Meet our experts

Our Faculty is a dynamic environment with a diverse body of expertise across the life sciences. Find out about our academics research and teaching interests, their journeys to UCL, and much more.

Dr Vilaiwan Fernandes is a Principal Research Fellow in the Division of Biosciences, specialising in developmental neurobiology. Her research focuses on understanding how glia regulate neurogenesis and neuronal diversity during brain development.

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Sophie Acton

Prof Sophie Acton studies how immune cells interact with support cells in lymph nodes and tumours. Her research explores how fibroblasts shape immune responses and their potential for cancer therapy. We caught up with her to learn more about her work.

Joanne Littlefair

Joanne Littlefair is a researcher at the newly established People and Nature Lab at UCL East, delving into the intersection of biodiversity, technology, and society. Her focus lies in scrutinising habitats profoundly affected by human intervention.

Sudaxshina Murdan

Professor Sudax Murdan, a leading expert in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UCL School of Pharmacy, specialises in the formulation of drugs and vaccines for both humans and animals. Her research primarily focuses on the development of topical anti-fungal medicines and mucosal immunisation strategies.

Joanne Santini

Professor Joanne Santini is a Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, which is part of the Division of Biosciences. Her work focuses on a wide range of areas, namely arsenic metabolism, microbial bioleaching, extremophiles, bacteriophages, and gut microbiomes.

Tim Blackburn

Professor Tim Blackburn is a Professor of Invasion Biology in the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, in the Division of Biosciences. Tim's research primarily addresses questions relating to human-mediated biological invasions.

Lucy van Dorp

Dr Lucy van Dorp is a Senior Research Fellow in the UCL Genetics Institute in the Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, in the Division of Biosciences. Lucy has worked in the field of microbial genomics at UCL for several years.

Andrea Townsend-Nicholson

Professor Andrea Townsend-Nicholson is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology within the Division of Biosciences at UCL. Her research covers understanding how cells interpret extracellular signals and turn this information into intracellular responses.

Haran Shani-Narkiss

Dr Haran Shani-Narkiss joined the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in 2022 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Branco lab. Haran uses Deep Neural Networks to better understand how defensive behaviours are generated in the midbrain.

Yanlan Mao

Dr Yanlan Mao is a Group Leader and Associate Professor at the Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology. She combines genetics, imaging, biophysics and mathematical modelling approaches to study the role of mechanical forces in tissue development, homeostasis and repair.

Matthew Todd

Matthew Todd is Chair of Drug Discovery in UCL’s School of Pharmacy. His research focuses on the development of new ways to make molecules - particularly in open science projects where all the research takes place “live and online” in the public domain.

Nadia Bukhari

Nadia Bukhari, Academic Pharmacist and Principal Teaching Fellow at UCL School of Pharmacy, is also a Global Pharmacy Ambassador for UCL. Nadia is also renowned within the industry, both in the UK and internationally, for her campaigns to support the role of the pharmacist and specifically to drive forward opportunities for women in pharmacy.

Claudia Manzoni

Dr Claudia Manzoni is a Lecturer in Translational Neuroscience at the UCL School of Pharmacy and studies the complex nature of neurodegenerations. Her latest project is focused on teaching a computer how “to read” different types of patients’ data to find patterns that are invisible to the human eye but can be spotted by an algorithm for Parkinson’s diagnostics.

Mark Thomas

Professor Mark Thomas is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics. He works mainly on biological and cultural aspects of human evolution. Mark uses computer simulation and statistical modelling to make inferences from genetic data.

Ann Duan

Dr Ann Duan is a Group Leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. Her research group's goal is to understand how animals make flexible decisions under risk and social influence, and the neural circuit mechanisms underlying these choices.

Sara Mederos

Dr Sara Mederos joined the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in 2020 as a Research Fellow in the Hofer lab. She is focusing on neural pathways for regulating fear responses depending on previous experience.

Maryam Parhizkhar

An engineer by trade, Dr Maryam Parhizkar joined the UCL School of Pharmacy in 2019 as a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Engineering and is the course director of the MSc programmes (MSc Pharmaceutical Formulation and Entrepreneurship).

Ahad Rahim

Ahad Rahim is Professor of Translational Neuroscience at UCL’s School of Pharmacy. Ahad leads a research team that focuses on studying rare paediatric neurodegenerative disorders, more common adult neurological diseases and developing novel therapies.

Abdul Basit

Abdul Basit is Professor of Pharmaceutics at the UCL School of Pharmacy. Abdul's research focuses on drug delivery, the microbiome, 3D printing of pharmaceuticals and digital health.

Kate Jones

Kate Jones is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity in the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment and the Director of the People and Nature Lab at UCL East.

Michael Bukwich

Michael is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, working under the supervision of Neil Burgess and Caswell Barry. His research focuses on understanding neural mechanisms, while he balances his passion for snowboarding with his pursuit of neuroscience.

Flemming Hansen

Professor Flemming Hansen was elected as a Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow in 2015 and is a professor and Chair of NMR spectroscopy at UCL. We met up with him recently to talk about his research.

Jim Labisko

Dr. Jim Labisko holds the position of Lecturer (teaching) in Biodiversity within the esteemed Division of Biosciences at UCL. With a keen focus on the intricate dynamics of adaptation, speciation, and responses to environmental change, his research delves deep into the realm of insular taxa.

Seirian Sumner

Professor Seirian Sumner is a behavioural ecologist and entomologist in the Division of Biosciences. Her research focuses on behavioural ecology, biodiversity and conservation. She is especially interested in social wasps, and is working hard to raise the profile of these ecologically important insects.

Garrett Hellenthal

Garrett Hellenthal is an Associate Professor at the UCL Genetics Institute (UGI) in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment. His group develops and applies statistical models to genetic data, primarily to learn about the ancestral and evolutionary history of humans.