Brian Ferguson
Principal InvestigatorBrian 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 for Brian, 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 Brian’s 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.
Ferguson 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. Brian is also actively involved in scientific outreach in his role as a STEM ambassador .
Evgeniya (Zhenya) Shmeleva
PostdocAfter graduating as a medical doctor from Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Russia, Zhenya decided to move into science and is now a cellular immunologist.
Zhenya joined our lab in 2016 and currently studies how very early innate immune response to vaccinia virus influence on immunological memory.
Marisa Oliveira
postdocMarisa graduated in Biology and received a MSc degree in Forensic Genetics, both from the University of Porto. In 2014, she was awarded with a 4-year PhD fellowship to study the genetic susceptibility to Dengue infection in Southeast Asians. This project was performed as part of a collaboration between Institute Pasteur (Paris) and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (i3S; Porto). In 2018, she concluded her PhD in Biomedical Sciences (University of Porto).
Marisa joined the lab in January 2019, where she is currently working in the innate immune response to exogenous DNA in humans and chickens, in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine (University of Cambridge).
Dayana Hristova
PhD StudentDayana is a 2nd year PhD student, who joined the lab in October 2017. Dayana comes originally from Bulgaria, but she did her undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester, where she graduated with BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences with Industrial experience.
Her PhD project focuses on the role of the non-homologous end-joining protein DNA-PKcs in human innate immunity.
Helena Teague
PhD StudentHelena is a Wellcome Trust Infection, Immunity and Inflammation programme PhD student working in the lab. After growing up in Durham, she completed her undergraduate in Biochemistry at University of Leeds with a year in industry working in the parasitology department at the Francis Crick Institute.
Having done a Masters of Research working on 3 different projects, her PhD project is studying the role of linear ubiquitin chains in the innate immune sensing of viral RNAs.
Delphine Depierreux
PhD StudentDelphine studied Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology as an undergrad in Namur, Belgium. After a master degree spent in Belgium and the USA studying virology, she moved to Cambridge to start a PhD in viral immunology.
Delphine is studying the interplay between NK cells and vaccinia virus, researching the factors that rule their early response to vaccinia virus.
Rahul Singh
PhD StudentRahul is part of the Wellcome Trust programme in Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at the University of Cambridge after previously reading Structural Molecular Biology at Imperial College London. His research interests include understanding innate immune sensing and signalling of cytosolic nucleic acids through cellular and molecular biological processes.
His PhD project will determine the role of MDA5 ATP hydrolysis and its accessory proteins (LGP2/PACT) in recognition of viral double-stranded RNA through biophysical (Cryo-EM) and molecular based approaches.
Emma Wagner
PhD StudentEmma is a MRC DTP PhD student working in the lab. Originally from Cambridge, she ventured to Scotland for her BSc(Hons) in Physiology at the University of Aberdeen and then over to Stockholm for her MSc in Biomedicine at the Karolinska Institute, before returning to Cambridge for her PhD.
In the lab Emma’s project focuses on the mechanistic basis by which oncolytic viruses interact with the intracellular DNA sensing machinery.
Natasha Brett
MASTERS STUDENTAs an undergraduate Natasha studied Biomedical Science at Aston university in Birmingham, which included a year long placement with the Inflammatory response and infection susceptibility centre at Örebro University Hospital in Sweden. Since completing her undergraduate degree Natasha has gone on to start her MPhil in Biological Sciences at the Department of Pathology in Cambridge as a member of the Ferguson lab.
Her MPhil project involves studying the role of the paraspeckle component NONO in the context of HSV-1 infection.
Past members
Anja Schoettler
Visiting Masters Student from Maastricht, NetherlandsAnja has submitted her Masters thesis and returned to Germany with plans to apply for a PhD.
Taissa Ricciardi-Jorge
Visiting PhD student from UFSC, BrazilAfter her 9-month visiting period, Taissa returned to Brazil to continue with her PhD studies.
Kathi Lauer
PostdocKathi studied anti-viral functions of non-homologous end joining proteins. Kathi left us to take up an Industry Officer role with ELIXIR.
Ben Trigg
PhD StudentAfter his PhD, Ben decided to try something new and took up a role as a Software Engineer.
Ana Laura Moldoveanu
Research AssistantAna left our lab to pursue a PhD at Imperial College, London
Christian Ku
PhD StudentAfter completing his PhD, Christian joined a biotech startup.