Alumni

Previous lab group members.

Anett Ladányi

Anett was a research assistant in the group from 2022-2023 generating synthetic chromosomes to study their segregation. She is now an EASTBIO PhD student in the group of Alena Shkumatava in the University of Edinburgh.

Anuradha Mukherjee

Anu was a PhD student in the lab from 2018 to 2023. She is currently a postdoc with Rebecca Heald at Berkeley, California, USA.

Chuanli Huang

Chuanli was a joint PhD student with Andrew Goryachev from 2019, graduating in 2023. In our group, he explored how Shugoshin is regulated by tension. He has returned to China to look for opportunities to use his computational skills.

Bettina Mihalas

Bettina was a postdoc in the lab from January 2020 - December 2022 working on human oocyte biology. She moved back to Australia and is now working in the group of Rob Gilchrist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Alex Pegg

Alex spent 5 months with us in 2022 as part of her MSc degree in Reproductive Biology at the University of Edinburgh. She is continuing her education as a PhD student with Ian Adams (University of Edinburgh) and Eva Hoffmann (University of Copenhagen). 

Julia Van Bockstaele 

Julia spent 5 months with us in 2022 a part of her MSc at University of Paris. She is currently undertaking an MSc in bioinformatics.

Kirsty Dewars 

Kirsty spent 10 months from Sept 2021-July 2022 as part of her integrated Masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Glasgow. She is currently back in Glasgow completing her final year.

Aleksandra (Ola) Pompa

Ola was a Darwin Trust PhD student from 2018-2022 working on meiotic kinetochores. She is now Laboratory Manager for the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology.

Meg Peyton-Jones

Meg was an EASTBIO PhD student from 2018-2022 working on cohesin recruitment in fission yeast. After taking some time out for travelling and volunteering, Meg is now a Research and Development intern at Cambrium, Berlin, Germany.

Xue (Bessie) Su 

Bessie was a Postdoc in the lab from 2015 - 2021. She is currently a Postdoc with Adolfo Saiardi at the LMCB at UCL in London.

Weronika Borek

Wera was a Postdoc in the lab from 2015 - 2021. In June 2021 she became Senior Bioinformatician at Kinomica Ltd. 

Vasso Makrantoni

Vasso was a Postdoc in the lab from 2012 - 2020. She left in January 2021 to take up a lectureship at the Zhejiang - University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) where her group will work on cohesin and its role in chromosome instability in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. 

Rachael Barton

Rachael was a summer student in the lab and returned to do her PhD while on the Wellcome 4 year PhD programme in Cell Biology from 2013-2017. She stayed on as a BBSRC Senior Research Technician before leaving the lab in July 2020 to take a position as Associate Regulatory Writer with McCann Health Medical Communications.

Flora Paldi

Flora was a Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD student from 2016-2020. She is now a postdoc in Giacomo Cavalli's lab in Montpelier.

Julie Blyth

Julie was a Research Assistant in the lab from 2010-2019. She is now Campus Operations Manager for the Kings Buildings, University of Edinburgh.

Rebecca Plowman

Becky was an MRC PhD student in the lab until September 2019 and is taking a break before looking to continue her career in clinical science.

Begumhan Yilmaz

Begumhan was a visiting PhD student from Balikesir University (Turkey) within the scope of an international research fellowship programme of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) from June 2018 - 2019. She is back in Turkey finising up her PhD.

Stefan Galander

Stefan was an undergrad, summer technician, Wellcome PhD student and Postdoc in the lab. He left in January 2019 to join the Company of Biologists as a Reviews Editor.

Bethany Harker

Bethany spent the last two years of her PhD (June 2015 until June 2017) as part of the Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD program in Cell Biology in our lab. She became a secondary school science teacher.

Bonnie Alver

Bonnie was a postdoc in the lab from January 2013 until September 2016. After a postdoc at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA, she earnt her degree in nursing and is now a qualified Nurse Practioner in Minnesota.

Nadine Vincenten

Nadine was a Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD student and associate in the lab from 2009 - 2015.  After a postdoc in the lab of Nancy Kleckner, Harvard University, she is now Scientific Liason at the Personal Genetics Education Project, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA.

Eris Duro

Eris was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Associate in the lab from 2010-2015. He was a Fellow of the Saltire Foundation and is now an Innovation Consultant with Oakland Innovation, Cambridge, UK.

Colette Connor

Colette was a PhD student in the lab from 2011-2015. She left to take up a position as a scientist at the Scottish Rural College and is now a Senior Assay Development Scientist at LumiraDx, North Lanarkshire, UK.

Claudia Schaffner

Claudia was a postdoc in the lab from 2012-2014. After continuing her postdoc studies in Achim Schnaufer's lab, Ashworth laboratories, University of Edinburgh, she become Building Manager for Ashworth Laboratories. In 2019 she took on the role of Technical Services and Buildings Manager for the School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

Karolina Lesniewska

Karolina joined the lab for a short term (6 month) postdoc in 2014 upon completion of her PhD in our neighbour's (Hiro Ohkura) lab to generate some tools. She now has a Scientist II position at Merck in Glasgow.

Kitty Verzijlbergen

Kitty was an EMBO long term postdoctoral fellow in the lab from 2011-2014.  After continuing her postdoc studies in the lab of Fred van Leeuwen, Netherlands Cancer Institute, she is now a Lecturer in Molecular Biology at University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Leiden).

Olga Nerusheva

Olga was a PhD student in the lab from 2008-2012 and a postdoc from 2012-2013. She left to take up a postdoc in the lab of Bungo Akiyoshi, University of Oxford. Currently taking a career break.

Josefin Fernius

Josefin was a postdoc in the lab from 2008-2012. After a postdoc in the lab of Stefan Thor, Linköping, Sweden, she took up a position as Research Coordinator in the Grants Office at the University of Linköping.

Farid Bizzari

Farid was a PhD student in the lab from 2007-2011. After his PhD, Farid was a postdoc in the lab of Sarah McClelland, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Current position unknown.

Dean Clift

Dean was a PhD student in the lab from 2006-2010. Dean was a postdoc with Melina Schuh at the MRC LMB in Cambridge and is now an Investigator Scientist in the group of Leo James at the MRC LMB in Cambridge.

Naoka Tamura

Naoka was an MRes student in the lab from 2008-2009. After carrying our her PhD work in the lab of Viji Draviam in Cambridge, she joined the lab of Sarah McClelland, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London as a postdoc. She is now a Clinical Data Analyst at GSK.

Pia Rengtved Lundegaard

Pia was a technician in the lab from 2006-2007. PhD left the lab to begin a PhD at Neurosearch (Denmark) and the University of Edinburgh with Elizabeth Patton. Pia is now Assistant Professor in Membrane Cardiology and Membrane Proteins at the University of Copenhagen.

Current lab members

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