Happy mid-Autumn Festival – October 2025
We are grateful to Kevin Yiyu Fan, for spicing up our lab meeting with lovely mooncakes! Kevin drew parallels between mooncakes containing one, two or no eggs, with hepatocytes containing one, two or no T cells. Delicious and educational, thanks Kevin!
Innovation by Hanan Almakhayitah – October 2025
Generating and characterising novel ex vivo injury models to study liver diseases in human tissues takes time and careful effort. This is because we rely on donor and explant tissues from our transplant operations at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Our PhD student Hanan Almakhayitah developed detailed transcriptomic analysis pipelines that compare her findings in mice and in human tissues.
Research in Progress Seminar by Yuxin Li – September 2025
Our PhD student Yuxin Li presented her recent discovery on how hepatocyte senescence drives enclysis in the liver, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
Summer visiting fellows – July 2025
Our team had the great pleasure to host award-winning visiting fellows from the UK and France this summer. Freya Frost won funding from the Arthur Thompson Trust to carry out a summer project with us, alongside exchange students from the Université de Tours, France. Congratulations!
Celebrating 125 years of achievement – June 2025
The University of Birmingham celebrates 125 years of achievement! Don’t miss the special events around campus, check out the website here.
SUPREME Coatings consortium meeting in Bilbao -June 2025
Hosted by TECNALIA Research & Innovation, this meeting marked another important milestone in our Horizon Europe journey, aligning expertise, sharing progress, and setting the course for the next phase of the project. Dr Aek Tuekprakhon presented our most recent work on antiviral nanoparticles and associated materials.
Welcome Dr Aulia and Fortuna! – May 2025
It was our pleasure to host Dr Aulia Rahmi Pawestri, a clinical lecturer in Tropical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at Brawijaya University in Indonesia, and her student Fortuna Filly Firdausi. Dr Aulia leads exciting research on parasitology, with direct implications for liver health. Dr Aek Tuekprakhon holds a visiting lecturer position at at Brawijaya University, offering virology expertise.
Presentation success for PhD student Yuxin Li – May 2025
Congratulations to our PhD student Yuxin Li, whose work attracted the most questions at the postgraduate student gala. She is receiving her prize from the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy postgraduate researcher lead Dr Claire Shannon-Lowe.
UK Hepacivirus and Flavivirus Meeting -Rydal Hall May 2025
Exciting virology presented at the annual Hepacivirus and Flavivirus meeting this year at the Lake District! Many thanks to the organisers, Azim Ansari, Joe Grove, Kevin Maringer, Laura Martin Sancho, Stephanie Rainey. We look forward to meeting again next year in the barn.
Cerys Crook presents her work on enclysis -March 2025
Our Biomedical Sciences project student Cerys Crook presented her work on enclysis at the Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research forum.
Our project students practice presenting their research first at our informal lab meeting, before sharing their work with our department and with the broader research community at national and international conferences.
HCC- UK Annual Conference -Manchester March 2025
The annual conference for Hepatocellular Carcinoma HCC-UK was titled ‘Accelerating improvements for patients with HCC‘ and it was organised by the BASL. It was a pleasure to present our latest work on enclysis modulation by drugs and viruses, carried out by PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan, postdoctoral scientist Aek Tuekprakhon and postdoctoral hepatobiliary surgeon Fei Wang.
Our team wins gold!– Spring 2025
Grateful to Janine Fear and Nadiya Boyar, for all their hard work towards our successful submission for a Green Impact Award. We won Gold!
Nadiya Boyar and Cerys Crook research update – March 2025
A pleasure to host Biomedical Science project students such as the talented Cerys Crook, who worked closely with Nadiya Boyar to investigate the role of T cell activation on enclysis.
Zania Stamataki presenting on enclysis at the Cancer Immunology forum- February 2025
An update on enclysis modulation and how we can harness the power of enclysis to boost immunotherapies in liver cancer, by Dr Zania Stamataki, Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham.
Generating figures for publication – February 2025
Our group reviews data at regular intervals for inclusion to manuscripts – Dr Aek Tuekprakhon gives guidance to students on how to generate impactful figures for publication.
Stamataki Lab photo – February 2025
Ambitious translational projects in viral and liver immunology require diverse teams! Our lab encompasses virologists, immunologists, clinical and non-clinical liver experts and visiting collaborators from overseas.
