Non-clinical PhD 2020 Cohort

 

Alexia

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.


 

 

Megan

Megan Morris 

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


 

 

Elizabeth

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.


 

 

Gwen

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