Meet the team:
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[/imageframe][/one_third] [two_third last=”yes”]Principal Investigator: Brian Ferguson
Biography: I was brought up in Stamford, before moving to London to study Biochemistry as an undergraduate at Imperial College, and as a PhD student at University College London under the guidance of Prof Paul Driscoll and Dr Huseyin Mehmet. This work contributed to the structural and molecular biology of death receptor signalling. Moving to Cambridge to work under one of the founding fathers of apoptosis, Prof Andrew Wyllie, along with Dr Tina Rich, was an eclectic postdoctoral training experience and one which fostered a love of immunology. Working with Prof Geoff Smith as one of the first cohort of Imperial College Research Fellows triggered my interest in host-pathogen interactions. The co-evolution of pathogens with their hosts means that it is not possible to understand our immune system without studying both sides of this battle. My lab has a range of collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects with a particular focus on the innate immune system, how pathogens counter these defence mechanisms and how we can use that information to design better vaccines. I am also actively involved in scientific outreach in my role as a STEM ambassador .
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Postdocs:
[one_fourth last=”no”]Zhenya Shmeleva [/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
Zhenya is part of our team studying the effect of removal of vaccinia virus immunomodulators on the development of long-term cellular and humoral immune memory responses. Zhenya loves FACS but has been known to carry out other experiments if it’s really necessary..
[one_fourth last=”no”]Kathi Lauer [/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
Kathi has graduated from the University of Manchester as a President’s Scholar, having worked on developing MVA-based vaccines. Kathi has now joined the team researching anti-viral functions of non-homologous end joining proteins.
Graduate Students:
[one_fourth last=”no”] Dayana Hristova [/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
[one_fourth last=”no”] Helena Teague [/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
[one_fourth last=”no”]Delphine Depierreux [/one_fourth][one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
Delphine flew in from Belgium to study the effect of innate immunity on immune memory. Delphine is researching the basis by which NK cells remember vaccinia virus infection.