Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellows

2012

Dr Céline Gillebert, University of Oxford
The temporal dynamics of visual selection: convergence from lesion symptom mapping and the intact functioning brain

Céline will investigate the temporal dynamics of visual attention in collaboration with Professor Glyn Humphreys (Cognitive Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Laboratory) and Professor Kia Nobre (Brain and Cognition Laboratory) at the University of Oxford. Céline’s goal is to understand the timing of brain activity during tasks requiring visual attention (in the Nobre lab) and to advance the knowledge about changes in temporal dynamics following brain lesions (in the Humphreys lab).

Dr Laurence Hunt, UCL
Bridging microscopic and macroscopic measures of reward-guided decision making

Laurence will be working in the laboratories of Professor Ray Dolan and Dr Steve Kennerley at UCL, where he will use both functional neuroimaging and electrophysiology to investigate the temporal dynamics of neural activity during goal-directed choice. His aim is to use computational modelling to understand how diverse types of data can be placed in a common descriptive framework.

Dr Luke Jostins, University of Oxford
Joint modelling phenotype and function in the fine-mapping and follow-up of disease associated loci

Luke will start his Fellowship in Professor Gil McVean's group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, where he will investigate statistical techniques for studying the shared genetic underpinnings in human diseases. He is particularly interested in building models of the relationship between different autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. His project is in collaboration with Dr Jeffrey Barrett at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, and Professor Mark Daly at Massachusetts General Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Dr Dennis Kaetzel, UCL
Optogenetic dissection and treatment of diseased neural circuitry in schizophrenia

Dr Katja Kornysheva, UCL
Neural representations of timing for skilled movements

Katja is studying the neural encoding of precise timing for skilled movements. Her research aims to connect the underlying neural mechanisms at the systems level in humans and on the single-cell level in mice. As part of her Fellowship, she will investigate how during training, brain regions and populations of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum reorganise functionally, to enable accurate timing of movements. Katja will undertake her work in collaboration with Joern Diedrichsen’s laboratory at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Chris De Zeeuw’s laboratory at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.

Dr Vikram Narayan, University of Dundee
Delineating the ageing proteome: convergence of ageing pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans

Vikram will begin his research in Professor Cynthia Kenyon’s laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, where he will attempt to characterise changes in global protein dynamics occurring during the process of ageing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This work will be conducted in collaboration with Professor Angus Lamond and Dr Anton Gartner at the University of Dundee. Through his studies, he aims to identify ageing ‘hub’ proteins that can be manipulated to ensure healthy ageing by delaying the onset of age-associated illnesses such as cancer, neurodegenerative disease and cardiovascular disease.

Dr Silvia de Santis, Cardiff University
MIND - modelling and imaging using non-Gaussian diffusion

Silvia will begin her Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Yaniv Assaf in Tel Aviv University, investigating the link between advanced diffusion parameters and microstructural markers on very high field experimental MRI systems. Non-Gaussian diffusion imaging will then be optimised on a clinical scanner fitted with bespoke imaging hardware in the laboratory of Professor Stefan Sunaert in KU Leuven University and finally translated to a standard clinical scanner at Cardiff University, in the laboratory of Professor Derek K Jones. The last part of her Fellowship will involve pioneering acquisitions on selected brain pathologies in collaboration with the medical physics department of Tor Vergata University in Rome, under the supervision of Professor Nicola Toschi.

Dr Gulsen Surmeli, University of Edinburgh
An investigation of synaptic and molecular mechanisms for neural representation of space

Gulsen will begin her studies in the laboratory of Dr Matthew Nolan at the University of Edinburgh, and she will carry out part of her Fellowship at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the laboratory of Dr Edward Moser. She will investigate how maps of the space around us are encoded in the brain and how this provides us with the ability to keep track of our location.

Dr Christopher Tape, Institute of Cancer Research
Quantitative proteomic dissection of genetic aberrations in PDAC development

Christopher will start his Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr Claus Jorgensen at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, where he will be using cell-specific phosphoproteomics to investigate dynamic cell-cell communication between multiple cell types in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In collaboration with Professor Doug Lauffenburger at MIT, the dual-cell phosphoproteomic data will be used to develop a computational understanding of cell-cell signalling across sequential genetic stages of PDAC development.

Dr Thorold Theunissen, University of Cambridge
Molecular and functional investigation of distinct pluripotent states in humans

Thor has started his Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Rudolf Jaenisch (Whitehead Institute/MIT), investigating the developmental identity of human pluripotent stem cells. He will also spend time in the laboratories of Professor Richard Young (Whitehead Institute/MIT) and Professor Li-Huei Tsai (Picower Institute/MIT). This work will be undertaken in collaboration with Professor Brent Stockwell (Columbia University) and Professor Joseph Ecker (Salk Institute). Throughout his Fellowship, Thor will maintain close ties with his sponsor and his mentor at the University of Cambridge, Professor Azim Surani (Gurdon Institute) and Professor Wolf Reik (Babraham Institute), respectively.

