COHORT 2020

Written By BehMeh Media

From left to right: Imogen Brooks, Cher Shen Kiar, Jessie Zihui Xu, Caoimhe Kerins, Sofia Syntaka and Maria Cristina Garrone.

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Caoimhe Kerins
Caoimhe Kerins

I completed my BSc Biochemistry at University College Cork, Ireland, and MSc in Biomedicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. During my Master’s degree, I moved to London to complete my thesis by Erasmus in the lab of Dr Selina Wray at University College London. I then stayed in London as a research technician at King’s College London (lab of Dr Katie Long). My interests are centred on in vitro modelling of diseases and the role of the extracellular matrix in disease.

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Cher Shen Kiar
Cher Shen Kiar

At UCL, I received my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry with a Year in Industry undertaken at Protein Technologies group, GlaxoSmithKline Stevenage. In the past, I was fascinated by the mechanisms of molecular machines that are responsible for the correct functioning of cells. Under Dr Lisa Cabrita's supervision, I explored various methodologies to create 'snapshots' of protein biogenesis to probe the co-translational protein (mis)folding facilitated by the ribosomes. At GSK, I received excellent mentorship from Dr Maja Firczuk and Dr Michael Mullin; I was entrusted to lead the expression technology project which sought to improve mammalian protein expression and secretion through the design of regulatory genetic circuits.

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Imogen Brooks
Imogen Brooks

At the Open University I studied for a Certificate of Higher Education in Natural Sciences. From there I went on to the University of Manchester to complete a BSc (Hons) in Developmental Biology. During my industrial experience year, I worked for 9 months at A*STAR in Dr Ernesto Guccione’s lab helping research PRDM10 activity in mouse embryonic stem cells. The summer after, I joined Peter Sarkies lab to work on selection pressure on chromatin condensation using C. elegans mutation accumulation models.

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Jessie Zihui Xu
Jessie Zihui Xu

I completed my BSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London, during which I examined long-term balancing selection in low-coverage whole-genome sequencing data in the lab of Dr Matteo Fumagalli. Following this, I worked as a clinical AI data intern at SIME Diagnostics Ltd and collated electronic clinical data for neonatal respiratory diseases. I then pursued an MPhil in Genomic Medicine at the University of Cambridge, where I studied the involvement of DNA repair and apoptosis signalling pathways in anti-cancer drug responses using computational methods with Dr Mathew Garnett.

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Maria Cristina Garrone
Maria Cristina Garrone

I completed my undergraduate degree at King’s College London, graduating with a BSc Biochemistry degree. As part of my bachelor’s degree, I joined Rocio Sancho’s lab for a summer research placement to work on the development of iPSC-derived pancreas organoid cell lines to investigate the role of pro-endocrine transcription factors regulating pancreas differentiation. For my final year thesis, I joined the Knight lab to study the role of the histone methyltransferase Ezh2 in tissue repair and organogenesis using a zebrafish in vivo model.

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Sofia Syntaka
Sofia Syntaka

I completed my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Crete, Greece. For my final year project, I investigated the impact of DNA damage accumulation on macrophages using a transgenic mouse model of ageing. Afterwards, I completed a MRes in Translational Neuroscience at University College London and Queen Square Institute of Neurology. For my thesis, I worked with Professor Sonia Gandhi at the Francis Crick Institute focusing on the generation of microglia from human iPSCs to investigate the role of neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s disease.

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