Future Leaders
Team Members
Diana Mahdessian
Diana is a researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in the Department of Protein and Sciences Division of Cellular and Clinical Proteomics. She earned her Ph.D. degree in 2019 in Emma Lundberg’s lab as part of the Human Proteome Atlas project within the Cell Atlas. The primary focus of her research project is the characterisation of heterogeneity in protein expression at a single-cell level, with a particular emphasis on variations correlated to cell cycle phase transitions in human cells. Diana has augmented her expertise in highly multiplexed spatial proteomics through years of experience in both industry and academia. Her significant contributions can be explored further in her main work published at www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03232-9.
Laura Torrens
Laura Torrens is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO, France). She holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and an MSc in Translational Medicine from the University of Barcelona (Spain). In 2022, Laura completed her PhD after conducting her research at the Barcelona Clinic Hospital (Spain) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, NY). Laura’s research is focused on employing genomic epidemiology strategies to identify mutagenic and non-mutagenic exposures leading to cancer across the world. By pinpointing these factors, she aims to uncover unknown causes of cancer and inform cancer prevention.
Erika López-Arribillaga
I have always been passionate about science, biology in particular, and the human body and its workings. I studied Human Biology and specialised in Biomedical Research at the UPF (Barcelona). After doing a PhD in Notch signaling pathway, intestinal stem cells and colorectal cancer, I joined the Barcelona Biomedical Genomics Group led by Dr. Núria López-Bigas as a postdoctoral fellow. I am surrounded by talented bioinformaticians, but the wet lab is still my territory. I now look at cancer cells from another perspective, as a postdoctoral researcher with more than 7 years of experience and a special interest in Cancer Genomics and DNA Damage and Repair. When not in the lab, you can find me reading a good book, cooking, photographing nature or knitting.
Ferran Muiños
Ferran currently works as a staff scientist at the IRB Barcelona in the group led by Nuria Lopez-Bigas where he is involved since 2016. He got his PhD in Mathematics in 2011 (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) where he studied the defining equations of blow-up algebras. After working several years in the consulting sector as a bid writer of EU-funded research and innovation projects, he got his masters degree in Bioinformatics for Health Sciences in 2017 (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Universitat de Barcelona). Since then, his main research interest revolves about the computational study of genomic heterogeneity and evolution in somatic tissues, specifically in the context of cancer and premalignancy.
Ferriol Calvet
Ferriol is a PhD student at IRB Barcelona in the Biomedical Genomics group. He works in probing the clonal structure of normal tissues of donors with different lifetime exposures, to contribute knowledge to the initiation and promotion model of carcinogenesis. He works in the computational analysis of the data generated in the PROMINENT project.
Dr. Holly Baker-Rand
Holly Baker-Rand is a Clinical Research Fellow and PhD student in Cancer Sciences at the University of Manchester, England. She was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomical Sciences at the University of Bristol. She received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Exeter. She commenced specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2016 and was admitted as a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2021. She has completed a Fellowship in Gynaecological Oncology at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton. Her research is focused on prevention of and screening for endometrial cancer and its management in people living with obesity.
Hudson Horn
Hudson Horn is a Cancer Biology PhD student in Dr. Calvin Kuo's lab at Stanford University. His work with PROMINENT centers around a novel skin organoid platform that fully recapitulates tissue resident biology with immune, stromal, and epithelial cells. Hudson is using this system to model two-step carcinogenesis, seeking to understand how cancer is promoted following chemical mutagenesis.
Dr. Laura Ellis
Laura Ellis is a PhD candidate at Imperial College London. She is working on a number of projects investigating the role of DNA methylation in early detection or prognosis of gynaecological cancers, and the role of obesity in endometrial, breast, and colorectal cancer.
Dr. Mariya Mardamshina
Mariya is currently a researcher in Emma Lundberg's group and a member of the PROMINENT Cancer Grand Challenge team. She earned her MD from Semey State Medical University and her PhD from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral work explored spatial inter- and intratumoral proteomic heterogeneity in breast cancer using mass spectrometry. Mariya’s current work within the Lundberg group focuses on unraveling cell-to-cell proteomic variability in a spatial context. Her research involves developing integrated pipelines combining automated multiplexed staining, high-resolution microscopy, artificial intelligence, and ultra-high-sensitive mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis.