Dr Aartjan te Velhuis, University of Oxford
Decoding the influenza A virus polymerase-promoter complex

Aartjan will study the replication of the influenza A virus using fluorescence-based single molecule techniques. He will undertake his work in the laboratories of Professor Ervin Fodor (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology) and Dr Achillefs Kapanidis (Department of Physics) at the University of Oxford.

Dr Rebecca Voorhees, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
The mechanism of membrane insertion of tail-anchored proteins

Rebecca will begin her Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr Ramanujan Hegde at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Her work will focus on understanding how membrane proteins are trafficked in the cell and the mechanism by which they are inserted into the membrane. This work will be conducted in collaboration with Dr Robert Keenan at the University of Chicago.

2011

Dr Philip Ahern, University of Oxford
Study of the host immune-metabolic-intestinal microbiota interface using a humanised model of obesity

Philip will begin his Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University in St Louis, investigating how the coordinated activity of the intestinal microbiota and host diet impact the immune system using gnotobiotic mice. This work will be undertaken in collaboration with Dr Kevin Maloy and Professor Fiona Powrie at the University of Oxford.

Dr Thomas Akam, University of Oxford
The neural basis of goal-directed behaviour

Thomas will investigate the neural control of behaviour by circuits in the frontal cortex and striatum. The project aims to use electrophysiology in novel behaviour paradigms to tease apart the contributions of model-based and model-free reinforcement learning mechanisms to evaluating possible actions. This work will be undertaken in the laboratories of Dr Rui Costa (Champalimaud Centre, Lisbon), Dr Mark Walton (University of Oxford) and Dr Geoff Schoenbaum (University of Maryland, Baltimore), in collaboration with Professor Peter Dayan (Gatsby Unit, UCL).

Dr Esther Arwert, London Research Institute, CRUK
A leading role for macrophages in breast cancer metastasis

Esther is currently working with Professor John Condeelis and Professor Jeffrey Pollard at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, where her research focuses on understanding the role of different macrophage subtypes during breast cancer metastasis. Esther will also undertake periods of research at the London Research Institute with Dr Erik Sahai, concentrating on how cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts attract monocytes and stimulate them to develop into macrophages that help the tumour.

Dr Betty Ying-Wen Chung, University of Cambridge
High-resolution genome-wide analysis of small-RNA-mediated translational regulation

Betty is currently based in Professor David Baulcombe’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where she is investigating small-RNA-silencing pathways in both plant and animal systems, in order to gain new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of small-RNA-mediated translational control. Betty will use high-throughput deep-sequencing methods, such as ribosomal profiling and HITS-CLIP, to obtain ultra-high-resolution genome-wide data in multiple organisms. During the Fellowship, Betty will also collaborate with Professor David Bartel in the Whitehead Institute (MIT). The information obtained will further our understanding of the evolution and function of RNA-based gene regulation.

Dr Elena Dreosti, University College London
Development of function in asymmetric brain circuits

Elena will combine the use of optogenetics imaging techniques, zebrafish and behavioural assays to investigate the formation of anatomical and functional brain asymmetries during development. This work will be undertaken in the laboratory of Professor Steve Wilson at UCL, Dr Michael Orger at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (Lisbon) and Dr Emre Yaksi at NERF (Leuven).

Dr Eris Duro, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
A proteomic and cell-biological approach to understand the molecular mechanism of meiotic chromosome segregation

Eris is currently investigating genome stability in meiotic chromosome segregation in Dr Adèle Marston’s laboratory at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology. During the course of the Fellowship Eris will also undertake research in the laboratories of Professor Sue Biggins at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle) and Dr Juri Rappsilber, also at the Edinburgh Centre.

Dr Stephen Fleming, University of Oxford
Computational and biological foundations of metacognition

Stephen will begin his Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Nathaniel Daw at New York University. There he will combine Bayesian models of human behaviour with brain imaging, to understand how we are able to reflect upon our own mental states. He will carry out this work in collaboration with Professor Larry Maloney, also at NYU. Under the guidance of his sponsor, Dr Matthew Rushworth, Stephen plans to conduct research at the University of Oxford to causally test the computational models of metacognition he develops at NYU.

Dr Irene Gallego Romero, European Bioinformatic Institute, Cambridge
Comparative genomics of regulatory evolution

Irene will begin her Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Yoav Gilad at the University of Chicago, investigating differences in gene regulation during development in humans and two non-human species by using stem cells. This work will be undertaken in collaboration with Dr Louise Laurent at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, where her adviser, Dr John Marioni, is based.

Dr Michelle Leach, University of Aberdeen
How does the pathogen Candida albicans sense heat and activate the thermal adaptation mechanisms that promote infection?

