Previous Lab Members

Nic Liew

DPhil. 2019-2023
e-mail: nicole.liew@stcatz.ox.ac.uk

Nicole graduated from Homerton College, Cambridge reading Biological Natural Science in 2018. She also worked in Imperial College London on a zebrafish parasitic infection disease model. She worked in the Raff lab as part of the Wellcome Trust Development and Chromosome Biology DPhil program, on the processes governing centriole dynamics in Drosophila embryos

Tess Harrison

MPhil. 2021-2022
Linkedin: Tess Harrison
e-mail: harrisont10@cardiff.ac.uk

Tess initially worked in the commercial application of iPSCs before starting her BSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Manchester (2018-2021). During her degree, Tess competed in 2019 Manchester iGEM team, achieving gold and a nomination for best new application. Following her degree, Tess worked for the Caswell Lab investigating Rab11 proteins while developing associated tools. Tess joined the Raff lab in October 2021 where she investigated core centriole components and in vitro centrosome assembly. Tess is currently pursuing a PhD developing four wave mixing microscopy for correlative light electron microscopy in the Borri and Verkade labs on the SWBio DTP program.

Thomas Steinacker

DPhil. 2017-2021
Linkedin: Thomas Steinacker
e-mail: thomas.steinacker@imba.oeaw.ac.at

Thomas obtained his BSc in Food and Biotechnology at the BOKU (Vienna) and his MSc in Molecular Medicine at the University of Vienna. During his Master thesis at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) he specialised in developmental biology and in how miRNAs can contribute to tissue- and organ complexity. In 2016, Thomas already visited the Raff lab for a summer internship, and has now re-joined the research group for a 4-year DPhil, where he aims to further investigate the dynamics of centriolar proteins. Thomas is now a Post-doc in the lab of Daniel Gerlich in Vienna.

Laura Hankins

DPhil. 2017-2021
Linkedin: Laura H
e-mail: laura.hankins@path.ox.ac.uk

Laura completed a BA in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford in 2016. During her degree, she undertook a summer placement in Jonathan Ewbank’s lab at Aix-Marseilles University, working with C. elegans as a disease model. Finals didn’t put her off Oxford, and she has stayed on at the university for her graduate studies. After a year of lab rotations as part of the Wellcome Trust’s 4-year DPhil in Chromosome and Developmental Biology, she settled in the Raff Lab where she worked on centriole biogenesis. Laura is now the Science Communications Officer at the Company of Biologists.

Mo Mofatteh

Post-Doc 2018-2021
Linkedin: Dr Mohammad Mofatteh
e-mail: mohammad.mofatteh@path.ox.ac.uk

Mo graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Biomedical Science from King’s College London in 2014, and he started a tour of the UK fly labs by working on Drosophila neurodegeneration with Prof Guy Tear. During his undergraduate studies, Mo also worked with Prof Daniel St Johnston at the Gurdon Institute. While at the Gurdon, Mo saw Prof Jordan Raff’s portrait on the wall and decided to do his post-doc in the Raff lab. To achieve his goal, Mo needed a PhD, so he was awarded an MRC-Cambridge International Trust PhD Scholarship in 2014 to study mRNA localisation and posttranscriptional modification in Drosophila neurons under the mentorship of Dr Simon Bullock at the LMB. Mo completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2018, and he joined the Raff team in June 2018 to study centrioles and cell cycle. In 2019, Mo was awarded a BTH Junior Research Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences at Lincoln College where he was a full member of the College Senior Common Room. Mo was also a Lecturer in Human Anatomy at Merton College Oxford. Mo is now studying medicine and training to become a Neurosurgeon.

Edward Rea

Linkedin: Ed-Rea
e-mail: erea@brookes.ac.uk

Ed graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2017, with an MSci in Biochemistry and Genetics. He continued his master's work in Prof. Rita Tewari's lab for an extra year, investigating key cell cycle proteins involved in Plasmodium cell division. Ed worked in the Raff lab to understand the dynamics of centriole assembly. He is now the Light microscopy specialist at the Oxford Brookes Centre for Bioimaging.

