Lena Vandenabeele
Lena was a final year undergraduate student working with me in the Matheson lab on the phylogenetic conservation of HIV-1 accessory protein function. She has now finished her degree and is hoping to follow on her research career via a masters in France.
Gennaro Iaconis
Gennaro was a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on an MRC research grant held jointly with Professor Andrew Lever, Dr Manj Sandhu and Dr Hoi Ping Mok.
Gennaro graduated cum magna laude from “Federico II” University of Naples with a thesis on the effects of SUMOylation on p63. Later he moved to UK, where he undertook a Master in Molecular Medicine at Imperial College London. Here he spent 9 months Professor Barclay’s lab, studying Influenza RdRp at single molecule level. Then he moved to The Pirbright Institute (UK) and he started a PhD program in collaboration with the University of Liverpool. He tried to better understand the role of Rotavirus NSP1 in downregulation of the immune response and its role in zoonosis infection. In March 2019 he moved to Cambridge and he joined Professor Lever’s group. Here, under the supervision of Dr Harriet Groom, he was studying HIV restriction factors. “When I am not spending nights and days in the lab, I like to travel and discover new countries and cultures. I enjoying swimming, running and cycling, however, I do like spending a bit of time at home reading, playing videogames and cooking. As I said, days should be of 48hours…”
Isobel Jarvis
Izzy was a Research Assistant and Masters student working on an MRC research grant held jointly with Professor Andrew Lever, Dr Manj Sandhu and Dr Hoi Ping Mok. After graduating with an MPhil during her time as a research assistant, she has moved on to a position in a BioTech.
Kayden Xie
Kayden joined the lab as a part III (4th year undergraduate) student and worked with Julia Kenyon and I on SARS-CoV-2 RNA structures important for viral packaging.
Florian Robert
Florian worked with me as a postdoctoral research associate working on the role of SAMHD1 polymorphisms in control of gene expression (continuing from Fanny Salasc). He has now moved on to a role in the Early Cancer Institute in Cambridge.
Fanny Salasc
Fanny was a postdoctoral research associate working on the role of SAMHD1 genetic polymorphisms in control of gene expression in addition to the control of HIV latency with Andrew Lever. She has now taken up a postdoctoral position in Lyon.
Abin Varghese
Abin did his final year pathology research project with us working on an Evelyn Trust-funded project to understand the cellular consequences of targeting anti-HIV protein SAMHD1 therapeutically. He garnered preliminary data showing that SAMHD1 modulation can have consequences for mitochondria. Abin went on to continue his clinical training.
Marcus Widdess
Marcus did his final year pathology research project with us working on the potential effect of human herpesvirus 6 on mitochondria and autophagy. He found that HHV-6 upregulates mitochondrial DNA copy number two-fold during lytic infection and his work was presented at the Department of Medicine Research day and the Microbiology Society Annual Conference 2018. Marcus has gone on to a research assistant position at the University of Southampton.