Michelle will begin her Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Leah Cowen at the University of Toronto, investigating how the major fungal pathogen of humans, Candida albicans, senses thermal fluctuations, and the mechanisms by which thermal adaptation contributes to virulence. During the course of the Fellowship she will collaborate with Professor Joe Heitman at Duke University, seeking to determine whether another major fungal pathogen of humans, Cryptococcus neoformans, maintains conservation of these responses. Michelle will also continue her collaborations with Professor Alistair Brown in the Aberdeen Fungal Group at the University of Aberdeen.

Dr Meng Amy Li, Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge
Interrogating the roles of microRNAs in entering and exiting ground state pluripotency in embryonic stem cells

Amy will begin her Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr Lin He at the University of California, Berkeley, investigating the roles of microRNAs in embryonic stem cell pluripotency regulation. During the later phase of the Fellowship, Amy will move to Professor Austin Smith’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge to continue her research. This work will also be undertaken in collaboration with Professor Allan Bradley at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Dr Kevin Maringer, University of Bristol
Evolutionarily conserved flavivirus immune evasion mechanisms

Kevin’s research aims to understand how the vector-borne flaviviruses, which include important human pathogens such as dengue virus, evade innate immune responses in their human and invertebrate hosts. He is also comparing non-structural proteins, in particular the protease complex NS2B/3, from a range of flaviviruses, for their ability to disrupt cytokine production and signalling. Kevin is also investigating whether exposure to a group of flaviviruses that are restricted to mosquitoes (insect-specific flaviviruses), alters the immune response to dengue virus and dengue disease progression. Kevin began his Fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, working with Dr Ana Fernandez-Sesma, and will complete his Fellowship in his host laboratory, led by Dr Andrew Davidson (University of Bristol).

Dr Jonathan O’Muircheartaigh, King’s College London
The development of resting state functional networks, their cognitive correlates in infants, and their involvement in learning disorders

Jonathan will begin his Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr Sean Deoni (Brown University, Rhode Island), investigating functional cortical networks in infants and their co-development with language indices. Later, he will return to the UK to apply this work to the investigation of developmental language disorders in collaboration with Professor Steve Williams (King’s College London), Professor Steve Smith (University of Oxford) and Professor Cathy Price (UCL).

Dr David Owald, University of Oxford
Making memories in the mushroom bodies

David will begin his Fellowship with Professor Gero Miesenböck and Professor Scott Waddell at the University of Oxford, investigating the changes at synapses that occur when memories are formed and retrieved. This work will be undertaken in collaboration with Professor Mala Murthy at Princeton University, and Professor Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.

Dr Laura Pearce, University of Cambridge
Investigation of the molecular basis by which mutations in SH2B1 lead to human obesity and insulin resistance

Laura is currently working with Dr Sadaf Farooqi at the Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge, investigating the functional effects of novel genetic mutations that contribute to obesity. Laura will also spend time at the University of Michigan, working with Professor Martin Myers to establish how these mutations affect energy metabolism in vivo.

Dr Bridget Penman, University of Oxford
Epistasis and the genetics of disease resistance

Bridget is currently working at the University of Oxford, investigating the global distribution of malaria-protective haemoglobinopathies and the mechanisms underlying their protective effects. She is also interested in interactions between genes that encode key elements of the immune system, and the consequences of these interactions for human health and evolution. Her mentors at Oxford are Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor David Weatherall, and she will be conducting her laboratory studies there under the sponsorship of Dr Adrian Smith. Over the course of the Fellowship she will also be working with Dr Caroline Buckee at the Harvard School of Public Health, Professor Peter Parham at Stanford University and Dr Tom Williams at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya.

Dr Florian Stengel, Institute of Cancer Research
The assembly mechanism of higher-order protein assemblies

Florian is currently working in Ruedi Abersold’s laboratory at the ETH Zurich, where he is developing mass-spectrometry tools to solve protein-complex architecture and dynamics. In particular, he is focusing on the development of new X-linking strategies for probing subunit topology and interaction in protein complexes, and aims to complement them with ion-mobility mass spectrometry. Combining information on subunit topology and interaction from X-linking with ion-mobility data should not only generate more complete interaction maps of investigated complexes but also greatly enhance the interpretation of EM densities and other high-resolution structures. Florian will also undertake periods of research in Carol Robinson’s laboratory at the University of Oxford.

Dr Alison Twelvetrees, London Research Institute, CRUK
The coordination of microtubule-dependent motors during axonal transport

Alison will investigate the intracellular trafficking machinery of neurons in the laboratories of Professor Erika Holzbaur (University of Pennsylvania) and Professor Giampietro Schiavo (London Research Institute). Alison’s goal is to understand how the directionality of multi- motor arrays is controlled, as this is essential for determining how cargo motion is regulated in the context of distinct cellular functions. Specifically, she seeks to understand how direct interactions between oppositely oriented motors can reciprocally influence their activity, at both the single-molecule level (in the Holzbaur lab) and in vivo (in the Schiavo lab), and to discover how this regulates the delivery of axonal cargoes.