Sarthak Kc presented his latest high content imaging data on the expression of the adhesion molecule ICAM-1 on hepatic cells after treatment with modifiers in vitro.
Virology connections with project students- January 2025
Our postdoc Aek Tuekprakhon and technician Nadiya Boyar host project students Sarthak Kc and Henry Pond, who join us from UoB Biochemistry and University of Warwick MIBTP PhD programme respectively, for their virology related research projects.
Aek Tuekprakhon presenting on enclysis at OneVirology- January 2025
Many thanks to Dr Toshana Foster and Professor Janet Daly for organising a great OneVirology meeting at the Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham. Great talk by Dr Aek Tuekprakhon and lovely to catch up with our old student Uchechukwu Chidiebere now at Nicole Robb’s team at University of Warwick.
A warm welcome to our collaborator Yasmin Abozeid- December 2024
We are delighted to celebrate the arrival of Dr Yasmin Abozeid, our collaborator from Egypt. Yasmin is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics at Helwan University in Cairo. Her visit is funded by a L’Oreal UNESCO Women in Science award.
Hanan Almakhayitah, Aek Tuekprakhon, Kevin Yiyu Fan, Nadiya Boyar, Zania Stamataki, Yuxin Li and Yasmin Abozeid
Congratulations to Yuxin Li for winning a poster prize- December 2024
Our PhD student Yuxin Li presented her work on T cell subsets in enclysis, a large comparative digital histopathology study of human livers with different diseases. Her poster was selected for a prize at the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy research day. Congratulations Yuxin!
Getting ready for Christmas- December 2024
The newest member of our team, the talented Nadiya Boyar, with PhD students that completed year 1, 2 and 3 of their studies. Our team comprises scientists and clinicians from diverse backgrounds, including immunology, hepatology, virology, cell and molecular biology, and in Nadiya’s case, biochemistry and molecular mechanistic toxicology, with a focus on lipid nanoparticles.
AASLD abstract success in San Diego- November 2024
Our PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan had his latest abstract published in Hepatology, outlining his research in Autoimmune and Metabolic liver injury at The Liver Meeting, AASLD 2024 in San Diego, CA, USA.
Summer students visiting our lab- August 2024
What better way to spend some of your summer holidays than joining a research team! Welcome to our visiting medical students İzgi Ilgaz Çatal from Marmara University in Turkey and Hannah Xing from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Exploring Dr Fei Wang’s homeland, Inner Mongolia – July 2024
Our visiting collaborator, consultant hepatobiliary surgeon Dr Fei Wang offered our team a tour of beautiful Inner Mongolia, riding horses, hiking in the Grasslands and exploring the Kubuqi desert.
Enclysis presentations at Hohhot, Inner Mongolia – July 2024
We are grateful to our collaborator Dr Fei Wang, for the invitation to present our latest work at the Affiliated Hospital, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China. Enclysis targeting reveals new opportunities for the benefit of patients with liver diseases, including viral hepatitis and liver cancer.
Cross-discipline collaborations in Florence, Italy– April 2024
Dr Zania Stamataki is drawing inspiration from the masters in Florence, including Professor in practice Anju Massey Brooker from Durham University, the Programme lead for the RSC’s Sustainable Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) programme, Dr Daniele Spinelli, the Senior project manager at Next Technology Tecnotessile and Zhenyu Jason Zhang, Professor of Soft Matter Engineering at the University of Birmingham.
Meeting in Prato for Horizon Europe SUPREME Consortium– April 2024
What wonderful hosts for our third meeting of the SUPREME consortium, our collaborators from Prato, Italy! We are developing novel sustainable nanoparticle-based antivirals for the textile and fashion industries. Thank you to Fabio Giusti from Trafi Creatività Tessile srl, Daniele Spinelli and Ilaria Canesi from Next Technology Tecnotessile for their hospitality!
Deciphering the mechanisms of cell-in-cell structures- February 2024
A ray of winter sunshine and a group of dedicated researchers sharing ideas to understand the biological processes that drive cell-in-cell structures. Welcome to our Research Highlights session!
