Group members
Anna Wingate (2010-present)
Mrs Anna Wingate is the Laboratory Manager.
She completed her MSc in Medical Molecular Biology at Westminster University and an MSc in Microbiology at University of Gdansk.
Karolina Nowakowska (2014-present)
Dr Karolina Nowakowska is a Research Fellow and was awarded her PhD in 2018 from The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
At UCL, she is continuing her work trying to identify rare populations of cells within prostate cancer samples, that may be a starting point for the development of castration resistant prostate cancer.
Anu Jayaram (2016-present)
Dr Anuradha Jayaram is a clinical research fellow working on liquid biopsies to define the evolutionary complexities that underlie drug resistance and molecularly characterize prostate cancer.
She completed her medical degree at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in 2006.
She was recently awarded with Professor Attard funding from Prostate Cancer UK to run a clinical trial using plasma DNA called PARADIGM.
Larissa Mendes (2017-present)
Dr Larissa Mendes is a Clinical Research Fellow working with the STRATOSPHERE Consortium.
Larissa completed her medical degree in 2007 and her specialisation in Pathology in 2012 both in Brasilia, Brazil.
Mahedi Hasan (2018-present)
Dr A M Mahedi Hasan is a Research Fellow/Computational Biologist who is working on interpreting genomic and transcriptomic data from plasma samples and tumours with carefully annotated clinical follow-up data.
He obtained his PhD in 2015 from the University of Edinburgh and was a postdoc there (2015-2018). He also earned his Associate Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy.
Mazlina Ismail (2018-present)
Dr Mazlina Ismail is a computational Research Fellow who is currently working on transcriptomics data in order to understand the mechanisms of treatment resistance in men with prostate cancer.
She obtained her PhD from University College London in 2018.
Daniel Wetterskog (2014-present)
Dr Daniel Wetterskog is a Senior Research Fellow in charge of project supervision and development of methods for interrogation of clinical samples with a focus on cell free DNA found in plasma.
He completed his PhD in 2008 at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He held prior post-doctoral positions at the Institute of Cancer Research, London and at the UCL Cancer Institute.
Emily Grist (2015-present)
Dr Emily Grist obtained her PhD in 2022 and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the group, funded by a PCF Young Investigator Award.
She completed her medical degree in 2009 at the University of Southampton and her specialisation at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Medical Oncology.
Emily has a keen interest in patient and public engagement, speaking at both the Pint of Science Festival and a British Science Association event.
Anjui Wu (2016-present)
Dr Anjui Wu is a Research Fellow and co-founder and CEO of Cansor. He is working on methylation in prostate cancer.
He completed his PhD in 2019 in the group and obtained his Medical Degree from the National Taiwan University in 2013.
Blanca Trujillo (2018-present)
Dr Blanca Trujillo is a CRUK funded clinical research fellow working on the development of liquid biopsy in prostate cancer and the mechanisms of resistance that underlie progression.
She completed her medical degree in 2012 in Madrid and her training as a Medical Oncologist in 2018 in Toledo.
Suparna Thakali (2019-present)
Miss Suparna Thakali is a Research Assistant. A major component of her role involves supporting the ReIMAGINE Prostate Cancer Risk Study through collection and processing of clinical trial samples in accordance to GCLP standards and regulations.
She obtained her BSc Hons in 2016 from the University of Kent.
Leila Zakka (2019-present)
Leila Zakka is a Senior Scientist with Cansor.
She completed her MSc at the University of Szeged, Hungary, then she obtained a PhD at the same university.
Sharan Lall (2019-present)
Miss Sharan Lall is a senior technician processing samples as part of the STAMPEDE clinical trial and supporting other projects going on in the lab.
She obtained her Bsc from the University of Coventry in 2009.
Miriam Goncalves (2019-present)
Mrs. Goncalves is a research technician. Her role currently involves supporting the ReIMAGINE Prostate Cancer Risk Study through collection and processing of clinical trial samples in accordance to GCLP standards and regulations.
She obtained her BSc Hons in 2008 in Brazil.
Osvaldas Vainauskas (2020-present)
Osvaldas Vainauskas is a CRUK-funded PhD student in Bioinformatics, developing pipelines for multi-comic approaches to study advanced prostate cancer using liquid biopsies.
Osvaldas completed his Biology degree in 2017 at the University of Alicante. He went into the industry for a year, and completed his Masters’ degree in 2019 at the University of Murcia.
Stefanie Friedrich (2020-present)
Dr Stefanie Friedrich is a Research Fellow and computational biologist. She is working on identifying patterns and establishing benchmarks related to cancer treatment resistance.
Stefanie obtained her PhD in 2020 The University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Ariadna Camacho (2022-present)
Ariadne Camacho is a Research Assistant working on the ReImagine trial.
She obtained her BSc from Middlesex University in 2020, then worked in industry specialising in NGS between 2020 and 2022.
Nicole Brighi (2019-present)
Dr Nicole Brighi is a Medical Oncologist who was awarded an ESMO Translational Research Fellowship in 2022 working on a high sensitivity bespoke liquid biopsy analysis to characterize and track cabazitaxel-resistant clones in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
She completed her Medical Degree in 2011, her Medical Oncology training in 2018 and was awarded her PhD in 2022, all from The University of Bologna.
Charles Parker (2020-present)
Dr Charles Parker is a Clinical Research Training Fellow working on digital analysis of histological features to improve the prognostic information yield from patient biopsies, and the integration of morphological assessment and genomic data.
Charles obtained his medical degree in 2013 from the University of Cambridge with an intercalated BA (Hons) in Clinical Pathology. He did his histopathology training in Edinburgh.
Stefano Lise (2020-present)
Dr Stefano Lise is a Principal Research Fellow in Computational Biology, managing the team of bioinformaticians.
Stefano obtained his PhD in 1998 from The University of Trieste, Italy and his MRes from UCL in 2003. He has held previously held positions at ICR, the University of Oxford, UCL and Imperial College London.
Gianmarco Leone (2020-present)
Dr Gianmarco Leone is a Clinical Research Fellow, involved in different projects for the development of liquid biopsies in prostate cancer.
Gianmarco completed his medical degree in 2015 at the University of Catania and Medical Oncology training at the University of Turin.