I am a PhD student at the Miska Lab in the Gurdon Institute. My research aims to understand how gene regulatory mechanisms can facilitate adaptation to new environments. I am using African cichlid fishes—known for representing a diverse range of physical and behavioral characteristics despite having low levels of genetic variation–to characterize their molecular responses to altered environmental conditions across generations. Outside of the lab I enjoy reading, rowing on the Cam, and caring for the many plants I’ve accumulated over lockdown.

I am a first-year PhD student at the Gurdon Institute. I investigate the molecular mechanisms that regulate lung cancer development, and how these mirror developmental and regenerative events taking place in the human organism. I work with a variety of human cell lines, and hope to include several other types of patient-derived experimental systems in my research. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was eye-opening to me especially in regard to the relationship between researchers and patients. The moral questions it brings up should be talked about a lot more, and I am looking forward to some great discussions in the virtual book club meetings.

I initially trained in medicine at Cambridge, graduating in 2014. I have since gone on to specialise in Respiratory Medicine with clinical interests in COPD and lung cancer. Since 2019 I have been a Wellcome PhD Fellow in the laboratory of Dr James Nathan at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, where my research involves working with HeLa cells to investigate fundamental mechanisms of cellular survival and metabolism.

I obtained my PhD at the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse in 2019, where I studied blood cell formation during development using Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, as a model organism. I also used cultured Drosophila cell lines in order to look more precisely into the molecular response induced by the mutation of certain genes involved in blood cell differentiation. Then, I joined the Brand lab at the Gurdon Institute in 2020, where I currently study the behaviour of malignant blood cells in a model of leukaemia in the fruit fly. When I am not in the lab I love reading and going on hikes where I can enjoy my favourite hobby which is photography.

I am a PhD student at the Gurdon Institute researching how cells look after their energy-producing compartments, called mitochondria, and how cells repair damage to the mitochondrial genome. I have used HeLa cells and fruit flies for my research. I am currently in the final year of my studies and am looking forward to a future career in science. I love running and reading and have used the extra free time during lockdown to enjoy these passions more.

I am a PhD student at the MRC Toxicology Unit trying to understand how human cells respond to different toxic stressors. Specifically, we want to understand the different chemical signatures of these responses. For my research I treat many different types of human cell lines, including HeLa. Despite all being human, they have very different biological mechanisms! I still have 2 years to go for my PhD and I am happy to be back in the lab full-time. In my free time I love playing basketball, baking and lots of reading.

I obtained my Biology degree at the Universitat de Girona and performed my PhD at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. My research at the Malaria Epigenetics Lab, focused on the epigenetic regulation of sexual development in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In 2020, I joined the Brand Lab at the Gurdon Institute to study the transcriptional regulation of neural stem cell differentiation. During my free time, I enjoy being outside practicing sports, like running, cycling, basketball or kitesurfing; but also taking pictures or enjoying the company of a good book.

I’m Holly, a PhD student in the Department of Pharmacology. My research looks at how cells use calcium ions to change their behaviour in response to outside signals such as hormones and pharmaceutical drugs. I use HeLa and other cultured human cell lines because they are easy to grow and manipulate. For example, we can introduce fluorescent markers targeted to proteins and molecules that we are interested in, and then view their location and dynamics using powerful microscopes. This helps us answer fundamental questions about the way the cells in our bodies work.