Michael Olanipekun
"Michael Olanipekun completed his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at Kingston University London (UK) before completing a Masters by Research (MRes) in Biomedical Research at Imperial College London (UK), studying metabolomics. He continued working in mass spectrometry-based method development as a research assistant, prior to joining the National Centre for Mesothelioma Research (NCMR) at Imperial College University (UK) for his PhD. This work characterised the metabolome of malignant pleural mesothelioma (asbestos cancer) by integrating genomics and transcriptomics to elucidate the network of molecular processes driving mesothelioma biology.
In 2023, he moved to France to begin his role as a postdoctoral researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO, France). Here, Michael is working to determine the exogenous and endogenous factors driving renal cell carcinoma (RCC) onset, to inform prevention as part of the Cancer Grand Challenges PROMINENT team."
Özgün Le Roux
Özgün Le Roux is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Counter at Duke University. As a future leader, Özgün is curious about why different cancers favor specific mutations. Using genetically engineered mouse models and single cell sequencing, Özgün is studying mechanisms of tumor initiation and promotion within different tissues when oncogenic mutations arise.
Raquel Blanco
Raquel Blanco is a bioinformatics predoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Biomedical Genomics Laboratory, Spain, led by Prof. Núria López-Bigas. Raquel is part of team PROMINENT. Her research is focused on how mutant cells remain normal or evolve into cancer depending on their exposure to specific stimuli called cancer promoters. Her aim is to be able to decipher the molecular signatures of cancer promotion to inform prevention.
Saumya Bollam
Saumya is a PhD Candidate in Allan Balmain's lab, at the University of California, San Francisco. Her graduate thesis focuses on the roles major oncogenes play in coordinating epithelial-immune cell interactions during different stages of tumor development. She is also passionate about sharing knowledge with learners from diverse backgrounds, to empower a wide range of voices to actively participate in scientific research.
Xavier Gaeta
Xavier Gaeta is a Pediatric Nephrology fellow working in the lab of Calvin J. Kuo. He is interested in using three-dimensional kidney organoids, environmental exposures, and genetic engineering techniques to model human kidney disease, development, and kidney cancer in vitro
Featured Future Leader
Dr. Laura Ellis
Laura Ellis is a PhD candidate at Imperial College London. She is working on a number of projects investigating the role of DNA methylation in early detection or prognosis of gynaecological cancers, and the role of obesity in endometrial, breast, and colorectal cancer.
A holistic approach to cancer research: bringing future research leaders together with patient advocates | Cancer Grand Challenges
from cancergrandchallenges.org
Last month we held our annual Future Leaders Conference in Lisbon. As well as being a time for early career researchers from across our funded teams to come together, network and share their scientific findings, this year’s conference was an opportunity for future research leaders to come together with another key group in our community – people affected by cancer.
| Title | Address | Description |
|---|---|---|
Brennan’s team | 25 Av. Tony Garnier, 69007 Lyon, France | Genomic Epidemiology Branch International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO) |
Brennan’s team | Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Bldg, 1450 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA | Balmain Lab UCSF |
Gunter’s team | South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK | Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research Unit, School of Public Health Imperial College London (ICL) |
Lundberg’s team | Shriram Center for Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305, USA | Lundberg Lab Stanford |
Lundberg’s team | Tomtebodavägen 23a, 171 65 Solna, Sweden | Mats Nilsson’s lab – In situ sequencing and molecular diagnostics |
Lundberg’s team | Brinellvägen 8, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden | |
Lopez-Bigas’ team | Carrer de Baldiri Reixac, 10, Les Corts, 08028 Barcelona, Spain | Barcelona Biomedical Genomics Lab Institute for Research Biomedicine (IRB) |
Counter’s team | 40 Duke Medicine Cir #124, Durham, NC 27710, USA | Counter Lab Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology Duke University |
Gilbert’s team | 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA | Gilbert Lab UCSF |
Kuo’s team | 265 Campus Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA | Calvin Kuo Laboratory at Stanford |
