PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Professor Sir David Klenerman
David Klenerman's research is focused on developing and applying biophysical methods to biological and biomedical problems. His work using fluorescence and scanning probe microscopy has provided new insights into a variety of biomolecular complexes as well as the processes of protein folding and misfolding. David has also developed techniques to image individual protein complexes on the surface of living cells to follow the processes occurring as the adaptive immune response is triggered. These methods are now being used to study neurodegenerative disease.
David is a research fellow at the Royal Society, a fellow at the Academy of Medical Sciences and a fellow at Christ's College.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
Dr Evgenia Lobanova
Evgenia obtained her BSc degree in Physics from Moscow State University in 2012. In 2014, she received her MSc degree in Physics from the same university. Soon after graduation, Evgenia moved to Cardiff where in 2019 she completed her PhD degree (Oct. 2015 – Oct. 2019) from Cardiff University (the group of Prof Kathy Triantafilou and Dr Martha Triantafilou) focusing on quantitative chemical imaging and hyperspectral image analysis of post-mortem Alzheimer’s disease human brains with label-free Raman micro-spectroscopy. In January 2020, she joined the Klenerman lab as a postdoctoral research associate. At her current position, Evgenia is working on quantitative chemical imaging of
soluble individual protein aggregates in Parkinson’s disease using DNA PAINT and SiMPull techniques aiming to establish whether these methods could reveal useful neuroimaging biomarkers for early diagnosis.
Dr Jason Sang
Jason finished his undergraduate studies in Taiwan and subsequently received his PhD from the University of Cambridge (under the supervision of Professor David Klenerman), studying the mechanism of prion-like aggregation in vitro. He applied single-molecule fluorescence techniques to directly observe the fragmentation process of PrP. Extending from this observation, he quantitatively measured the aggregation kinetics of PrP and α-Synuclein and their mutants. Since 2018, Jason has been carried out his postdoctoral research in the same group, studying the aggregation in the cellular environment and how cellular clearance machinery alters the process.
Dr Yu Zhang
Yu is a post-doctoral researcher working on developing advanced single molecule techniques towards in-depth research of the molecular basis of major neurogenerative diseases. Before moving to Cambridge, where he worked under the joint supervision of Prof. David Klenerman and Dr Steven Lee, he studied nanomaterials at Imperial College, following my physics undergrad training in Durham. He is a loyal Overwatch Player, though his aim is terrible. (So, he play support)
Dr Ziwei Zhang
Ziwei is a post-doctoral researcher on a joint-project between the Klenerman’s group and the Laue group in the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge. He will be working on developing current light-sheet microscopes in the lab and then use them to perform 3D super-resolution imaging of proteins and other interesting biological samples. He has completed his degree in Physics at Imperial College London before coming to Cambridge. In his spare time, he enjoys painting, gaming and cooking.
Dr Debasis Banik
Debasis is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in the Klenerman group and currently working on developing an imaging-based ultrasensitive assay to monitor the early events of T cell-tumour interaction and identify the protein re-organization at interface. In his previous role at the Vanderbilt University, USA, he worked on single molecule and single-cell assays (single-molecule biophysics) to study the mechanobiology of T-cell receptor (TCR)-peptide major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) interaction using optical tweezers and fluorescence. He completed his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India in 2018. During PhD, he worked on single amino acid-based fibril formation and their inhibition.
Dr Georg Meisl
Georg is a postdoctoral researcher developing mathematical models of protein aggregation and neurodegenerative disease. He received his Msc in Chemistry and his PhD in biophysical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Following this, he was a Ramon Jenkins Research Fellow at Sidney Sussex College. Before joining the Klenerman group, Georg worked as a Principal Scientist in the pharmaceutical industry on the development of drugs against Parkinson's disease and ALS.
Dr Shekhar Kedia
Shekhar is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Klenerman's group. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience (2020) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India and was awarded a gold medal for his thesis. His research interests lie in understanding the nanoscale triggers of neurodegenerative disorders using biophysical approaches and how these alterations at the synapses contribute towards the onset of such diseases. It was piqued during his PhD research and continues to grow within his current research. He is attempting to address the challenges associated with rapid extraction and nanoscale imaging of synapses from brain tissues.
Dr Yunzhao Wu
Yunzhao is a post-doctoral researcher working on elucidating the mechanisms of p53 aggregation in cancer with super-resolution imaging. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017 and obtained his master’s degree at the University of Tokyo in 2019. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking Chinese food (especially Sichuan cuisines because I’m a big fan of Chef Wang) and playing standalone games.
PhD STUDENTS
Daniel Heraghty
Daniel's research focuses on investigating the mechanisms that underlie the initiation of signalling by immune receptors. Prior to joining the lab, he completed his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He spent his final year in the Department of Pathology, specialising in Immunology. In his spare time he enjoys training at the athletics track, hiking and photography.
