The Perona-Wright Laboratory
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Lab alumni

Our undergraduates
We have worked with some impressive undergraduates -

Emma Patey & Alex Blood
Emma and Alex conducted their honours project on the metabolic differences of T cells in the lymph node and lung. Alex is now a medical student and Emma is exploring PhD programmes in reproductive immunology.

Eduardo Antequera Lopez de Briñas
Edu was our first honours project student in Glasgow and wrote a fantastic dissertation on the unique metabolism of Th2 cells. He is a skilled bioinformatician and is moving into digital science.

Sandra Seo Young Kim
Sandra was our undergraduate extraordinaire: superb scientist, enthusiast and social organiser.  She volunteered with us from 2012 to 2014, working on the impact of IL-4 on dendritic cells during helminth infection.  She graduated in 2014 and is now a medical student at UBC, wielding her stethoscope with well-deserved pride.

Aria Jazdarehee
Aria was both a volunteer and a 449 Directed Studies student with us, completing his honours project just before the lab closed its doors to move to Glasgow. His project assessed the impact of metabolic restriction on the ability of T cells to differentiate. His data was beautiful, his helpfulness immense and his humour fantastic. He was also a mean negotiator in MacDonalds... 
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Mio Tomisawa
Mio joined us first as a volunteer and then on a Co-Op work placement for 8 months between May to December 2015. She developed a project looking at the regulation of IL-10 expression in regulatory T cells. She then travelled all the way to Cardiff in Wales, having arranged her second Co-Op placement working with Dr Ian Humphreys.  She is currently back in Vancouver, completing her undergraduate 4th year at UBC.  

Tessa van Tol
Tessa did her 448 Directed Studies project with us in Spring 2014, generating some lovely data on IL-6 signalling during influenza infection.  She is now living in Calgary, pursuing medical studies.  

Zahra Ali
Zahra volunteered in the lab in 2015 and 2016, helped fantastically, and moved on to a Co-Op work placement with the Holt lab at the Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver.

Mahta Amanian
Mahta began in the lab as a high school volunteer, back in 2014, and she is now a thriving UBC undergraduate scientist.

Billy Zhao
Billy joined the team in January 2013 as a first year undergraduate, full of enthusiasm.  We tried not to break him completely.  He is now a seasoned 4th year student, having undertaken a year in Montreal as a Co-Op research placement. He is looking forward to medical school.   

Taixiang Wang
Tai was the lab's first undergraduate student, working with us from May - July 2012.  He returned to the lab for a 448 Directed Studies research project in summer 2013.  Upon graduation, he worked first as a research technician at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver and is now a PhD student at UBC.

Haozhong (Luke) Situ
Luke was an undergraduate summer student with us during the lab's first ever summer, June - August 2012.  He graduated brilliantly the following year, worked for a year in a small biotech company in Vancouver, and is now a graduate student at the University of Toronto. He holds a prestigious Trillium PhD scholarship.

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Our staff and students

Holly Webster

Holly was our first Glasgow graduate, completing her PhD brilliantly even during the Covid19 pandemic. She finished her studies in 2021 and moved to a postdoctoral position with Kevin Maloy's team. Check out her super cool papers!

Matthew Sinton
Matthew worked with us for a year during the Covid19 pandemic, before moving to Annette MacLeod's group and taking on a project on fat metabolism in trypanasome infection.

Amy Shergold
Amy worked with us a graduate research assistant, and is now an ace PhD student at the Beatson Institute in Glasgow, looking at the contribution of dendritic cells in tumour development.

Caroline Chauché
Caroline enjoyed a short postdoc period with us, between her PhD and a longer postdoctoral stint at the University of Edinburgh. She is now a fellow working in Scotland on the mechanisms behind asthma in race horses.

Graham Heieis
Graham moved with us from Vancouver to Glasgow, and graduated at the end of 2019. He is now enjoying postdoctoral science in the LUMC immunoparasitology and immunometabolism hub in Leiden, Netherlands.

Nicolette Fonseca
Nicolette graduated from our lab in April 2018. She's now a postdoctoral scientist in the Prostate Cancer Centre, Vancouver.

Stephen Redpath
Steve was a postdoctoral scientist with us, 2012 - 2016.  He's now running the teaching laboratories in the Biology Dept, University of Victoria. 

Kristy Dockstader
Kristy completed her MSc degree in the lab and graduated in August 2016. She's now a scientific writer, based in Vancouver, and exploring the world.

Sebastian Scheer
Sebastian was a postdoctoral fellow in the team 2013 - 2015, working on a collaborative project shared with Colby Zaph and his lab.  Seb moved with the Zaph lab in 2015 to Monash University, Melbourne.  

Suzette Castelltorte de Jesus
Suzette worked with us as a part-time financial assistant and admin guru, keeping us and the paperwork in shape for the year running up to our move. She now works in the M&I and the biochemistry departments at UBC.

Negin Rahanjam
Negin is the research assistant and lab manager who kept us running from 2013 to 2015. She's now based in the Hancock group at UBC.

Jung Hee Seo
Jung Hee built the lab for us, working as our research technician, lab manager and chief oracle right from the beginning.  Sadly she was only with us on loan, and she returned to her position in the Abraham lab, UBC, in March 2013.

Updated Nov 2020