Here you can see members of the group.
The next member of the lab might be YOU!
Group leader
Hee-Kyung Ahn
Royal Society University Research Fellow
Hee-Kyung was born in Seoul, South Korea, and completed her BSc and PhD in Systems Biology at Yonsei University.
After PhD, Hee-Kyung moved to Norwich, United Kingdom to join The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) as postdoctoral scientist.
Hee-Kyung is interested in how proteins assemble into bigger protein complexes in plant cells. She is particularly interested in how environmental responses can induce changes in protein complex formation. She uses biochemistry, cell biology, as well as plant physiology to understand protein complexes in plants.
Hee-Kyung is passionate about science communication, and has published a popular science book about plants in Korean, named <Universe of Plants (식물이라는 우주)> in 2021.
In her free time, Hee-Kyung likes to read history books and visit museums and galleries, and go for long walks. She also spends most of her time outside work with her husband and daughter.
Postdoctoral researchers
Hayden Burdett
Postdoctoral scientist
Hayden was born in Adelaide, Australia, and completed a Bachelor of Biotechnology (Honours) and PhD in protein biochemistry at Flinders University, studying flax NLRs.
After completing his PhD, he moved to the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, for a post-doc in the lab of Bostjan Kobe, focusing on studying plant TIR domain structure and enzymatic function.
In 2021, Hayden moved to the University of Edinburgh for a post-doc at the Edinburgh Centre for Cell Biology, studying the effects of ubiquitin marks on chromatin structure, and how proteins interact with these histone modifications.
Hayden joined the Ahn lab in 2025, and is interested in how plant NLRs function in plant immunity, and how plant pathogens and plants manipulate one another at a molecular scale.
Outside of science, Hayden enjoys cooking and baking bread, watching footy and cricket, listening to music, and catching up with friends.
PhD students
Tana Holmes
Postgraduate student
Tana joined Ahn lab in September 2025 as it’s first PhD student.
Tana began her career in the arts but switched to science after a move to Edinburgh a decade ago when she began running gardening clubs in primary schools and took a horticultural course at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and a Biology BSc through The Open University. Before joining Ahn lab Tana was a research assistant in the Entomology Tree Health group at Forest Research.
Tana’s PhD studies how immunity proteins pair up during translation, adapting tools to visualise this process at a single molecule scale in planta without perturbing the system and identifying other proteins which may interact during the pairing process.
Outside of the lab Tana is a mum to two teenage daughters, tends an allotment, is part of a book club, monitors pollinators and enjoys sea-swimming and hillwalking.
Masters and Honours students
Su Ryeon Han
Master student (Biochemistry MSc)
Su Ryeon joined our group for her MSc project since May 2026.
Su Ryeon earned her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Yonsei University, South Korea, before moving to Edinburgh to pursue an MSc degree in Biochemistry. Her research focuses on the subcellular localisation of immune receptors during effector-triggered immunity. Outside the lab, she enjoys going for walks and listening to music.
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