Elizabeth English
Lizzie is investigating aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease in her PhD. She uses single molecule techniques, including super-resolution microscopy and Simoa, to characterise aggregate differences between human brain regions and Alzheimer's disease stages. Her research focuses upon tau, inflammation, amyloid-beta and AD genetic risk factors. Prior to joining the group, Lizzie completed an integrated Masters of Biosciences degree at Durham University, trialling ALS treatments on cell models and modelling sports concussions in Drosophila. Alongside her PhD, Lizzie has founded Women in Neuroscience UK, tackling gender bias and sexism through events, blogs, and social media, with her 40-person volunteer team and worldwide community. Lizzie enjoys using her science communication skills to increase public understanding of dementia, as well as online, in person at shopping centres, science fairs and schools. Outside of science, Lizzie enjoys Zumba, yoga and art.
Janice Kim
Janice is a PhD student investigating protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on tau aggregation in relation to different isoforms of the apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene. She employs single-molecule techniques, such as super-resolution microscopy and Simoa, in human samples. Janice completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in the United States and obtained an MRes in Neuroscience at Imperial College London. Outside the lab, she enjoys Pilates, going on a walk, cooking, baking, and exploring new recipes.
Prasanna Suresh
Prassana is a PhD student, and will be working on imaging the molecular events leading to Toll-like receptor signalling as part of the innate immune response. Prior to joining the Klenerman Lab, he completed my MChem at the University of Oxford. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and swimming.
Tomi Akingbade
Tomi is a PhD student and will be investigating the sensitised inflammatory response to protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s Disease. She completed my MSc in Neuroscience at the University of Nottingham and then went on to work for the NHS as a Medical Laboratory Assistant and as a Research Technician at a UK DRI Centre. To keep herself occupied in her spare time, she work on STEM-focused EDI campaigns and enjoy watching movies.
Beatrix Huissoon
Beatrix is a PhD student looking at amyloid beta aggregation and its involvement in the development of AD. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cambridge in Natural Sciences in 2022, specialising in biological chemistry in her masters year. Outside the lab, she spends most of her time either singing in the college chapel choir or watching trashy TV shows.
Dorothea Böken
Dorothea ’s work is focused on developing single-molecule methods to study Tau aggregates in biological samples, specifically using high resolution imaging techniques and SIMOA. She joined the Klenerman group as a PhD student in January 2021, after she obtained her master’s degree in Biological Chemistry at ETH Zurich.
Florence Layburn
Florence is a PhD student investigating the role of soluble α-synuclein aggregates in Parkinson's disease. She works with post-mortem human brain tissue, single-molecule microscopy, and proteomics to determine the differences in soluble alpha-synuclein within the brain in Parkinson's. Florence completed her undergraduate education at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science and a first-class Honours in Biomedical Science. Her previous work involved immunohistochemical analysis of Huntington's disease human brain tissue at the Centre for Brain Research in New Zealand. Outside the lab, Florence is a committee member and newsletter editor for the Cambridge Branch of Parkinson's UK and the 2024-2025 President of the Cambridge University Australia New Zealand Society.
Kailai Xiong
Kelly is a PhD student working on using single-molecule methods to study the role of misfolded protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases, namely amyloid-β in Alzheimer's Disease and TDP-43 in motor neuron diseases. She completed her undergraduate degree at Imperial College London and obtained a MSci in 2023.
Shih-Huan Huang
Shih-Huan's research focuses on developing a theoretical framework to explain pathological data in neurodegenerative diseases, including progressive supranuclear palsy and Alzheimer's disease, by studying their underlying molecular mechanisms. He obtained my bachelor's degree in Physics from National Taiwan University, where he optimized optical microscopy to its theoretical limit for my undergraduate project, sparking his interest in applying theoretical frameworks to biological systems. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, cooking, and have climbed over ten 3000m+ mountains in Taiwan.
Yuhao Cui
Yuhao is a PhD student working on single molecule studies of Toll-like receptor 4 signalling pathway. Prior to joining the Klenerman Lab in 2023, he obtained a BSc in Chemistry at Nankai University in China and a MRes in Biological and Physical Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Lab Manager
Nadia Karimpour
Nadia graduated in Medical Laboratory Science from TUMS and has worked as a Medical Laboratory Scientist in various laboratories and hospitals. Her transition from medical laboratory science in Iran to academic research at institutions such as KTH (Sweden) and King's college London represents a deliberate and passionate career change. Exposure to advanced technologies and collaborative research environments has further fueled his passion for scientific exploration.
Since 2022, Nadia has been a Research Assistant and Laboratory manager at DRI, University of Cambridge.