Mirjana did her PhD in Computational Biology in the lab of Prof Trajanoski at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, where she investigated the process of clonal evolution of cancer under immunosurveillance. For her postdoctoral research, she joined the Teichmann Lab (Wellcome Sanger Institute) where she co-led the development of the first human atlas of the maternal-fetal interface in early pregnancy using single cell transcriptomics. She also developed a cell-cell communication statistical framework CellPhoneDB (www.cellphonedb.org) which allowed her to dissect the complex interplay between stromal and immune cells in the dynamic tumour microenvironment of a mouse melanoma model. She started her own lab in May 2020, at Barts Cancer Institute, within the Centre for Cancer Genomics and Computational Biology.

Elise joined the Efremova lab as a PhD student in September 2022. Her PhD is focussed on investigating the effect of chemotherapy in colorectal cancer using colorectal cancer organoids and single-cell data. Before joining the BCI, Elise completed a BSc in Natural Sciences at the University of Bath, including an industrial placement year at GSK developing imaging-based cancer drug screening assays. She also completed an MRes at QMUL as part of the MRC Translational Biosciences DTP.

Zoe completed her PhD in the lab of Dr Marco Trizzino at Imperial College London, during which she investigated the role of a chromatin remodeller during human craniofacial development. Before that she did a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter with a year abroad at the University of Queensland, followed by a masters degree in Human Molecular Genetics at Imperial College London.

Sophie completed her PhD in Professor Matter’s lab at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, where she investigated how an epithelial tight junction protein directs intracellular signalling pathways involved in inflammation and cellular stress responses. She then spent six years at MeiraGTx, a London‑based gene therapy company, predominantly working within the pre‑clinical development team. There, she focused on the development of gene therapies for inherited retinal diseases using human retinal organoid models. 

Shenay is originally from Bulgaria, where she completed her undergraduate studies in Bioinformatics. After that, she relocated to the UK to pursue a master's degree. Prior to starting her PhD, I worked as a research assistant in Doug Winton's lab at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. In this role, she investigated the behaviour of normal colon epithelium to gain insights into oncogenic transformation in sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), as well as the impact of chronic inflammation in tissue architecture.