2010

Dr Oliver Bannard, University of Oxford
The regulation of B cell responses during malaria infections

Oliver is currently based in the laboratory of Professor Jason Cyster at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he is pursuing his interest in adaptive immune responses. Oliver is investigating aspects of how germinal centre B cell responses are regulated. Following mutation and selection, germinal centre B cells differentiate into memory B cells and long-lived antibody-secreting plasma cells that protect against future infections. Therefore, germinal centres are critical for the development of antibody-mediated immunity. Because humoral immunity is slow to develop during malaria infections, Oliver hopes to extend his research through a collaboration with Professor Joseph DeRisi, a parasite expert also at UCSF, to investigate the regulation of germinal centre reactions during this important infection.

Dr J Ross Chapman, London Research Institute, CRUK
Defining the role of BRCA1 and associated proteins in suppressing 53BP1-dependent toxic DNA repair

Ross’s research focuses on how mammalian cells achieve the right equilibrium between the major DNA repair pathways, through modulation of the chromatin environment surrounding DNA double-strand breaks, and how imbalances in this process might underlie cancer and other human diseases. He is currently based in the laboratory of Professor Simon Boulton at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, and also spends some time working with Professor Stephen Jackson’s laboratory in Cambridge, taking advantage of the Gurdon Institute’s state-of-the-art microscopy facilities.

Dr Molly Crockett, University College London
Automatic and analytical altruism: neurobiological foundations of human prosocial behaviour

Molly is studying the neural basis of human altruism, morality and value-based decision-making. Her research is investigating the influence of neurotransmitters (serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine) on the brain systems that motivate social and economic behaviour. Molly began her Fellowship in 2011 at the University of Zurich, working with economist Professor Ernst Fehr. In 2012 she will return to University College London to conduct brain-imaging studies with neuroscientists Professors Ray Dolan and Peter Dayan.

Dr Samuel Dean, University of Oxford
The trypanosome flagellar pocket - functions and adaptations in differentiation, pathogenicity and immune evasion

Sam began his Fellowship in August 2010. His project investigates the shape, form and biochemistry of the trypanosome flagellar pocket and how this relates to the pathogenicity of the parasite. Sam’s project arose from some surprising discoveries he made during his PhD regarding the response of trypanosome surface molecules to environmental change. He is currently working with Professor Keith Gull in the Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, to learn techniques in electron microscopy and tomography. Sam will also spend time with Professor Markus Engstler at the University of Wurzburg, Germany, to learn advanced live cell imaging techniques.

Dr Helge Dorfmueller, University of Dundee
Mechanism and inhibition of chitin synthesis

As part of his Fellowship, Helge intends to investigate a bacterial homologue of fungal chitin synthases for structural and kinetic studies, with the objective of understanding on a molecular level the reaction mechanism of processive glycosyltransferases and to identify novel chitin synthase inhibitors. He will be working in the laboratories of Dr João H Moraise Cabral at the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (Portugal) and Dr David Gray at the University of Dundee, as well as Professor Neil Gow and Dr Carol Munro at the University of Aberdeen.

Dr Daniel Fazakerley, University of Dundee
Use of proteomics and systems biology to dissect the molecular adaptability of metabolism in muscle and fat cells

Daniel is currently working with Professor David James at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, using proteomic techniques and systems analysis to interrogate insulin action. He is particularly interested in the regulation of metabolism by insulin signalling and how this is perturbed in insulin-resistant states. He is hosted by Kei Sakamoto at the Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee, who has expertise in energy-stress signalling - another signalling pathway that impacts on metabolism. By understanding how distinct signalling pathways interact to control cellular metabolism, Daniel hopes to reveal aspects of this network that are dysregulated in disease states.

Dr Demis Hassabis, University College London
Understanding the episodic memory system and its critical role in future thinking

Demis is currently working at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at UCL with Professor Peter Dayan, where he will build computational models of episodic memory and future thinking. He will also undertake periods of research in Professor Tomaso Poggio’s laboratory at MIT and Professor Daniel Schacter’s laboratory at Harvard.

Dr Nerea Irigoyen, University of Cambridge
Ribosomal frame-shifting and read-through in virus gene expression

Nerea is working in Dr Ian Brierley’s laboratory in the Division of Virology, University of Cambridge, investigating the implication of frame-shifting and read-through in retrovirus replication, which can lead to a potential selection of antiviral agents that would be able to target these steps. She has planned to spend time in two other laboratories - those of Dr Robert Gilbert at the Structural Biology Institute in Oxford (cryo-EM reconstruction of read-through pseudoknot-stalled ribosome complexes and isothermal titration calorimetry of morpholino oligonucleotide-pseudoknot complexes) and Professor Stuart Siddell in Bristol (frame-shifting in coronavirus).

