Rado Angelov
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2024 Programme Start
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.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
For my first rotation project, I joined Dr Niwa Ali’s lab at Centre for Gene Therapy & Regenerative Medicine, where I worked on characterising neonatal lung Tregs by immunofluorescent staining in precision-cut lung slices.
My second rotation was in Dr Joaquim Vieira’s lab at the James Black Centre, where I studied the role of desmosomes in epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition during heart development using siRNA-based gene knockdown.
For my third rotation project, I joined Dr Joana Neves’ lab at the Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, investigating epithelial remodelling by type 1 innate lymphoid cells through establishing co-cultures with human small intestinal organoids and ILC1s.
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4 - Doctoral Studies
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition characterised by recurring inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and presents with an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). IBD-associated cancer has a unique pathophysiology compared to sporadic CRC, but the molecular events that lead to tumourigenesis remain largely unexplored. Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are tissue-resident immune cells that regulate intestinal homeostasis but become dysregulated and exhibit phenotypical plasticity in IBD and cancer. However, current evidence provides conflicting roles for ILCs in driving early tumourigenic events and highlights the need for a human-relevant and intestinal inflammation-specific model.
This project aims to establish a relevant in vitro model of early-stage IBD-associated cancer using patient-derived intestinal organoids. Then, developing co-cultures of the organoids with ILC1s to study the epithelial and immune cell dynamics. This will allow us to identify and validate the molecular pathways driving inflammation-driven cancer and may reveal new therapeutic targets or biomarkers.