Congratulations Professor Jason Zhang – February 2024
It was wonderful to see colleagues from our Horizon Europe SUPREME consortium, who came to visit the University of Birmingham to celebrate the McBain Medal received by our collaborator and SUPREME consortium co-lead Professor Jason Zhang. There was even a beer tasting for our Belgian colleagues, Professor Jan Van Impe and team!
Excellent skills from our PhD student Hanan Almakhayitah- January 2024
What a great way to start the year, with a team meeting at the main campus and PhD student Hanan Almakhayitah showing off her anatomy skills in the lab.
Our teams’ PhD students – January 2024
Kevin Yiyu Fan (Y3), Hanan Almakhayitah (Y2), Yuxin Li (Y1) and Harriet Hill (Y3), who is also our lab technician, all come from different clinical and non-clinical scientific training backgrounds and bring their own skills and perspective to our team.
25 and up: the Academy for the next generation – AMS, London November 2023
How exciting to present findings from the focus group for 25 and Up, the future of health research for the next 25 years, by the Academy of Medical Sciences. Inspirational speakers included AMS Executive Director Simon Denegri and Professor Dame Angela McLean DBE FRS, the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser. Find out more here.
Research in progress presentation by PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan – November 2023
Another successful presentation at the Centre for Liver and GI Research, well done to our PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan.
Meeting Dr Kostas Aliazis at Celtics -November 2023
It was wonderful to catch up with our past PhD student, Dr Kostas Aliazis, in Boston. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School. Celtics won 🙂
Kevin wins Early Career Investigator award! – Boston, USA November 2023
Congratulations to our surgeon PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan, who gave a fabulous presentation on enclysis at The Liver Meeting AASLD in Boston. He won an Early Career Investigator Award in Basic Science! Well done Kevin! Read Kevin’s abstract here.
With the Paediatric Liver team at AASLD – Boston 2023
What a fun bunch – here is our collaborator Professor Deirdre Kelly CBE FRCP, FRCPI, FRCPCH, MD who founded the paediatric liver unit in Birmingham, together with Carla Lloyd and Suz Warner from her team. They showed us how to make the most of the Liver meeting at AASLD in Boston.
Nanostring Symposium at the Royal Society – London, October 2023
A trip with Aek Tuekprakhon to my beloved Royal Society, where we attended the Nanostring symposium. This was packed with new technologies in spatial transcriptomics, we can’t wait to use these in human liver tissues!
Emerging Research Leaders Summit -October 2023 AMS London
In October, the Academy of Medical Sciences Emerging Research Leaders Summit brought together 100 future research leaders for an open space event in Birmingham to explore a vision for UK health research in the next 25 years. Over two days, there were nearly 90 different discussion sessions. Watch out for the report later in the year. Find out more here.
Second meeting for our Horizon Europe SUPREME Consortium – September 2023
We are grateful to Professor Kyriakidis and the team at FORTH ITE and PCN Materials, hosting an excellent second meeting for our Sustainable Nanoparticle Enabled Antimicrobials Surface Coatings consortium (SUPREME). Find out more about it here.
Celebrating our visiting medical student from Turkey -September 2023
Lovely to host Mehmet Ali (Abraham) Berkyurek who is a medical student at the Marmara University Faculty of Medicine and visited our lab for an internship. Follow his adventures here. Great to work with you Abraham!
BSI Midlands presentation by Marcin Kowalczyk -June 2023
Congratulations to our intercalating medical student Marcin Kowalczyk, who presented his work at the BSI Midlands Symposium in Leicester. The project on SARS-CoV-2 tropism was supervised by Dr Aek Tuekprakhon.
MRC Fellows Symposium – London June 2023
A strong representation for liver researchers at the MRC Fellows symposium, including new NIRG fellow Dr Evangelos Triantafylloy, MRF Fellow Dr Hamish Innes, MRC Fellow Dr Wei-Yu Lu, MRF Fellow Dr Uppy Gill, new MRC CDA Fellow Dr Alan Xiaodong Zhuang, and the MRC’s Interim Executive Chair Professor John Iredale
Robert Colvile for the Sunday Times – May 2023
We are grateful to Robert Colvile for his dedicated fundraising for research on autoimmune and viral hepatitis, following the tragic death of his wife, Andrea. In this article for the Sunday Times, he writes about our research. Find out more about Andrea’s story here.