Dr Benjamin Judkewitz, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Optofluidic microscopy for portable low-cost malaria diagnostics

Based at the California Institute of Technology, Benjamin aims to develop a new diagnostic test for malaria in low-income countries, by designing fingertip-sized chip-based microscopes based on a novel principle of microscopy. At the LSHTM and in field trials in Africa, he will refine this approach and assess whether it is suitable for real-world scenarios in low-income countries.

Dr Line Loken, University of Oxford
Feelings of pain and pleasure - delineating hedonic sensation in the brain

Line is currently based at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain at the University of Oxford. Her research is focusing on understanding pathways for affective touch (pain and pleasure) and how signals via these pathways are encoded by the human brain. Central to these research plans is microneurography, a technique she has now established at Oxford, with the aim of combining this powerful tool with neuroimaging.

Dr Andrew MacAskill, University College London
Spine-specific targeting of ion channels in striatal neurons

The focus of Andrew’s Fellowship is to determine how an individual neuron distinguishes information from different brain regions at the molecular and cellular level, to allow for input-specific signalling in the nervous system. He is currently investigating this question with Dr Adam Carter at New York University, using a novel combination of two-photon microscopy, fluorescent calcium imaging and optogenetics, to identify and characterise inputs from different brain regions. He will then work with Professor Mark Farrant at UCL to dissect the molecular determinants of these different inputs and create a model of input specificity.

Dr John Perry, University of Exeter
Identifying low-frequency and rare genetic variation involved in type 2 diabetes using next-generation sequencing

John’s Fellowship is enabling him to continue his research on understanding the genetic architecture of complex diseases and traits, with a particular focus on the role of rare genetic variation in type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Based at the University of Exeter, John will be collaborating with Professor Mark McCarthy at the University of Oxford, Professor Timothy Spector at King’s College London, Professor Michael Boehnke at the University of Michigan and Professor André Uitterlinden at Erasmus MC in the Netherlands.

Dr Sridharan Rajagopalan, University of Oxford
Proteases as next-generation therapeutics for influenza A

Sridharan is currently working in the laboratory of Dr David Baker at the University of Washington, Seattle. During his Fellowship, he aims to develop computational protocols for designing proteases with strict and defined specificity, using haemagglutinin of influenza A as a case study. The project involves collaborations to elucidate the biochemical and structural aspects of the computationally designed proteases.

Dr Oliver Ratmann, Imperial College London
Unravelling the dynamics of rapidly evolving infectious diseases in humans with Approximate Bayesian Computations

Oliver explores how genetic and epidemiological data can be combined to better understand the disease dynamics of rapidly evolving viruses such as influenza, norovirus and HIV. Both types of data are now often routinely collected and could be used synergistically to investigate, for example, whether influenza’s antigenic evolution is punctuated rather than gradual, and how different types of influenza interfere with each other. Oliver’s Fellowship started in October 2010, and he is currently based in the laboratory of Dr Koelle at Duke University, USA, to work on influenza. He is also interacting with the Baric lab at the nearby University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to investigate the disease dynamics of norovirus. He will later return to the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, to join Professor Christophe Fraser’s evolutionary epidemiology unit, and apply his techniques to HIV.

Dr Anthony Roberts, University of Leeds
Mechanisms regulating movement and force generated by cytoplasmic dynein

During his Fellowship, Anthony will be studying the action of ‘motor proteins’ - specialised proteins that travel inside cells and help them organise their contents, move, divide and respond to signals. He is based primarily in the laboratory of Dr Samara Reck-Peterson at Harvard Medical School, sponsored by Professor Peter Knight and Dr Stan Burgess at the University of Leeds and mentored by Professor James Sellers at the NIH.

Dr Aleksandra A Watson, University of Cambridge
The structural basis of the interactions of the NuRD co-repressor complex

Aleksandra began her Fellowship in October 2010 in the laboratory of Professor Ernest Laue at the University of Cambridge. She is investigating the key regulatory role of the NuRD nucleosome remodelling complex in cellular development and cancer progression by studying its structure and composition, and has recently been collaborating with researchers at the Structural Genomics Consortium in Oxford.

Dr Elton Zeqiraj, University of Dundee
A structural and biochemical approach to understand the molecular mechanism of glycogen synthesis

Elton began his Fellowship in October 2010, and is currently based in the laboratory of Dr Frank Sicheri at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. He aims to investigate the molecular assembly of important multi-protein complexes by using structural biology. In collaboration with Dr Kei Sakamoto at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit in Dundee, he will undertake research to enhance the knowledge gained through structural biology, and carry out work aimed at understanding the function of biologically important signalling and metabolic components.