Ines Alvarez Rodrigo

DPhil. 2016-2020
e-mail: ines.alvarezrodrigo@crick.ac.uk

Ines obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences (Hons: Genetics) at the University of Edinburgh (2011 – 2015). She carried out summer internships in the Leigh Brown lab at the University of Edinburgh, and in the Lindon lab as part of the Cambridge Amgen Scholars Programme 2014. She did her DPhil in the Raff lab as part of the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD Programme in Chromosome and Developmental Biology. Ines studied how centrosome assembly is regulated. She is now a Post-doc with JP Vicente at the Crick.

Yanis Guimard

Research Software Engineer 2019-2020
Gihthub:yanisguimard
e-mail:

Yanis is a computer science graduate from Imperial College London (MSc) and Paris Dauphine PSL University (BSc) interested in data-driven approaches to scientific problems. In the lab, he is researched and implemented statistical/machine learning tools to help solve problems in fundamental biology related to centrosomes. Yanis is now doing a PhD with the Observatoire de Paris.

Andreas Haensele

'Associate' Raff Lab member
DPhil. 2016-2020
Linkedin: andreas-hänsele
e-mail: andreas.haensele@path.ox.ac.uk

Andreas obtained an MBiochem in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford (2012-2016). His Master’s dissertation in Stuart Ferguson’s and Susan Lea’s labs focused on providing a structural understanding of heme d(1) synthesis in denitrifying bacteria. In 2016, he returned to Susan Lea’s lab as a Clarendon Scholar. In close collaboration with the Raff lab, he worked on understanding centrosome assembly from a structural perspective.

Mustafa Aydogan

DPhil. 2015-2019
e-mail: mustafa.aydogan@ucsf.edu

Mustafa studied for a BA in cell biology at the University of Colorado – Boulder where he completed his thesis work in cilia field, working closely with Andreas Hoenger, J. Richard McIntosh and Natalie G. Ahn. As a member of the Raff Lab as a DPhil student, he worked on the principles of centriole biogenesis. In particular, he discovered that an autonomous clock controls the timing of centriole formation – independently of, but in entrainment with, the principal Cdk/Cyclin cell-cycle oscillator. He has established his own laboratory at UCSF as a Sandler Faculty, and will continue to explore whether other such autonomous clocks exist in the cell.

Lisa Gartenmann

DPhil. 2015-2019
Linkedin: Lisa-Gartenmann
e-mail: lisagartenmann@gmail.com

Lisa did her BSc in Biology and Chemistry at University College Utrecht in the Netherlands. Thereafter she undertook a 9 month internship in Prof. Caflisch’s group at the University of Zurich in the field of biochemistry. Lisa worked on developing super-resolution techniques to investigate centrosome formation. Lisa now works as a Life Science Consulting at L.E.K

Anna Caballe

Post-Doc 2016-2019
Linkedin: Anna-Caballe-uk
e-mail: anna.caballe@gmail.com

Anna obtained a BSc in Human Biology and MSc in Biomedical Research from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. In 2014, she received a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from King’s College London for her work in Prof Martin-Serrano’s lab on the regulation of mammalian cytokinesis by the ESCRT machinery and associated abscission checkpoint proteins. Anna joined the Raff lab in January 2016 and investigated the molecular networks controlling centrosome assembly, mainly in syncytial Drosophila embryos. Anna was an active member of the Dunn School Postdoc Association and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. Anna is now a grant writer at Oxford Nanoimaging (ONI).

Violet Feng

Zhe (Violet) Feng

DPhil/Post-doc 2011-2017
Linkedin: Zhe-Feng
e-mail: violetfengzhe@163.com

Violet studied for a BSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London. She joined the Raff lab as a 4 year DPhil student, working closely with Susan Lea’s lab and investigated the structural biology of several key PCM components in Drosophila. Violet is a now tenure track young investigator at Fudan University China.

Helio Roque

Post-Doc 2010-2017
Linkedin: helioroque
e-mail: helioduarteroque@gmail.com

Helio did his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon were he also worked as a trainee at Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He then went to Heidelberg – Germany to do his Ph.D. at the EMBL. In 2010 he joined the Raff Lab for his Post-Doc where he became founding member of "Team Cilia". Helio now works as a Patent Technician at Pons IP.

Metta Pratt

DPhil. 2012-2016
Linkedin: Metta-Pratt
e-mail: metta.pratt@path.ox.ac.uk

Metta did her undergraduate degree in Groningen in Pharmacy. She studied for her Masters in Medical and Pharmaceutical Drug Innovation in Groningen, and joined the Raff lab as a visiting student. Metta liked the lab so much that she has returned to the Raff lab became a fully fledged DPhil. student as part of the Dunn School DPhil programme working on cilia assemmbly in Drosophila. Metta now works as a simulation director at Labster.