UK Hepacivirus and Flavivirus Meeting -Rydal Hall May 2023
Through hard work to great heights – that is the motto of the University of Birmingham. Our postdoctoral researcher Dr Aek Tuekprakhon took his great heights all the way up a mountain at the Lake District, for the UK Hepacivirus and Flavivirus Meeting.
Robert Bryce’s presentation – May 2023
A proud supervisor moment – congratulations to Robert Bryce, presenting his work on enclysis. Rob worked hard during his intercalation project under the supervision of our PhD student, Kevin Yiyu Fan.
Researcher career development – May 2023
It is a pleasure to work with Dr Tim Giles, who organises multiple events to support researchers to thrive. The event here is at the Lloyd Suite of the Edbgaston Park Hotel, a beautiful venue, to learn more about research funding.
Drug discovery in spring – April 2023
It’s the little things that make me happy – the spring sun shining on a beautiful campus and our PhD student Kevin’s little pots of human liver from his drug discovery experiments.
A white board too comprehensive to wipe – March 2023
I love to teach immunology and virology for undergraduate and graduate students -sometimes their white board work is just too lovely to wipe clean!
ZS Lab team core values – 2023
Dr Aek Tuekprakhon captured this photo where our team core values are shown on the slide -these include integrity, innovation and impact.
ZS Lab team lunch – February 2023
Thank you for the delicious dishes! Our group made the most of the refurbished staff common room in our building.
Research in progress by Harriet Hill – February 2023
Fascinating study of COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus variants by our PhD student Dr Harriet Hill, who is just entering her third year of her PhD.
Research in progress by Dr Aek Tuekprakhon -January 2023
Congratulations Dr Aek Tuekprakhon, on an exciting presentation describing new human liver models to study viral infection and spread.
Horizon Europe success for our sustainable antimicrobials consortium -January 2023
Many thanks to Professor Jan Van Impe and his team at KU Leuven, for hosting an excellent kick-off meeting for our Sustainable Nanoparticle Enabled Antimicrobials Surface Coatings consortium (SUPREME). Find out more about it here.
Our team -January 2023
From top left to bottom right, Dr Aek Tuekprakhon,, Dr Fei Wang, Marcin Kowalczyk, Harriet Hill, Prabhbir Devgun, Zania Stamataki, Dr Adam McGuinness, Robert Bryce, Kevin Yiyu Fan, Arzoo Patel, Hanan Almakhayitah, Yannis Chuck, Mwila Kafwanka and Megan Cathrall.
BSI Congress – Liverpool December 2022
Poster presentations with research updates from Lauren Richardson – collaboration with Celentyx Ltd., Kevin Yiyu Fan on enclysis and Aek Tuekprakhon on viral infection.
BSI Congress – Liverpool December 2022
The neutralising antibodies team found a quiet spot to watch Professor Alex Richter’s inaugural professorial presentation. Harriet Hill, Alex Cook, Sian Faustini and Zania Stamataki: congratulations Alex Richter, thinking of you in Liverpool!
BSI Congress – Liverpool December 2022
On the way to BSI Congress 2022, with our postdoctoral scientists Aek Tuekprakhon, Fei Wang and PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan. Looking forward to a few days of cutting edge immunology on viral infection, the liver and beyond.
Poster presentations for Ruby, Aek and Kevin – November 2022
Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy Research update day, and Ruby Fell, Aek Tuekprakhon and Kevin Yiyu Fan presented their work in posters.
Oral presentation for Arzoo Patel – November 2022
Congratulations Arzoo Patel, on your oral presentation on the role of B cells in adult and paediatric liver injury! PhD funded by BCHRF.
A busy day in the lab -November 2022
How lovely to see all excited to get started – each has their own project but they work together to understand liver and viral immunology.
Visiting the Robb Lab – September 2022
Visiting Dr Nicole Robb with our new postdoctoral scientist Dr Aek Tuekprakhon together with our collaborator Professor Jason Zhenyu Zhang. Fabulous premises at the medical school, University of Warwick!
MDS SUSTAIN – September 2022
Dr Zania Stamataki has taken over from Professor Wiebke Arlt as academic lead for MDS SUSTAIN, a leadership scheme for new group leaders from underrepresented backgrounds based on the Academy of Medical Sciences scheme for women in research found here.