Dr Kaixin Zhou, University of Dundee
Heritability and pharmacogenetics in patients with type 2 diabetes

Kaixin’s Fellowship will focus on developing statistical and computational tools for pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomic studies, to uncover the genes influencing drug efficacy and adverse effects. In particular, he will develop methods to address the challenge in clinical datasets of observational and longitudinal nature and apply them to the studies of type 2 diabetes pharmacogenetics in the Diabetes Audit and Research Tayside Study (DARTS) cohort.

2009

Dr Sophie Acton, University College London
Regulation of dendritic cell motility within stromal niches of lymph nodes

Sophie is currently working with Dr Shannon Turley at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, working on cell motility mechanisms during immune responses.

Dr Erie Boorman, University of Oxford
Dissecting the contribution of anterior prefrontal cortex to decision making with computational, statistical and neuroimaging approaches

Erie began his Fellowship at Caltech in early 2010, working with neuroeconomist Professor Antonio Rangel and cognitive neuroscientist Professor Ralph Adolphs, who have been integrating economic modelling methods with cognitive neuroscientific techniques. Erie has been applying these economic techniques to more precisely pinpoint the component processes involved when people weigh up multiple options, with a special emphasis on the role of anterior sectors of the prefrontal cortex in complex decision-making.

Dr Thomas Bowden, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford
Molecular and functional basis for bunyaviral attachment and fusion

Thomas is investigating the atomic structure of attachment and fusion glycoproteins from emerging and highly pathogenic bunyaviruses, with the aim of determining the molecular mechanism of how these viruses both negotiate host cell entry and are targeted by the host immune response. He is currently working with Professor Dennis Burton at the Scripps Research Institute and is isolating antibodies that neutralise virus infection through targeting these viral envelope glycoproteins. In collaborative work with Professor Richard Elliott at the University of St Andrews and Professor David Stuart and Dr Juha Huiskonen at the University of Oxford, he is investigating these virus-host interactions, both structurally and functionally.

Dr Jennifer Brookes, University College London
A proposal for the determination of small molecule messages: the enigma of signalling in olfaction

Jennifer’s Fellowship has enabled her to pursue her interests in the physics of olfaction and the wider remit of ligand (drug)-protein (receptor) interactions and signalling mechanisms. She has spent part of her Fellowship as a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently at Harvard in the Department for Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Dr Jenna Cash, Queen Mary, University of London
Defining the role of chemerin peptides and ChemR23 in the endogenous anti-inflammatory network

During her Fellowship Jenna is working at the William Harvey Research Institute with Professor Mauro Perretti, in order to further characterise novel anti-inflammatory pathways in neutrophils and associated inflammatory pathologies. She has recently started a collaboration with Professor Paul Martin at the University of Bristol to investigate the role of this pathway in wound repair. Jenna will then continue her work with Professor Paul Kubes at the University of Calgary.

Dr Oliver Davis, King’s College London
Identifying patterns of genome-wide association in the development of cognitive, behavioural and psychiatric disorders

Oliver’s research addresses the interplay of nature and nurture in the development of our behaviour, intellect and mental health. He is working with researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre in Oxford, the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge and the Institute of Psychiatry in London, to explore statistical and visualisation techniques that can help us to identify patterns in multidimensional genetic and environmental data.

Dr Paul Huang, Institute of Cancer Research
Regulation of dendritic cell motility within stromal niches of lymph nodes

Paul is currently based at the Institute of Cancer Research and has interests in proteomics and biological engineering. His research focuses on employing integrative proteomics approaches to elucidating cell-matrix interactions in cancer and developing predictive computational models for treating this disease.

Dr Andrew Lin, University of Oxford
Stochastic resonance in olfactory sensory perception

Andrew began his Fellowship in August 2009 and is studying the neural circuitry of the olfactory system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster with Professor Gero Miesenböck at the University of Oxford. He is taking advantage of the relative simplicity and genetic accessibility of the fruit-fly nervous system to dissect circuit mechanisms underlying odour discrimination and olfactory memory.

Dr Ivan Matic, Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, University of Dundee
Quantitative proteomic global profiling of SUMO sub-proteome in signalling pathways

Ivan began his Fellowship in February 2010 at the University of Dundee, where he has joined Professor Ron Hay’s group to conduct his research at the interface of sumoylation, mass spectrometry-based proteomics and systems biology.

Dr Lynsey Meikle, University of Edinburgh
The functional implications of Tsc2 loss in visual cortex plasticity

Lynsey is currently working with Professor Peter Kind and Professor Mark Bear at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to determine the role of the TSC proteins in regulating dendritic morphology and synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system.

Dr Marcia Mellado, University of Sussex
Roles of the supporting cells in the mechanical responses and neural excitation in the mammalian cochlea

Marcia is using mouse genetics to generate specific defects in cochlear supporting cells. This should help to explain the roles of these cells in cochlear mechanics, a key part of hearing processing in mammals. She works with Dr Jian Zuo in the USA and Professor Ian Russell in the UK. She has also established collaboration with Professors Andy Forge and Ruth Taylor at University College London, using scanning electron microscopy to complete the structural characterisation of the auditory epithelium in mutant mice, generated as part of her research with Dr Zuo.

