Inchul Cho
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2018 Programme Start
I completed my undergraduate degree in Developmental Biology at the University of Manchester, where I developed an interest in the role of physical cues in regulating cell fate. I then spent a year working as a publishing assistant at the Nature Publishing Group.
Finally, I studied for an MPhil in Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, during which I further pursued my interest in the cellular interactions that occur in response to injury using a mouse model that allows for lineage tracing of a specific pulmonary mesenchymal cell type.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
During the first year of the programme, I had the opportunity to explore the diverse research areas that had always fascinated me.
I had explored the role of tissue-resident immune cells, specifically, regulatory T cells (Tregs), in maintaining homeostasis of non-lymphoid organs, such as the skin in the lab of Dr Niwa Ali.
I worked with Dr Alessandra Vigilante and Dr Alexis Lomakin, where I had the opportunity to learn how to perform computational analysis of large datasets using programming languages such as R. The datasets used for this purpose were previously generated as a part of the human induced pluripotent stem cell initiative (HipSci), and allowed me to identify candidate genes that may regulate nuclear morphology in response to changes in fibronectin concentration.
I worked with Dr Javier Barallobre-Barreiro and Prof Manuel Mayr and proteomic data of mouse neonatal hearts with the aim of identifying extracellular matrix proteins that may be associated with the regenerative potential of the heart, which is restricted to the first week after birth. I had also generated plasmids encoding for matrix-remodelling enzymes, which may be used to study how remodelling of the heart may be associated with the loss of regenerative potential of the heart.
I am really grateful for the first year for several reasons. By undertaking studies in very different labs, my perspectives as a researcher has widened. Moreover, it gave me the opportunity to explore research that I was always interested in.
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4- Doctoral Studies
For my thesis project I have chosen to work with Dr Alessandra Vigilante and Dr Niwa Ali at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. My project has the ultimate aim of understanding how tissue-resident immune cells affect tissue homeostasis and disease onset. Given the explosion of immune cell therapies, a full understanding of their diverse identities and functions is more necessary than ever.
My project will thus utilise various techniques, such as single-cell RNA sequencing to probe the molecular and cellular heterogeneity of Tregs in multiple organs. Additionally, we will develop panels of tissue microarray for multiplexed immunofluorescence to characterize the phenotype of individual cells in greater depth. Finally, we will explore how Tregs that are anatomically distinct (for instance, hair follicle-associated and non-associated) differ functionally by using laser capture microdissection to isolate single cells of interest for further downstream analyses such as RNA sequencing.
Together, these approaches will elucidate the spatial and functional heterogeneity of Tregs, which will be pursued further using sophisticated mouse genetics.
