October 2017
Welcome
Hello to Lily, Stephanie and Declan who are undergraduate students who will join us for the research projects. Good luck!
Matt in Tuebingen, Germany
Matt has been to Tuebingen to tell them all about our work on HCMV. He was hosted by Professor Gerhard Jahn and got a shock when at the end of the talk the room banged the tables before remembering German audiences don't clap!
Funding news
We were pleased to hear that the Rosetrees and Stoneygate Trusts have agreed to co-fund studies that will address two important questions regarding the protective response elicited by the vaccine. This work will also be supported by the Royal Free Charity and will hopefully shed new light to drive forward vaccine studies of HCMV.
September 2017
New paper published
More research has been published. This time in Frontiers In Microbiology where Jo Pocock et al have investigated the how HCMV promotes neutrophil survival upon infection. This work was the product of a conversation between Andy Cowburn (Chilvers lab) and Matt many years ago. Jo won an MRC CTRF to continue the work and it's great to see it published.
July 2017
Matt & Matt at Ghent, IHW
Both Matt's represented the lab at this years IHW - The boss gave a talk on ERK5 in the satellite workshop and Matt presented a poster in the main meeting. Matt R also chaired the latency session and was possibly over-zealous with the time-keeping on the talks!
Funding news
Great to hear that the lab's application for an MRC CiC award has been successful. This is the product of great collaboration with Richard Angell in UCL Chemistry and will fund important studies to investigate the mechanism of action of a novel class of anti-virals.
Matt wins Prize for Talk
Well done, Matt. He was awarded the prize for best talk at the annual UCL PhD student colloquium. all the talks represented the excellent work that is carried out at UCL in Infection & Immunity.
June 2017
Dr Ilona! and many goodbyes!
Well done Ilona Baraniak who passed her PhD viva pending minor corrections. She was examined by Profs. Eleanor Riley (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Judy Breuer (UCL). Now to celebrate on the booze cruise and also at the same time say goodbye to Henry Blest, Mani and Kevin, Lauren and Femke. We also say goodbye to Sneha who has taken a position with Terry Rabbitts in Oxford taking her closer to her husband. Good luck for the future all!
May 2017
New members in the lab
Megan and Claire join the lab this month. Megan joins us from Imperial and will work on the Wellcome project and, similarly, Claire will provide project management and all round knowhow for the project as well!
Also welcome to our MSc students, Mani and Kevin. If ever there was a double act and I hear Mani writes his own electronic music and Kevin does the dancing! Finally, we welcome Henry Blest and Lauren to the lab for some summer hard work!
Matt, Matt, Ilona & Paul attend CMV meeting, Holland
A good showing from the CMV lab at the biannual CMV meeting. Always good to re-visit old friendships and make new collaborations. The Boss was particularly pleased to find a bowling alley in the basement of the hotel that delivered beer! Is this the Utopia Milton spoke of?
April 2017
New Papers
Good news as 4 publications came out this month and reflect a productive collaboration with Mark Wills in Cambridge and one with Blair Strang at St Georges. A paper detailing the role of ERK in HCMV induced survival of CD34+ cells was published in J. Mol. Biochem. along with an editorial from the boss. Alongside this we have published our study of the effect of LPS on monocytes in the context of HCMV infection. This work was published in Scientific Reports. Finally, Blair has identified a role for a family of kinase inhibitors in lytic infection which we contributed our expertise in Chromatin to. This study was published in Journal of General Virology.
Welcome
Dr Sneha Anand joins the lab to investigate cyclophilins and HCMV as part of a larger project with Greg Towers funded by the BRC. Also Femke Grute comes as an ERASMUS student to study HCMV and the use of epigenetic modifiers to trigger HCMV reactivation.
December 2016
Funding news
Great news from the Wellcome Trust. They have agreed to fund a Collaborative Grant to study the pathogenesis of HCMV in transplant patients. This is an exciting collaboration between colleagues at UCL, Cardiff (Gavin Wilkinson), Cambridge (Mark Wills) and Glasgow (Andrew Davison). This was led by Paul and represents over £2.5m of funding. A number of positions will be available on the grant at the different sites so keep an eye out!
October, 2016
Lots of new people!
A busy month this month with lots of incomings for research projects. Welcome to Charles, Chinedu, Bethany and Henry who will be working on a host of projects covering interferons, cell death, chromatin and DNA replication.