Dr Hannah Mischo, London Research Institute, CRUK
SEN1 implications in DNA damage: an insight into AOAII

Hannah began her Fellowship in Professor Jesper Svejstrup’s laboratory at the London Research Institute in January 2010, where she is collaborating with Ozlem Yuce-Petronczki and Professor Steve West on the biochemical characterisation of Sen1. Hannah is planning to move to the laboratory of Professor Susan Gasser at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, where she will extend her biochemical and genetic work on the molecular functions of Sen1. During her time in both of these laboratories, she will maintain a collaboration with Dr Andres Aguilera.

Dr Jasmina Saric, Imperial College London
Differential metabolic mapping of immune mechanisms: the Leishmania major induced Th paradigm in a new context

Jasmina is currently based at Imperial College London, investigating parasite-host interactions by comparing metabolic changes in host biofluids and tissues across different infections to reveal pathogen-specific fingerprints. She integrates immune measures with the global metabolic information and characterises the immune-metabolic co-development during acute and chronic infection. Jasmina has since accepted a lecturer position in the Section of Biomolecular Medicine at Imperial College London, which began in August 2011.

Dr Marie Schroeder, University of Oxford
Assessment of in vivo metabolism in failing hearts using hyperpolarised carbon-13 magnetic resonance

Marie spent the first 15 months of her Fellowship examining substrate selection in the failing heart at the Imaging Research Centre for Cardiac Intervention, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto. Her aims are to demonstrate new hyperpolarised 13C magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy methods that could be used to examine patients with failing hearts, and to enhance understanding of heart failure pathogenesis by serially measuring substrate metabolism alongside cardiac energetics, structure and contractile performance.

Dr Bernhard Staresina, University of Cambridge
Functional integration in the human medial temporal lode during episodic memory encoding and retrieval

During his Fellowship, Bernhard is combining intracranial recordings from epilepsy patients and functional imaging in healthy controls, to understand the spatiotemporal mechanisms through which our memories are created.

Dr Mary Wu, MRC National Institute for Medical Research
Defining the signalling requirements of EMT for both cancer metastasis and neural crest migration

Mary started her Fellowship in March 2010 and is studying how neural crest migration is timed during development in Professor Jim Smith’s laboratory at the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research. She has started a small-molecules screen to identify compounds that affect the onset of neural crest migration in zebrafish embryos. Identification of hit compound targets will be carried out in collaboration with Dr Randall Peterson in Boston. In parallel, she is complementing the screen using high-throughput sequencing methods on neural crest cells and Slug-expressing carcinoma cells to study the regulatory networks regulating EMT in these cells.

2008

Dr Rachel Freathy, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter
The role of maternal and offspring metabolic and anthropometric gene variants in fetal and childhood growth

Since starting her Fellowship in 2008, Rachel has had the opportunity to contribute to genome-wide association studies that identified genes for type 2 diabetes, BMI, height and, more recently, birth weight. Her Fellowship aims to follow up these studies by investigating the roles of these genes in fetal and childhood growth. She is spending time in Chicago, Bristol, Oxford and Exeter to work with and learn from experts in genetics and epidemiology, and to analyse genetic associations in large datasets of mothers and their babies from around the world.

Dr Johanna Hoog, University of Oxford
Shape, form and function in kinetoplastid parasites: the subpellicular microtubule cytoskeleton

Johanna is studying the 3D architecture of the microtubule cytoskeleton of the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma brucei and other related kinetoplastids using electron tomography. Her research is a collaboration between Professor Keith Gull’s laboratory at the University of Oxford and the Boulder Laboratory for 3D Electron Microscopy at the University of Colorado.

Dr Clare Howarth, University of Oxford
The role of astrocytes in the vascular response to neural activity

Clare is currently working with Professor Brian MacVicar at the University of British Columbia, applying two-photon microscopy to brain slices to investigate the role of astrocytes in the vascular response to neural activity. Following this, she will move to Dr Nicola Sibson’s laboratory at the University of Oxford, where she proposes to use in vivo MRI techniques to investigate how neuron-to-blood-vessel signalling generates BOLD functional imaging signals.

Dr James Kirkbride, University of Cambridge
Social epidemiology of psychoses in East Anglia (SEPEA) study: disentangling poverty, migration and urbanicity

James is a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, studying the social and genetic causes of psychosis. For his Fellowship he has established a major study of the incidence and social determinants of first-episode psychoses in rural communities, where less research has taken place. As part of his Fellowship, he has recently completed a seven-month research placement in Professor Ezra Susser’s laboratory at Columbia University, New York, where he developed knowledge on social theory of the causes of, and epigenetic mechanisms in, health and disease.