Matthew Cottee

DPhil 2010-2015
Linkedin: Matthew-Cottee
e-mail: matthew.cottee@crick.ac.uk

Matthew studied for an undergraduate MBiochem degree at Oxford. As part of his 4th year master’s project, Matthew worked in the Dunn School under Professor Susan Lea, on structural characterisation of bacterial Type 3 Secretion System proteins. After sharing lab space with the Raff lab during this time, Matthew inevitably joined the group in late 2010 for a 4 year DPhil project, working closely with the Lea lab where he investigated the structural biology of centriole components in Drosophila. Matt is now working as a post-doc in Ian Taylor's lab at the Crick

Boris Sieber

Msc (Geneva) 2014-2015
Linkedin: Boris-Sieber
e-mail: boris.sieber@path.ox.ac.uk

Boris did his BSc in Biology at University of Geneva and has already completed the theoretical courses in Geneva for an MSc in biology. He has joined the Raff lab for one year for his practical dissertation, working on the regulation of centriole formation and the dynamic localisation of centrosomal proteins. Boris is now doing a DPhil in the Freeman lab

Sam Barry

Post-Doc 2015
Linkedin: Sam-Borrett
e-mail: scienceysphynx@gmail.com

Sam did her undergraduate degree in Biomedical science at Lancaster University. She then trained as a Biomedical Scientist in the Virology section of Public Health England. Sam carried out her PhD research at Oxford Brookes University in the Vaughan Lab, looking at flagellum and basal body biogenesis in Trypanosomes. She joined the Raff lab in 2015 as a post doc interested in using volumetric electron microscopy techniques to elucidate the ultrastructure of cilia and centrioles in wild type and mutant Drosophila. She now works as an animal care instructor at Abingdon and Witney College.

Paul Conduit

Post-Doc 2010-2014
Linkedin: Paul-Conduit
e-mail: ptc29@cam.ac.uk

Paul Conduit did his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham from 2001-2004 and went on to work with John Kilmartin at the LMB-MRC as a research assistant from 2004-2006. He did his PhD with Jordan Raff from 2006 to 2010 investigating the regulation of centrosome size in Drosophila and continued in the lab as a post-doc investigating the regulation of PCM recruitment to the centrosome. Paul now runs his own lab at the University of Cambridge investigating the role of gamma-TuRCs and MTOCs in development.

Jenny Richens

Post-Doc 2008-2014

Jenny did her BA and MSci at the University of Cambridge from 2000-2004. She then went on to do a PhD at the John Innes Centre in Norwich on the Medicago truncatula – Sinorhizobium meliloti nitrogen fixing symbiosis in the labs of Prof. Allan Downie, and Dr Giles Oldroyd. This was completed shortly before she joined the Raff lab in September 2008. Jenny's work in the Raff Lab focused on how various components of the centrosome interact with one another. Jenny now works as a post-doc in the St. Johnson lab at the Gurdon Institue in Cambridge.

Nadine Muschalik

Post-Doc 2011-2014
e-mail: muschalik@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk

Nadine did her PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. She joined the Raff lab as a post-doc in May 2011 and her research focused on the structure and regulation of centriole components. Nadine is now working as a post-doc in Sean Munro's lab at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge

Janina Baumbach

DPhil. 2009-2013
Linkedin: Janina-Baumbach
e-mail: janinabaumbach@googlemail.com

Janina did her undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany. After doing her masters project at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, she joined the Raff lab to do her DPhil in 2009. Her research focused on understanding the regulation of PCM recruitment to the centrosome. Janina is now working as Laboratory Officer in Charge in Martin Beck’s lab at EMBL.

Catarina Vicente

DPhil. 2009-2013
Linkedin: Catarina-Vicente
e-mail: catarina.vicente@path.ox.ac.uk

Catarina did a Genetics degree at the University of York from 2005-2009, with a placement year at Imperial College. She started her PhD as part of the Wellcome Trust Chromosome and Developmental Biology PhD programme in Oxford in October 2009, and after a rotation year did her D.Phil in the Raff lab. Catarina now works as the Science Strategy and Projects Manager at the Dunn School.

