier. He has experience of working at high levels of biocontainment and carrying out, as well as developing, PCR techniques. Owen also spent many years working in forensics and has extensive experience in sample handling.

At SDL since 2008, he joined as a PCR technician, and is now the general manager. He has been heavily involved in SDL’s move from end point PCR and gels to real time and multiplex, designing custom assays for targets of interest from customers as required, automated the extraction process, now developing the PCR panel assays that let us run our screens on non-invasive samples. Owen began managing the laboratory team in 2021 and was promoted to general manager in 2023.

James Salmons BSc MSc PhD 

James holds a BSc dual honours in Biochemistry and Microbiology in from the University of Sheffield, as well as an MSc in Microbiology from University of London, Birkbeck College.  He also completed a PhD in “fermentation as a route to improve soybean off-flavours" from Reading University. 

James also has over 22 years of industrial microbiology experience, working in: Food microbiology (food safety), Cosmetics/Pharmaceuticals (QA/QC) and Biocide sectors (performance evaluation - efficacy testing).

James now has over 5 years’ experience of health monitoring of animals. He has a wide variety of skills managing both the parasitology and microbiology services. James also works alongside our environmental services team doing tests such as testing biological indicators, performing water quality and air quality monitoring tests.  

Mark Staplehurst 

Mark joined Surrey Diagnostics in January 2008 to run the Environmental services  that run complementary to our animal health monitoring services  as well in other branches such as the food processing industry.

Mark has been phenomenal in researching into the most up to date techniques for monitoring the animals immediate environment as well as the health of those that work with them. This includes animal allergens and microbiological sampling (air, surface and water). Mark is able to work with clients on solutions to fit their needs. This could be use of VHP, UV or working with clients to identify tweaks in practises.

Sammie Lupton BSc (Hons) MIAT

Sammie completed her BSc with Hons in Zoology at the University of Roehampton. She has always been enthusiastic about animal welfare and has over 15 years of hands on experience working with a variety of animal species, both domestic and wild.

After completing her degree she went on to work in the university sector gaining experience at various levels of biocontainment, obtained her MIAT, as well as becoming a representative for the IAT.

Sammie joined  Surrey Diagnostics in 2018 as a molecular biology technician, learning sample preparation, nucleic acid extraction and PCR techniques.  Sammie took over the Serology services in 2021 running our MFIA tests, and other serological services. She is a fundamental member of our animal health monitoring programmes. 

As of April Sammie is now the Office Manager and oversees the day to day running of the laboratory. She co-created our new website and creates our LinkedIn posts.