Dr Zoi Michailidou, University of Oxford
Investigating the role of the HIF system in adipose tissue in obesity

Zoi was awarded her Fellowship in 2008 and initially spent some time building her experience of hypoxia biology at the Oxygen Sensing laboratory in Oxford. She is currently at the Tissue Remodelling Laboratory, University of Edinburgh, investigating the interaction between hypoxia and glucocorticoid signalling systems and how this relates to adipose fibrosis, remodelling and insulin resistance.

Details of previous award holders are listed under the ‘Previous award holders’ tab.

2007

Dr Nicol Harper, University of Oxford
Functional principles of sound representation in the brain

Nicol spent the first two years of his Fellowship in Professor Bruno Olshausen’s laboratory in the University of California, Berkeley, where, among other projects, he developed principled models that learn to separate natural sounds from the spatially dependent filtering caused by the head and ears. Nicol is now at the University of Oxford in the laboratories of Professor Andrew King and Dr Jan Schnupp, where he will be further developing these models. He will also be electrophysiologically testing which models best describe the auditory system.

Details of previous award holders are listed under the ‘Previous award holders’ tab.

Previous award holders

• 2007
• 2008

2007

Dr Luis A Baena-Lopez, MRC National Institute for Medical Research
How do pattern defects cause apoptosis in developing tissues?

Dr Rebecca Baggaley, Imperial College London
Modelling the impact of HSV-2 interventions on HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa

Dr Jordana Bell, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford
Using linkage disequilibrium to identify epistatic variants in human complex traits

Dr Caroline Buckee, University of Oxford
The population structure and expression patterns of Plasmodium falciparum var gene repertoires

Dr Isaac Bianco, University College London
Functional analysis of neural circuitry in the larval zebrafish brain

Dr Shelley Cook, Natural History Museum
Emerging arboviruses: the effect of vector and host biology and genetic diversity on the emergence and maintenance of the flaviviruses

Dr Agnieszka Gambus, University of Birmingham
Functional characterisation of protein complexes present at DNA replication forks

Dr Tracey Gloster, University of York
Dissection of O-glycosylation of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins

Dr Tobias Grossman, Birkbeck, University of London
The role of the prefrontal cortex in the development of uniquely human social cognition

Dr Tim Hallett, Imperial College London
Modelling the influence of life-course events on the epidemiology of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

Dr Katie Hampson, University of Glasgow
Understanding the role of contact networks in the epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of zoonotic disease

Dr Shane Herbert, University of Leeds
Molecular genetics of vascular tube lumen formation in development and disease

Dr Thomas Jahn, University of Cambridge
Towards a quantitative understanding of in vivo protein aggregation

Dr Sander van Kasteren, University of Dundee
Probing the role of adjuvants in MHC-II antigen presentation

Dr Alasdair Leslie, University of Oxford
Development and application of a novel HIV pMHC cellular microarray

Dr Benedetto de Martino, University College London
Integrating economic models and cognitive neuroscience: the neurobiology of human decision making

Dr Joseph Parker, Imperial College London
Understanding allometry: organ-intrinsic positional information and the nutrient-dependent regulation of growth

Dr Robert Snelgrove, Imperial College London
The role of neutrophils in the immunity and pathology of influenza infection

Dr Michael Tyka, University of Bristol
High-resolution protein structure prediction

2008

Dr Misha Ahrens, University of Cambridge
An integrative approach to finding the neural basis of timing

Dr Martin Bishop, University of Oxford
A combined computational and experimental investigation into the role of anatomical complexity and heterogeneity in the mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of ventricular fibrillation

Dr Marie-Jo Brion, University of Bristol
Public health consequences of modifiable maternal exposures: offspring obesity and cognitive health in two cohorts in the UK and Brazil

Dr Joseph Burgoyne, King’s College London
Protein kinase G Ia: from novel substrates, structural analysis and cGMP-independent activation to defining how it mediates cardioprotection

Dr Janine Coombes, University of Oxford
Dynamic imaging of intestinal dendritic cells in oral infection

Dr Matthew Gold, University College London
Control of synaptic transmission by scaffold proteins

Dr Emma Hodson-Tole, Manchester Metropolitan University
Skeletal muscle: dynamic form and function

Dr Rebecca Holmes, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh
Coupling mRNA processing events: Npl3 as a paradigm

Dr Ede Rancz, University College London
Vestibular representation in the mammalian cortex

Dr Andreas Sonnen, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford
A systematic approach towards understanding innate immunity against trypanosomes

Dr Pauline Speder, Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge
Regulation of neural stem cell behaviour in the central nervous system of drosophila

Dr Andrew Wood, King’s College London
Investigating X-chromosome hyperexpression in the animal kingdom: a comparative approach