Anna Franz

DPhil. 2006-2012
Linkedin: Anna-Franz
e-mail: a.franz@ucl.ac.uk

Anna did her undergraduate studies in Heidelberg and went as an Erasmus student to Durham. She then moved to Cambridge to do do her PhD in the Raff lab as part of the Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD programme. She is studied the role of the novel centrosomal protein CP110 in centriole duplication and centrosome maturation. Anna now runs her own lab at UCL investigating the functions of motile adipocytes in wound healing and cancer.

Richard Reschen

DPhil. 2007-2012
Linkedin: richardreschen
e-mail: richard.reschen@innovation.ox.ac.uk

Richard did his undergraduate degree at the University of Durham before completing his Masters degree in Bioscience Enterprise at the University of Cambridge. After 3 years as a Business Development Manager for the University of Cambridge he joined Jordan’s lab as a PhD student. Richard worked on the link between DNA repair and centrosomes and on the role of an enigmatic protein in PCM recruitment, Grp71. Richard is now working as a Principal Licensing & Ventures Manager at Oxford University Innovation , the University of Oxford’s Technology Transfer office

Kathrin Brunk

Post-Doc 2007-2010
Linkedin: Kathrin-Brunk
e-mail: K.brunk@dkfz.de

Kathrin studied Biochemistry in Halle (Germany) (1997-2002) and after graduating moved to the UK to study for a PhD as part of the White Rose PhD Initiative at the University of Leeds (2003-2007). Working in the labs of Andrew Jackson (Leeds) and Phillip Ingham (Sheffield) she was studying the role of MCPH1 in Drosophila mitosis. In 2007 she joined the Raff lab as a post-doc and investigated the role of centrosome amplification in tumorigenesis in flies. She now works as a Scientific Coordinator at DKFZ German Cancer Research Center

Naomi Stevens

PhD. 2005-2009
Linkedin: Naomi-Stevens
e-mail: nstevens@boult.com

Naomi studied for a BA at Cambridge University from 2002-2005. She was accepted onto the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in Developmental Biology and after 3 rotation projects she chose the Raff lab for her PhD thesis. She was awarded the BSCB Beddington Medal for her PhD, having worked both on the molecules involved in regulating centriole duplication and on the functions of the centriole in early Drosophila development. Naomi is now a Patent Attorney based in Cambridge.

Jeroen Dobbelaere

Post-Doc. 2005-2009
Linkedin: Jeroen-Dobbelaere
e-mail: Jeroen email address

After studying Biochemistry in Belgium, in 2000 Jeroen went to the ETH Zürich (Switzerland) to do a PhD in the lab of Yves Barral studying the role of septins in cytokinesis in budding yeast. In 2005, he moved to the UK to work on centrosomes and in particular on centrosome maturation. Jeroen left the lab at the end of 2009 to move to Vienna, where he is continuing his work at the MFPL.

Juliet Barrows

Lab Manager. 2008-2009
e-mail: Juliet email address

Juliet’s working life has encompassed the voluntary sector, town planning and the arts world. She has a degree in Fine Art and an NVQ in architectural carving. She has worked for the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge since 1997.

Carly Dix

PhD. 2004-2008
Linkedin: Carly-Dix

Carly was born in Essex, UK and did her undergraduate studies at UCL in London. After graduating in 2003 she began her PhD studies as part of the Wellcome Trust four year PhD programme in Developmental Biology. In 2004 Carly joined the Raff lab full-time for her PhD, which she completed in August 2008. Carly’s research focused on understanding how factors required for PCM recruitment co-operate to build a mature centrosome in mitosis. Carly is now working as a Senior Research Scientist at AstraZeneca in Cambridge.

Renata Basto

Renato Basto

Post-Doc. 200?-200?
Linkedin: Renata-Basto
e-mail: renata.basto@curie.fr

Renata now runs her own group at the Institut Curie in Paris. Her lab are interested in understanding how centrosomes and cilia regulate various cellular processes and how these influence development, proliferation and the establishment of diseases.

