Our Students

I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from University College Dublin, Ireland. During this time, I undertook a Wellcome Trust-funded project at UCD in the area of Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as an Erasmus placement at Cambridge University modelling Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease with iPSCs, in the lab of Prof David Rowitch. Following my studies, I became a research assistant at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University. Here, I developed organotypic models of uveal melanoma from primary patient tumours during a post of 18-months. Following this, I moved to London where I took up a research assistant position at KCL, exploring the role of molecular chaperones in iPSC-derived astrocytes in the context of Alzheimer's Disease.

I completed my MEng in Biomedical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London with my thesis in the lab of Prof Julien Gautrot. I then spent 3 years working in medical device development within the Medical Physics department at the RVI in Newcastle. Here I was awarded an ICURe grant from Innovate UK to act as an entrepreneurial lead on a project to develop a new technology to improve organ transplantation outcomes.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, and after graduating I worked as a Voluntary Research Intern in the Varela Lab at the Institute of Neurobiology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I was awarded a scholarship from the Mexican Council of Science and Technology to pursue a master's degree in Neuroscience in Developmental Neurobiology at King's College London (2020-21).

I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Biology at The University of Bristol, gaining research experience in a range of areas, including trypanosome parasites in Prof Wendy Gibson’s lab and type 1 diabetes in Prof Kathleen Gillespie’s lab. After briefly considering a career in nutritional sciences, I chose to pursue my interest in autoimmune diseases by undertaking a Master’s in immunology at King’s College London. During my MSc, I worked in Prof Leonie Taams’s lab, investigating IL-17-producing cell types in spondylarthritis. Following my MSc, I took up a research assistant position in Dr Sophie Papa’s lab, investigating T cell exhaustion in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, through the use of CyTOF.

I completed my undergraduate degree in Human Anatomy at the University of Dundee and moved to London in 2019 to obtain my masters in Neuroscience at King’s College London. While completing my MSc I developed a special interest in harnessing the potential of organoids for studying neurodevelopment, and during my thesis developing an open-source high content analysis pipeline to analyse hiPSC-derived gastruloids. Before starting my PhD, I was fortunate enough to experience research out with my niche in the lab of Sibylle Mittnacht at the UCL Cancer Institute, contributing to work on identifying therapeutic vulnerability of RB-1 mutant osteosarcoma to Parp1,2 inhibitors.

I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry at Imperial College London. During this time I worked in the lab of Professor Andrea Crisanti, developing genetic engineering techniques for population control of A. gambiae mosquitoes. I further completed an MSc in Neuroscience at Imperial, where I worked with Professor Nicholas Mazarakis on the development of a gene therapy for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder. My project involved differentiation of astrocytes from patient-derived iPSCs.

I completed my BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Dundee. During my degree, I undertook a Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarship in Dr Tracey Mitchell’s lab at the St Johns Institute of Dermatology at King’s, working on DNA damage repair pathway inhibition in primary cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. My undergraduate thesis was in the lab of Prof Karim Labib at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit focused on investigating DNA replication initiation mechanisms in Caenorhabditis elegans.

I completed my BSc in Biological Sciences with a specialisation in Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cells at the University of Edinburgh. Through university courses, I discovered a strong passion for the field and became particularly enthusiastic about its potential to shape the future of medicine.

I gained my first research experience as part of the Amgen Scholars programme, completing a summer internship at the Pasteur Institute. My project focused on the role of epithelial apoptosis in Drosophila wing development and encouraged me to pursue a career in research. 

For my bachelor’s dissertation, I studied the effects of antagonising Notch signalling on haematopoietic differentiation of hESCs. I gained experience with cell culture, molecular biology techniques and flow cytometry

After finishing high school in Kenya, I obtained my integrated Master's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Warwick in England. During my time there, I worked on two projects: one focused on Alanyl-tRNA synthetase as a target for antimicrobial drug discovery in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and my Master's project on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, where I characterised ligand binding sites on TB metal transporters for potential TB treatments. 

