Current students

Learn more about the UCL Eastman Centre for Postgraduate Research and recent student publications and poster presentations.

The UCL Eastman Centre for Postgraduate Research (ECPGR)

  • We provide support for postgraduate research students.
  • We train researchers internationally to embed new knowledge in best practice addressing scientific and clinical research needs in the dental, medical and allied health sectors.
  • We engage with industry in developing therapeutics, instruments and tools.
  • We engage practitioners with novel ways of understanding diseases.
  • We engage the public with the research undertaken at the Eastman and also novel ways of understanding and improving their conditions and wellbeing.

The ethos of the Centre is rooted in the UCL Grand Challenge of Global Health, which brings together UCL's immense intellectual capital and international collaborations to provide innovative, workable solutions to global health at scale.

ECPGR Student Committee

The Student Committee consists of 8 elected student representatives (MD: 2, CR: 2 DDent: 2 and BTE: 2) and is chaired by the Departmental Graduate Tutor.

Committee aims

  1. To promote student participation in management activities.
  2. To advise the Management Committee of any issues relevant to training, research or general student experience through two of the ECPgR Student Committee members.
  3. To manage responsibilities for all student-led events, such as conferences, public engagement events and career fairs, etc.

Students are strongly encouraged to engage with the Student Committee. Its mandate is for one year. From the ECPgR Student Committee, two students are nominated to attend the ECPgR Steering Committee.

Current members

Shailly Luthra, Student rep at the Eastman Dental Institute

Shailly Luthra

ECPGR Student Committee

Shailly is a specialist Periodontist from India. She joined the UCL Eastman Dental Institute in 2018 as a full-time PhD student under the supervision of Professor Francesco D'Aiuto, Professor Andrew Smith and Dr Marco Orlandi. Her PhD project explores the association between invasive dental treatment and acute vascular events. Shailly represents the clinical research students (Periodontology). As lead PGR student rep, she represents the Eastman at the ECPgR committee, SSCC and at faculty level.

Kholod Alharthi, Student rep at the Eastman Dental Institute

Kholod Alharthi

ECPGR Student Committee

In 2019, I successfully completed my MClinDent Oral Surgery at the Eastman Dental Institute, and was awarded the Tri-Collegiate Membership in Oral Surgery (MOralSurg) and the Specialist Fellowship Diploma in Oral Surgery with Oral Medicine, RCSI FFD (OMOS). I gained expert knowledge in oral surgery and followed through on my passion for research. I am currently in the third year of my PhD project in Oral Surgery with supervision from Dr Rachel Leeson and Professor Stephano Fedele.

Fiona Verisqa, Student rep at the Eastman Dental Institute

Fiona Verisqa

ECPGR Student Committee

Fiona completed dental and surgical training at Universitas Indonesia. Her interests are in combining reconstructive surgery and tissue engineering approaches to restore craniofacial defects. Fiona is working on a PhD project focusing on 3D printing for bone and cartilage regeneration under the supervision of Prof Jonathan Knowles and Dr Linh Nguyen, funded by an Indonesian government scholarship (LPDP). She is representing the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering research students on the ECPgR.

Marianne Dang

Marianne Dang

Research Student Administrator

As part of the institute’s academic support team, Marianne provides all administrative support to the PhD cohort at the Eastman and liaises with the UCL doctoral school for any training needs that PhD students may have. She is also first point of contact for any PhD enquiries at the Eastman. Marianne has previously worked at the IOE and Imperial College as Administrator and has been at the Eastman for many years. She looks forward to supporting you throughout your student journey.

Recent student papers

  1. Kangwankai K, Sani S, Panpisut P, Xia W, Ashley P, Petridis H, Young AM (2017). Monomer conversion, dimensional stability, strength, modulus, surface apatite precipitation and wear of novel, reactive calcium phosphate and polylysine-containing dental composites. PLoS One. 2017 Nov 14;12(11): e0187757.
  2. Aguayo S, Marshall H, Pratten J, Bradshaw D, Brown JS, Porter SR, Spratt D, Bozec L (2017). Early Adhesion of Candida albicans onto Dental Acrylic Surfaces. J Dent Res. 2017 Jul;96(8): 917-923.
  3. Ahmed T, Nash A, Clark KE, Ghibaudo M, de Leeuw NH, et al (2017). Combining nano-physical and computational investigations to understand the nature of "aging" in dermal collagen. Int J Nanomedicine. 2017 Apr 21;12: 3303-3314.
  4. Fine P, Louca C, Leung A (2017). The Impact of a Postgraduate Learning Experience on the Confidence of General Dental Practitioners. Dent J (Basel). 2017 Apr 26;5(2): 16.
  5. Leow NM, Hussain Z, Petrie A, Donos N, Needleman IG (2016). Has the quality of reporting in periodontology changed in 14 years? A systematic review. J Clin Periodontol. 2016 Oct;43(10):833-8.
  6. Reynolds LJ, Roberts AP, Anjum MF (2016). Efflux in the Oral Metagenome: The Discovery of a Novel Tetracycline and Tigecycline ABC Transporter. Front Microbiol. 2016 Dec 6;7: 1923.
  7. Tansirichaiya S, Mullany P, Roberts AP (2016). PCR-based detection of composite transposons and translocatable units from oral metagenomic DNA. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2016 Sep;363(18): fnw195.
  8. Banushi B, Forneris F, Straatman-Iwanowska A, Strange A, et al (2016). Regulation of post-Golgi LH3 trafficking is essential for collagen homeostasis. Nat Commun. 2016 Jul 20;7:12111.
  9. Tansirichaiya S, Rahman MA, Antepowicz A, Mullany P, Roberts AP (2016). Detection of Novel Integrons in the Metagenome of Human Saliva. PLoS One. 2016 Jun 15;11(6): e0157605.
  10. Bhangra KS, Busuttil F, Phillips JB, Rahim AA (2016). Using Stem Cells to Grow Artificial Tissue for Peripheral Nerve Repair. Stem Cells Int. 2016;2016: 7502178.

Recent posters

C Kayal

Effect of collagen concentration gradients on neurite elongation

Celine Kayal, Rebecca Shipley, James Phillips

E Marlina

Evidence of a dysregulated systemic immune response associated with oral lichen planus

E Marlina, S Fedele, S Porter, AM Smith

M Alhamdan

Comparison of the remineralisation potential of 5 toothpastes on eroded human enamel produced by a soft drink

Alhamdan M, McDonald A, Knowles J

G Alrabeah

Cellular responses to metal ions released from different implant-abutment couples

G Alrabeah, P Brett, J Knowles and L Petridis

S Mohammed

A comparative study of single and multi-species biofilm removal from the wall of a simulated root canal model by passive or active sodium hypochlorite irrigant

Saif Alarab A. Mohmmed, ME Vianna, JC Knowles