Jun-Yong Huang

Post-Doc. 1995-2003
Linkedin: Jun-Yong-Huang
e-mail: junyong.huang@ncl.ac.uk

Jun-Yong did his PhD at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China from 1986-1990 and was a Post-Doc with Trevor Jowett at the University of Newcastle from 1992-1995, and then stayed in Jordan's lab from 1995-2003 as a Post-Doc. He set up his own lab at the University of Newcastle, UK in 2003. His laboratory focuses on mitosis and is currently trying to understand and dissect the mechanism of spindle checkpoint using Drosophila as model organism.

Fanni Gergely

PhD. 1998 - 2001
e-mail: fanni.gergely@cruk.cam.ac.uk

Since summer 2006 Fanni has run her own lab at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute. Her group aim to understand the normal behaviour of the microtubule cytoskeleton both in cell division and tissue organisation, and its perturbation in cancer.

Nina Peel

PhD. 2003-2007
Linkedin: nina-peel
e-mail: peeln@tcnj.edu

Nina was awarded her MSci from the University of Glasgow in 2002. She subsequently joined the Wellcome Trust PhD programme in Cambridge, doing her thesis work with Jordan Raff from 2003-2007. In 2007 Nina moved to the NIH, Bethesda, USA to take up a post-doc position with Kevin O'Connell. She now has her own lab at the College of New Jersey.

Maruxa Martinez-Campos

PhD. 2001-2004
Linkedin: maruxamartinez
e-mail: maruxa_m_c@yahoo.com

Maruxa left Jordan's lab after obtaining her PhD to spend two years in London working as an Editor for Genome Biology. She enjoyed it nearly as much as being in the Raff lab, but decided it was time to move back to sunny Spain. She is currently working as a science communicator/editor in front of the beach, at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB). She is in charge of writing the monthly newspaper el·lipse, which she highly recommends you to read! Maruxa is now Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra - UPF

Gill Howard

Lab Manager 2007-2008
e-mail: gh318@cam.ac.uk

Gill did her FIMLS in Cellular Pathology and MSc in Applied Immunology whilst working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1978-1988) and has also worked at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and Baxter AG in Vienna. Was a member of the Raff lab from July 2007- Sept. 2008. Gill is now working at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge.

Teresa Barros

PhD. 2002-2006
Linkedin: teresabarros
e-mail: teresa.pereiradebarros@admin.cam.ac.uk

Teresa studied Microbiolgy and Genetics at University of Lisbon. After graduating in 2001 she began her PhD studies as part of the GABBA Program (Graduate Program in Areas of Basic and Applied Biology) at University of Porto. She was awarded a PhD scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and joined the Raff lab to study D-TACC involvement in microtubule stabilization. Teresa completed her PhD in 2006. She then joined Summit plc (formerly DanioLabs), a drug discovery company. Teresa now works as a Research Contracts Manager at Cambridge University.

Eliana Lucas

PhD. 2003-2007
Linkedin: eliana-p-lucas

Eliana is the Assistant Professor in Cell Biology at Universidad CEU San Pablo

Mike Lee

PhD. 1999-2003
Linkedin: Michael-Lee

After completing his PhD in 2003 Mike took up a position as a Senior Research Scientist at AstraZeneca in Loughborough, UK. His current research focuses on early stage drug discovery in the area of respiratory and inflammatory disorders. Mike is now Head of Improvement & Master Black Belt designate - Supply Chain HQ at Rolls-Royce

Joyce Lau

MPhil 2003-2007
e-mail: chaksum@gmail.com

Joyce graduated in University of Southampton in 2002 and was a technician in Jordan Raff's lab from 2003-2007. She did an MPhil in Jordan's lab from 2005-2006. She has returned to Hong Kong and is doing leukemia research in the University of Hong Kong.

James Wakefield

PhD. 1996-1999
Linkedin: James-Wakefield
e-mail: J.G.Wakefield@exeter.ac.uk

James is now Professor and Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology at Exeter University where his lab is interested in the microtubules of the mitotic spindle and central spindle.

Kim Jeffers

Lab Manager 1997 - 2000
Linkedin: kimjeffers
e-mail: family@jeffers.id.au

Kim joined the Raff lab from Australia in 1997 as Jordan’s first ever technician. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief as there was now someone to knock over the ever increasing numbers of fly stocks. When not organising the smooth running of the laboratory, Kim spent her time attaching GFP to everything Jordan could think of. After nearly 3 ½ years Kim returned to Australia and is currently working for Zoetis as a Virologist researching and developing viral vaccines for domestic and companion animals.