Group Leader: Dr Jacqui Shields

Career Development Fellows:

Dr Luisa Pedro

PhD- Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, University of Algarve, Portugal

Biog: Luisa studied to become an engineer in the Life Sciences field. Her undergrad and postgraduate studies were completed in the areas of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering, respectively. Both were accomplished in the sunny University of Algarve, Portugal.

Dr Matthew Lakins

PhD- Centre for Immunology and Infection, University of York, UK

Biog: Matt completed his undergrad studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton during which time he spent a year in industry working for Genetix (now Molecular Devices) in New Milton. Matt then moved to York in 2005 to take up a Research Technician job at the University of York working on bacterial biofilm formation with Dr Marjan van der Woude. A second position in York working on 2-photon imaging of cancer cells in 3-D devolved in to a PhD. Matt completed his PhD with Dr Mark Coles on the stroma microenvironments in prostate cancer in 2012.

Dr Angela Riedel

PhD- University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Biog: Angela studied Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. During this time, she spent half ayear abroad on an Erasmus stipend in Stockholm, Sweden, and conducted an undergrad project at the KTH, working with Dr Peter Savolainen. For her master thesis, she moved to Heidelberg and worked at the DKFZ (German Cancer Research Centre) at the department of Molecular Genome Analysis under Annemarie Poustka. Late 2008 she went to work at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Odense, Denmark, to undertake her PhD with Dr Jan Mollenhauer on the genomics of breast cancer metastasis.

After she finished her PhD in June 2012, she stayed for a short postdoctoral period in the same lab, focusing on the functional analyses of selected novel candidate genes in the metastatic process. 

Graduate Students:

Jennifer Harris, PhD Student

BSc – University of Plymouth, UK

Biog:  Having recently completed my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Plymouth, it is with much enthusiasm that I join the Shields Laboratory in the MRC Cancer Unit. My interests lie in tumour microenvironment and tumour immunology, stemming from a research project conducted during my placement year at HuGEF in Turin, Italy, looking at the role of NAMPT in the CLL microenvironment. In addition, I have also worked on a number of other projects, mostly biochemistry or immunology themed, at the University of Oxford, Peninsula Medical and Dentistry School, and through a Nuffield funded summer project at the University of Plymouth.

Sarah Davidson, PhD Student

BSc (Biochemistry) – University of Bristol, UK

Biog: I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. Throughout my degree I became increasingly interested in cancer and immunology. Between my second and third year of university I conducted a year-long placement at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Working in the respiratory disease division, my work focused on lung stem cell differentiation. During this project I greatly enjoyed working in the field of cell biology and became particularly interested in cell signalling and how cells interact with their environment. I continued to study cell biology as part of my final year project in which I investigated the role of sorting nexins in the endocytic pathway. The tumour microenvironment combines my particular interests in cancer, immunology and cell biology.

My work focuses on stromal evolution during tumour development. This will involve molecular and functional phenotyping of stromal components isolated from preclinical cancer models, transiting from benign lesions through to metastatic disease.

Visitors:

Bastian Schmied, Visiting Scientist/Student

Bastian is a pharmacist from Tubingen, Germany, and is visiting the Shields lab as part of the Leonardo Da Vinci Scholarship programme.

Ehsan is a clinician, and making his second research visit to the Shields lab.

Alumni:

Rebecca White

Research Assistant/Summer Student

Rebecca is currently studying medicine at the University of Birmingham.

Kotryna Bloznelyte

University of Cambridge Part III Student

Kotryna is currently undertaking a PhD at Imperial College London.