July, 2016
Reeves lab at the IHW, Madison, USA
It's that time again - This time the IHW is in Madison, Wisconsin. Matt & Ilona sampled the delights of the Mid West. Note to self - never fly through Chicago in July. Thank god for Uber!
PhD application success
Well done to Michelle who has been selected for a PhD position in the lab of Andrew Macdonald at Leeds. She will study polyoma viruses in a fantastic training environment with a great mentor. Good luck Michelle and also good luck to Paula who leaves to start her PhD back home in her native Spain and Barcelona. We are also glad to hear Amy Jacob has also got a PhD position with Mike Nicol to work on HSV. Celebrations were held on the Heath. Still couldn't get a picture of St Paul's!
April, 2016
Matt on NIH Study Section
Matt has been asked to serve on an ad hoc basis on an NIH study panel. The NIH is the federal funding agency of US science and it is a great acknowledgement of the work of the lab to be asked to do this as a non-US citizen. We hope he can provide constructive membership and make sure the best science gets funded!
March, 2016
Paper published
Congratulations to Liane Dupont who has had her review on CMV latency and reactivation published in Reviews in Medical Virology.
Reeves lab at the Microbiology society meeting, Liverpool
Great talks from Ilona, Matt and Liane in the DNA virus session. The Microbiology Society workshops remain a great venue for young scientists to talk about their work and get great feedback from colleagues in the field.
New MSc students
Welcome to Michelle, Paula and Olivia to the lab. We are over run with MSc students this year but we will squeeze them in somehow. Good luck and happy 'sciencing'!
Judging by the photo we may have to work on the correct use of a hood!
January, 2016
Well done, Maria!
Maria has just had the amazing news she has been accepted onto the Wellcome Trust PhD programme at Cambridge. As well as a great accolade for Maria it also reflects well on the lab as both Matt & Nick were in on Sunday before the interview polishing Maria's talk with her to make sure she aced the real thing.
December, 2015
Dr Claire!
Congratulations to Claire who has successfully defended her thesis. Claire did her PhD whilst carrying out her job in the NHS and reflects a labour of love that has covered a lot of time and children! Claire was supervised by Paul and provides new insight into the potential to use dried blood spots to diagnose congenital HCMV infection for routine screening.
October, 2015
Welcome to the new students
Hello to undergraduates Maria and Jamal who are starting their research projects with us. Maria will work with Nick on HP1 and Jamal with the boss on new strategies to deliver anti-virals to cells.
June, 2015
Good luck to Liane and Janusha
We wish both Liane and Janusha good luck for the future. Liane goes to Cambridge to start her PhD and Janusha is taking a well earnt break! Liane wanted a nice picture of St Paul's before she left - unfortunately she failed to tell the camerawoman this. This highlights the importance of clear instructions!
February, 2015
New members!
The lab welcomes Matt Murray on an MRC rotation project, Dr Nick Peters an academic clinician with a history of the pox! and Janusha P an MSc student. Here's to happy working!
Interview success
Liane got the great news this morning that she has been accepted onto the Wellcome Trust PhD programme at Cambridge. Just reward for Liane who has realised her ambition.
October 2014
Paper News
Two papers to report this month. Firstly, there is a review on the role of dendritic cells in HCMV biology in Frontiers In Microbiology co-authored with John Sinclair. Secondly, there is a publication that shows rapamycin does not prevent HCMV reactivation in vitro. This study is the work of an undergraduate student with Matt when his lab was in Cambridge. A great return for Tom and his hard work.
All change!
We say goodbye to Gokhan who is off to pursue a PhD at Warwick university. He is being replaced by Liane who will work for a year towards her goal of getting on a PhD course. Finally, welcome to Daisy who is this years undergraduate student.
June 2014
Amy awarded Wellcome Summer Studentship
Congratulations to Amy Jacob who has been awarded an undergraduate Wellcome studentship to work in the Reeves lab on HCMV. She will investigate the interaction of HCMV with the cellular protein LRP1.
April 2014
Paper published
We got the exciting news this morning that PLoS Pathogens had accepted our paper for publication. The manuscript details the role of a kinase, MSK, in HCMV reactivation. The work represents a major part of Matt's fellowship.
Reeves lab at the UK Microbiology Society meeting
Ilona, Liane, Gokhan and Matt attended the Liverpool meeting as the Reeves UCL lab got its first public outing! A good time was had by all. Here's to many more.
Congratulations to Jessica
Well done Jessica. She received the exciting news she had been accepted onto the Edinburgh 4 Year PhD course for Infection & Immunity. Well done!