CoL Centre 2021 Students

I am a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Gunnel Halldén (Barts Cancer Institute), and Dr. Michelle Holland (King’s College London). My PhD project is focussed on increasing the efficacy of oncolytic adenoviruses by combining them with epigenetic drugs to activate the host anti-tumour immune response. The project focuses on identifying epigenetic compounds that enhance viral efficacy and delineating the mechanisms, looking at genome wide profiles of histone marks and how they are altered after infection with oncolytic viruses.

I have a MSc degree in Molecular pathology, Genomics and Cancer from Barts Cancer Institute, and a BSc in Mathematics and Programming.

I am split between two labs at King’s College London and Francis Crick Institute. My PhD project aims to uncover whether the germinal centre response in the tumour-draining lymph nodes of breast cancer patients plays a functional role in the antitumour response, especially in the context of immunotherapy. My project combines the research areas of my two supervisors: Anita Grigoriadis who expertise lies in Triple Negative Breast Cancer and Dinis Calado whose lab studies germinal centres extensively.

I obtained my Bachelor in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London. During my time there, I completed a summer placement at the Francis Crick Institute in Victor Tybulewicz’s lab investigating the development of congenital heart defects in a mouse model of Down Syndrome. In my third year, I designed an image analysis pipeline to identify drug targets against malaria using parasite morphology. These experiences motivated me to pursue a career in research.

I then applied to the Molecular and Cellular Biosciences MRes at Imperial College London. During my MRes, I completed two 6-month lab rotations which provided me with invaluable experience in many different techniques. For my first rotation, I characterised the phenotype of haematopoietic stem cells in an inducible mouse model of myelodysplastic syndrome and during my second rotation, I investigated the infection dynamics of a bacterium which lacked all of its anti-inflammatory effectors.

I am a PhD student on the CRUK City of London Centre RadNet programme under the supervision of Dr Susana Godinho (Barts Cancer Institute) and Prof Gary Royle (University College London). The focus of my project is to characterise the structural alterations of centrosomes in irradiated cancer cells and to examine the mechanisms driving radiation-induced centrosome amplification. My aim is to then assess the sensitivity of tumours to centrosome-based therapies following radiation treatment in models of pancreatic cancer.

I hold an MSc in Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology from the University of Sussex, during which I conducted a research project in Dr Chris Chan’s Chromosome Dynamics and Stability Group investigating the role of TOPBP1 in DNA decatenation during mitosis. I developed a strong interest in the cellular mechanisms that preserve genome integrity during cell division and understanding how these can be exploited to tackle cancer.

I am an MBPhD student in Prof Tony Ng’s group based at the UCL Cancer Institute. My research will be utilising imaging techniques to better understand how HER2-positive breast cancer responds to treatment. The aim is to identify molecules that can be used as biomarkers to follow tumour response to treatment, monitor for the development of resistance to treatment and better guide patient selection for targeted therapies.

I started my Medicine degree at St George’s, University of London. I completed an intercalated BSc in Medical Science with Cancer Frontiers at Imperial College London, in which my research focussed on the epigenetic mechanisms involved in ovarian cancer prevention. I have since transferred to UCL to continue my degree and embark on this intercalated PhD.

I am an MBPhD student supervised by Prof. Benny Chain and Prof. Sergio Quezada of UCL and the UCL Cancer Institute respectively. In short, my project is about developing a computer algorithm that predicts the epitope specificity of T-cell receptors (TCRs), then using it to analyse the anti-tumour immune response in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma.

More precisely, I aim to train a deep learning model that maps TCR amino acid sequences to fixed-size vector embeddings in such a way that an embedding for a particular TCR contains information regarding its epitope specificity. With this algorithm, I will generate ‘maps’ of patients’ immune repertoires by embedding their TCRs into vector space. This may allow for new, interesting and potentially insightful analyses on patient immune repertoire data.

I entered UCL medical school in 2017, where I will be completing my medical degree after my PhD. I have also obtained a BSc in Infection, Immunology and Cell Pathology at UCL. It was through my BSc project (the pilot/precursor to my PhD project) that I connected with Prof. Chain and Prof. Quezada, and that I found my passion for cancer immunology and the computational analysis thereof.

I love making/composing music, I am a big fan of Formula 1, and I am a (budding) chess enthusiast!

I am a clinical research training fellow in Dr Beth Payne’s group at the UCL Cancer Institute. My project focuses on the effects of inflammation and ageing on the bone marrow microenvironment, and how these changes contribute to the development of clonal haematopoiesis and subsequent cancer. I hope to explore the spatial relationship of immune cell populations, and identify risk factors for malignant disease progression.

I studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and am midway through Haematology specialist registrar training at University College London Hospital.