Non-clinical PhD students

 

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Melina Beykou


Project title - Novel Bio-Chips for real-time detection of acidification in the tumour microenvironment 

 

What were you doing before you joined the CSC Programme?

BSc Biological Sciences (Immunology Hons) (Second year direct entry) from the University of Edinburgh. A number of internships in both wet lab and bioinformatics, including in Mark Woolhouse's lab at the University of Edinburgh during my BSc years.  Followed by an MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology at Imperial College London where my thesis was focused on modelling protein interactions involved in SARS-CoV-2 viral entry with Dr. Alessia David and Professor Michael Sternberg during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

I chose this project because of it has allowed me to work at the forefront of innovation in biomedical technologies to create early cancer diagnostics for patient benefit. It has provided me with a platform to use my previous experience in both wet and dry lab whilst growing my skillset and exposing me to novel engineering technologies

 

Interesting fact about yourself

I love Formula1 and hope they start using more biosensors for their drivers in the future.

 

 

 

 

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Megan Morris 

Project title - Combined functional MRI and super-resolution ultrasound for non-invasive monitoring of tumour blood delivery during breast cancer radiotherapy 

 

 

 

 

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James Zhang

Project title - Synthetic lethality driven by N-myristoyltransferase inhibition: a convergence approach to target MYCN-driven childhood cancers 

 

What were you doing before you joined the CSC Programme?

I was finishing my Masters degree in Chemistry in the Balasubramanian lab.

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

I chose this project because it gave me the opportunity to expand my skills beyond chemistry and because of its translational applications.

 

Interesting fact about yourself

I once won a TV (first prize!) in a raffle.

 

 

 

 

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Gwen O'Driscoll

Project title - Engineering MRI-trackable extracellular vesicles to study breast cancer metastasis organotropism

 

 

What were you doing before you joined the CSC Programme?

Before starting my PhD I was a research scientist working at AstraZeneca’s Swedish R&D site in Gothenburg. Here I helped develop imaging cell assays to screen nanomedicines (LNPs and extracellular vesicles). I also completed a project in the Data Science & Bioinformatics team, where I analysed patient NGS data and created a pipeline for analysing ribosome sequencing data.

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

I was excited by the opportunity to combine nanoparticle engineering with MRI (an area that was new toF me) to produce a tool that helps untangle the mechanism underlying breast cancer metastasis.

 

Interesting fact about yourself

My Imperial lab moved to Oxford during the final year of my PhD, so this project was carried out across 3 research institutes!

 

 

 

 

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Federica Talamona

Project title - New formulations of anti-cancer drugs for targeted treatment of triple negative breast cancer

 

 

Intercalated PhD students

 

 

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Jake Symington   

Project title - Investigating early immune microenvironment changes following Arginine Deprivation in Glioblastoma: a multi-omics approach

 

What were you doing before you joined the CSC Programme?

Before starting my iPhD, I completed the first four years of my MBBS degree at Imperial College London. I spent the fourth year of this specialising in Cancer Biology and Medicine. During this year, I became interested in immunotherapy, personalised medicine and brain tumours. This is when I found my iPhD project which encompasses all of these interests.

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

Glioblastoma is a primary brain tumour with poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Arginine Deprivation by ADI-PEG20 has shown efficacy in other cancer types. Work by our lab has shown complete tumour eradication when Arginine Deprivation is combined with radiation in orthotopic immunocompetent mouse models of glioma. Preliminary data has showed immunomodulatory effects of arginine deprivation alone as well as in combination with radiation. In this project, we aim to elucidate the mechanism of action of arginine deprivation over time using spatial techniques such as spatial transcriptomics and mass-spectrometry based Imaging Mass Cytometry. These results have helped us to think about other therapies we would like to combine with arginine deprivation . Also, these results are helping to guide the design of clinical trial in patients living with Glioblastoma. I chose this project because I was always interested in the brain and immunology. This project allowed me to combine these interests to pursue a translational project which has real clinical potential. 

 

Interesting fact about yourself

I’m a published short story writer and a professional bartender.

 

 

 

 

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Mi Lim  

Project title - Super-resolution imaging to assess epigenetic evolution in ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

I chose this project because I wanted to learn from people from diverse disciplines and the scope of this project gave me the opportunity to work with the physicists and mathematicians in the Department of Physics as well as the biologists in the Department of Surgery and Cancer. In the end, I got to be a part of both the development and application of this new tool on human cancer cells, aiming to illuminate any underlying mechanisms that have not yet been revealed with other conventional techniques. The hope is that with newer technologies like this, we can obtain a more in-depth understanding of cancer biology to improve the treatment for patients. 

 

Interesting fact about yourself

I love playing the violin – it’s been with me for most of my life and it’s a wonderful way to destress! 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aida Abdelwahed 

Project title - Developing a Point-of-Care Detection Tool for Identification of Patients at High Risk of Ovarian Cancer

 

What inspired you to choose this project?

I chose this project as it was really at the cusp of applying the findings from the works of biologists and clinicians to the innovative technologies developed by engineers and materials scientists. The result of this was the development of a dipstick lateral flow device that can detect markers of a subtype of ovarian cancer from fingerpick blood samples within 35 minutes. This technology presents a less invasive, cost and time effective method of monitoring ovarian cancer markers, which would hopefully relieve burdens on patients and health services. 

 

Interesting fact about yourself

I enjoy crochet, embroidery and sewing. Anything that involves a needle and thread! 

 

 

Clinical research fellows

 

 

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Benjamin Hunter 

Sarah Nash


 


 

 

 

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