Jessie Zihui Xu
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2020 Programme Start
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.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
During my first year of the PhD Programme, I explored diverse research areas in the following labs:
The Gentleman lab: Restoring contractile phenotypes of vascular smooth muscle cells in 3D hydrogel models of aortic aneurysm
The Habib lab: Investigating the effect of ageing on Wnt-mediated osteogenesis and the healing bone environment
The Ali lab: Characterising the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in developmental immune homeostasis of the oral cavity
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4- Doctoral Studies
For my thesis project, I have joined the lab of Dr Niwa Ali at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. The Ali lab primarily focuses on studying how tissue-resident immune cells affect tissue homeostasis and disease development. My PhD project aims to understand the crosstalk between Tregs and melanoma cancer stem cells and its contribution to the progression of melanoma skin cancer.
The project will primarily utilise in vivo model systems, but also cell culture, multi-colour flow cytometry, advanced molecular profiling including RNA-sequencing, qPCR analysis, spatial transcriptomics and tissue histopathology techniques. I hope that this project will deepen our knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms of CSCs controlled by Tregs and aid the discovery of novel Treg-based immunotherapies for the treatment of melanoma as well as other cancer types.
