Current Team
Dr Matthew Reeves
Principal Investigator
Reader/Associate Professor of Molecular Virology
Matthew trained with Profs. John Sinclair and Patrick Sissons at the University of Cambridge before leaving for the States on a Presidential Fellowship to work with Prof. Teresa Compton at Novartis in Cambridge, MA. He returned to the UK and Cambridge with the support of a prestigious MRC Career Development Fellowship and subsequently transferred that to UCL in 2013 where he established his laboratory in the CMV research group based in Institute of Immunity & Transplantation. Although his consistent focus has been the molecular basis of HCMV latency and reactivation he remains interested how the virus manipulates the host cell in all phases of infection and why our immune system controls but does not sterilise HCMV infections.
Dr Anastasia Lankina
Post Doctoral Fellow
Ana joined the lab as a joint BBSRC PhD student with Judy Breuer and will stay on as a Post Doctoral researcher where she will combine in silico approaches with wet lab experimentation to understand the importance of gB domains for infection and immune control. Ana is currently focused on understanding the importance of AD6 in gB - both from an immunological and functional point of view.
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Ana hails from Russia and thus feels none of us really know what cold is! We have yet to establish whether Ana likes vodka or not. This seems an oversight on our part...
Dr Ines Hofer
Post Doctoral Fellow
Ines joined the lab as BBSRC PhD student working on a collaborative project with Radu Zabet at QMUL. Ines hails from Austria and joins the lab with a background in forensic science.
For her Post Doc, Ines will be working on a project that combines bioinformatics, systems biology approaches to the study of chromatin conformation and virology to understand the fundamental principles governing haematopoietic cell fate and how a virus may help understand this.
Aisha re-joins the lab after her MSc project to continue her work on HCMV reactivation and, specifically, to investigate the molecular mechanisms that control reactivation in dendritic cells. Aisha's project is seeking to understand how src family kinase signalling translates into the recruitment of histone acetyltransferase activity to MIEP.
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Aisha is sponsored by a Qatar Embassy Scholarship and it appears will be bringing dates (the food not escorts!) to the lab on a regular basis. Also it has become clear recently that you have to be careful playing Uno against Aisha.
Aisha Fakhroo
PhD student - Qatar Embassy Scholarship
Alexander Hargreaves
PhD student - MRC DTP
Al joins from the MRC DTP Experimental Medicine Stream to work on the AD6 domain of gB and, specifically, to investigate the importance of this domain for the function of gB.
Dr Yashgin Hassanzadeh
Post Doctoral Fellow
Yashgin completed her PhD studying the nature of immune responses directed against HCMV in transplantation including a stint with us a visiting researcher. Yashgin has now returned to work on a project looking to identify important immune responses that are crucial for the control of BK virus infection in our renal transplant patients.
Alice Ringlstetter
Research Technician
Alice is the most recent recruit to the lab with a bit of an international background encompassing continental Europe and America. Alice joins as a research technician who will support ongoing research into the molecular details of HCMV latency and reactivation.
Alice's arrival means that the Boss is possibly not the tallest in the lab!
Dr Stephanie Chong
Clinical PhD student
Stephanie is a Specialist Registrar in Nephrology who is interested in viral factors that promote Kidney disease and graft rejection in transplant patients.
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Stephanie was also a Clinical Lecturer during which time she generated the pilot data for her successful PhD Studentship application. Stephanie will be supported by the Royal Free Charity to investigate the role of BK polyoma virus in kidney disease. This is an exciting collaboration between ourselves and the Division of Renal Medicine and seeks to shed new light on an increasingly important medical problem.
Dr Yashgin Hassanzadeh
Post Doctoral Fellow
Yashgin recently completed her PhD studying immune determinants important for predicting risk of HCMV disease in transplant patients.
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After first joining us a visiting researcher during her PhD, Yashgin now joins to work on a Post Doctoral project looking to identify important antibody responses important for the control of BK virus infection in renal transplant patients.