SheinerLab

MSc and PhD student between October 2014 to October 2020

Alice is the first Sheneir Lab PhD student, and one of the founders of Team mitochondrion (along with Julie Aufauvre and Jana Ovciarikova). She made some of the pioneering observations the team has published and developed some of the tools the team uses for mitochondrial research in Toxoplasma. 

Lewis worked with us from October 2018 till Aug 2020

Lewis is a Chemist who joined the lab as a postdoc after graduating his PhD with out collaborator Prof. Richard Hartley and was leading the Redox team.
Lewis was offered a post in industry which he is now performing.

Worked with us from Aug 2018 till Sept 2020

Nicole joined the lab as a tech to support team Epeius, and was running the work to optimise the in vivo experiment.  Nicole very quickly took on a role of a lab manager to the whole Sheiner lab helping all three teams. 
During the Covid lockdown in the UK Nicole was seconded to the Lighthouse Covid diagnostic lab, were she was then offered a shift manager post which she is currently performing. 

Worked with us from May 2019 till Sept 2020

Caite joined the lab initially as part of her clinical pharmacology MSc project and was working with team Redox using her pharmacology background.
After graduating Catie chose to join the lab as a technician to learn molecular and cellular biology techniques and took a project with team mitochondrion. 
During the Covid lockdown in the UK Caite used her newly acquired skills with a secondment to the Lighthouse Covid diagnostics team, which resulted in a new post with Lighthouse.   

Worked with us June 2018 to August 2019

Paula worked as lab technician with the "mito-team" while seeking PhD opportunities.

She is now doing her PhD in the lab of Isabel Roditi in Bern, Switzerland. 

Worked with us Sept 2016 – Sept 2018

I was first introduced to the parasitology world as a PhD student, studying the

metabolism of Plasmodium falciparum from an organelle point of view. In these

years, I developed my interest for the apicoplast, a fascinating organelle

exclusive for most Apicomplexa still containing many undefined functions.

As a postdoc in the Sheiner Lab, I had the great chance to expand my apicoplast

knowledge on both P. falciparum and T. gondii. I really enjoyed investigating the

importance of redox regulation in this organelle while exploiting its critical

components for the development of new drugs. This project provided me with a

fresh perspective on how to convert my achievements into new opportunities

both inside and outside academia. Additionally, I had a great time expanding my

scientific network with experts in different disciplines, giving me the chance to

confront my experience and results with exciting new settings and ideas.

I can only be very grateful to the whole Sheiner lab for contributing to develop

and support my scientific independence. I honestly had a great time as a postdoc

and I will be happy to collaborate with them in the future.

PhD student - 4/8/2014 - 4/8/2018

Carmen was a shared PhD student with Markus Meissner. 

She is now an editor with the PLOS journals

Worked with us June 2017 – Aug 2018

Will was a lab technician who continued in this career track and is now working as tech in the US.

Worked with us March 2016 - Sept 2018

After obtaining my PhD studying bioenergetics and mitochondrion in a ciliate parasite, I have had the great opportunity to be part of the Sheiner lab as a postdoctoral researcher. During this time I could keep on digging in the study of the mitochondrion and its behavior this time in the successful parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

The experience was very enjoyable and profitable giving me the chance of learning molecular biology techniques to deepen my knowledge in the field, to broaden my network in a multicultural, motivating and innovative environment and especially, to open my mind, which I think is one of the most relevant skills for a scientist. Though I recently moved from the lab I will continue collaborating with Sheiner lab whenever possible.

At the moment I am working in the Aquaculture Cluster in Galicia, Spain, exploring a more practical side of science by developing vaccines for the most relevant pathogens affecting aquaculture species.
Natalia is now a Researcher at CETGA

Worked with us March 2016 - May 2017

I have had the privilege during my career to work with a multitude of different organisms ranging from plants to parasites. I have a deep love for synthetic and evolutionary biology and a particular fascination towards all kind of biomimicry. Nature usually has the best ideas, I love how as scientists we can figure out ways to utilise our understanding of the world around us for our benefits. In the realm of parasitology it is of particular interest how these parasites invade different tissues and cell types and overcome our highly tuned defences. In my time at the Sheiner lab we were engineering engineering Toxoplasma gondii for commercial use. 

I enjoyed working with the great team of the Sheiner lab, learning multidisciplinary science in an innovative environment. I am currently working at Kings College London, researching the possible genetic causes behind the pathogenicity of a rare form of psoriasis, an autoimmune disease affecting the skin

Worked with us August 2014 - Sept 2016

Molecular parasitology offers the opportunity to study both the mechanisms of disease in an effort to design novel interventions as well as uncover the unique biology these organisms feature. Apicomplexan parasites have diverged from our own ancestry hundreds million years ago, whilst coevolving with us to preserve their intracellular niche. This makes them fascinating organisms to study both as pathogens and as our very distant eukaryotic relatives.

I was exposed to the work of the Sheiner lab in 2014 when I became interested in tRNA import into mitochondria in different organisms. Following on from this, I had the opportunity to do a summer project here in 2015. We looked at role of the Toxoplasma gondii GABA shunt in inducing dendritic cell hypermigration, a host-cell subversion thought to facilitate the parasite's spread to immunoprivileged sites. I really enjoyed working in this lab and thus decided to continue doing so alongside my undergraduate courses as well as for another few months after I finished my BSc in Virology at the University of Glasgow .

Working in this lab has further consolidated my wish to get further training as a scientist and helped me get accepted to the "Hosts, Pathogens and Global Health" Wellcome Trust PhD programme at the University of Edinburgh where I continue to study host-parasite interactions

Worked with us Aug 2015 - Aug 2016

Understanding how pathogen function and establish infection is an area of research of particular interest to me. After graduating from the University of Glasgow where I studied immunology, I had the opportunity to work in the Sheinerlab for a year studying redox regulation in the apicoplast of Toxoplasma gondii. Specifically, we looked at thioredoxin-mediated control of pathways essential for apicoplast biogenesis and maintenance.

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One of my goals was to acquire experience and network towards getting a PhD in the field of infectious biology. Indeed I’ve got into a PhD program at the Francis Crick Institute, London, where I now study innate immune responses to influenza virus, and lung epithelial cell differentiation.'

worked with us: Jan 2014 - Feb 2016

"For me, parasites and more precisely intracellular parasites are one of the most fascinating living creatures. Indeed, they are usually highly dependent on environmental conditions and they need to constantly evolve and develop new strategies in order to adapt to their hosts. I am interested in discovering and dissecting the mechanisms they use for this purpose, through comparing different host-parasite models.

I started studying parasitology during both my MSc and PhD in the laboratory of Pr. Frederic Delbac in Clermont-Ferrand (France): http://www.lmge.univ-bpclermont.fr/spip.php?rubrique9. For four years, I have been investigating the impact of a microsporidian parasite, called Nosema ceranae, on the health of honeybee.

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Sheiner lab, I am investigating the mitochondrial RNA import machinery using molecular and cell biology techniques."
Julie is now a Researcher in INRA