After university, I worked at the Almeida lab in the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany as a research assistant. This was a cancer immunology lab, where I worked on the optimisation of melanoma and CD8+ T cell co-cultures to aid in CAR-T cell therapy research. 

After that I returned to England and worked as a Research technician at Rocio Sancho's lab, optimising a protocol for differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into pancreatic islets for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research. 

After a year, I decided I wanted to continue this work in a PhD and had a unique opportunity arose to join the Advanced Therapies in Regenerative Medicine PhD Programme by proceeding directly to doctoral studies.

I completed my undergraduate degree at Imperial College London, where I studied biochemistry and became interested in disease mechanisms and translational science. To further explore these, I completed a 12-monthindustry placement at LifeArc, Stevenage, where I joined the Protein Science team and developed strong skills across protein purification and assay development. I then continued my studies at the University of Cambridge, obtaining an MPhil in Biomolecular Science after working on a project to develop an in vitro model of multiple sclerosis. These experiences showed me that research is very exciting and I decided to pursue a PhD as a setting stone for my academic career.

After university, I worked at the Almeida lab in the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany as a research assistant. This was a cancer immunology lab, where I worked on the optimisation of melanoma and CD8+ T cell co-cultures to aid in CAR-T cell therapy research. 

After that I returned to England and worked as a Research technician at Rocio Sancho's lab, optimising a protocol for differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into pancreatic islets for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research. 

After a year, I decided I wanted to continue this work in a PhD and had a unique opportunity arose to join the Advanced Therapies in Regenerative Medicine PhD Programme by proceeding directly to doctoral studies.

I completed an MSci in Cell Biology at University College London in 2024. During my degree, I undertook a seven-week summer internship in 2023 at the University of Oxford’s Dunn School of Pathology in the Esashi Lab, investigating the role of DNA topoisomerase IIβ (TOP2B) in cellular quiescence. For my final-year project in the Pichaud Lab at the LMCB, I studied how basement membrane components, particularly Laminin, regulate proliferation and organ size during development, using the Drosophila retina as a model system.

I completed my BSc in Biochemistry before taking a gap year to work in Cape Town, South Africa, where I joined a biotech start-up supporting COVID-19 diagnostics during the pandemic. I went on to pursue a Master’s in Translational Neuroscience at Imperial College London, where my research focused on identifying therapeutic targets to promote regeneration after spinal cord injury. After this, I worked as an in vivo research assistant at University College London, investigating DNA- and protein-level therapeutic strategies for Huntington’s disease. These experiences shaped my interest in neurodevelopment, regeneration, and modelling human neurological disorders.

I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Biotechnologies for Health at the University of Grenoble Alpes (UGA) in France. During my third year, I had the opportunity to spend a year in Kuopio, Finland, where I studied Biomedicine and discovered the fascinating field of regenerative medicine. After this year abroad, I returned to France determined to further explore regenerative medicine, and I enrolled in a two-year MSc programme in Gene, Cell Therapies and Tissue Engineering at UGA (France). As part of this MSc, I completed two research placements. The first was in Prof. Francesca Spagnoli’s lab at King’s College London (UK), where I worked on the “Directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into organ-specific mesenchyme of the pancreas”. My second placement took place in Dr Maria Alcolea’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge (UK), where I investigated “Environmental reprogramming approaches to induce mouse epithelial tissues into a developmental-like state in vitro”.

I obtained my BA in Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Oxford, where I completed an undergraduate research project on the role of ANAPC1 in proliferation and cell cycle regulation in prostate cancer. I was supervised by Dr Claire Edwards (NDORMS) and Dr Srinivasa Rao Rao (NDS). During my undergrad, in summer 2023, I completed a 3-month internship on hematopoietic stem cells in Prof. Roi Gazit’s lab at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer Sheva, Israel). The same year, I also represented Oxford University in iGEM—an international competition in synthetic biology. Together with nine other students, we worked on developing a biosensor for faster and more efficient detection of bacterial contamination in water. For this project, we were awarded silver at the Paris Jamboree.