Understanding enclysis in human livers -August 2022
When a hepatobiliary surgeon, a general surgeon and a medical student work together to understand liver biology, washing up may be involved! Visiting medical student Emre Kilic from the University of Istanbul, CSC-funded visiting consultant surgeon Dr Fei Wang from the Inner Mongolia Medical University and our PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan.
The impact of COVID-19 on post viral syndromes -July 2022
Discussing the impact of COVID-19 infection for BBC Midlands Today with RTS journalist of the year winner Dr David Gregory-Kumar. Follow David for more updates @DrDavidGK
BSI Summer School – July 2022
Join us at BSI Summer school to discuss science careers! Panelists included Dr Ane Ogbe (AdaptImmune), Dr Elly Rankin (Miltenyi Biotec) and Dr Zania Stamataki (University of Birmingham), chaired by the BSI Education and Careers Secretary Dr Donald Palmer.
Pizza with our graduate students -June 2022
Lab meeting over pizza with our Masters and PhD students. Great to have you with us Arzoo Patel, Harriet Hill, Ruby Fell, Federica Pandolfini, Kevin Yiyu Fan and Lauren Terry.
Celebrating with a pint of Old Joe – May 2022
Their PhDs are going well! The neutralising antibodies team celebrating with a Pint of Old Joe beer, a treat from our Head of College.
Professor Stefan Hübscher retirement – May 2022
Professor Stefan Hübscher retires after a hugely impactful career. We are grateful for his contributions to our projects and his pathology advice over the years. Read more about the Gnomes here.
Acute unexplained hepatitis in children – April 2022
The UK has raised the alarm for an increase in acute unexplained hepatitis cases in children – we discussed this on sky news. The live captions struggled a little with the Greek name 🙂
Career development for Early Career Researchers -PERCAT March 2022
Returning to face-to-face provisions for Early Career Researchers, our PERCAT focus group adapts to our researchers’ evolving needs.
A busy time in the ZS lab – February 2022
A real pleasure to host project students who join us for their MSci and Biomedical Sciences dissertation projects. Masters students in this photo include MSc in Immunology and Immunotherapy and MSc in Cancer Sciences, trained by PhD student Kevin Yiyu Fan.
Ben’s and Laura’s work at BSI Congress – November 2021
Describing how the human liver microenvironment shapes helper T cell populations – a collaboration with our team, Prof. Yuehua Huang’s team via Emily Li and Prof. Mala Maini’s team, driven by our PhD student Ben Wiggins and Dr Laura Pallett.
Congrats to the COVID team -November 2021
The core team working hard on SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic, showcasing their work on neutralising antibodies presented by Prof. Alex Richter at our Institute Away Day: congratulations Harriet Hill, Alex Cook and Sian Faustini!
Mentoring online and finally meeting face-to-face – October 2021
A mentor’s delight, when finally meeting Elisa Heyrman face-to-face at our college of Medical and Dental sciences. This mentoring relationship was fostered by the British Society for Immunology. Apart from the BSI, Zania is also a mentor for the NEST scheme, for the Royal Society and for the AMS. Folllow Elisa’s career here.
Training is back! Welcome to Kevin and Sam – June 2021
Training new students is permitted – welcome to Kevin Yiyu Fan and Sam Kausar to our team, receiving training from James Kennedy.
with live human livers – June 2021
Some projects were more affected by the pandemic than others – Arzoo Patel, funded by the BCHRF, persevered to resume her studies in human liver immune cells.
Harriet’s oral presentation -April 2021
Congratulations! Neutralising antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in convalescent and vaccinated adults – Harriet’s PhD work at the Microbiology Society annual conference -a proud moment where a screenshot would just not do!
In-person celebration with a team of two – February 2021
Our two team members authorised to work during the pandemic restrictions – Harriet Hill and James Kennedy. After their hard work as a technician and MSc student respectively, they both went on to commence PhDs at our Centre for Liver and GI Research.
The privilege of vaccination -February 2021
Safe and effective vaccines to prevent severe disease from COVID-19!
BSI Virtual Conference – December 2020
The British Society for Immunology – BSI Congress was originally due to take place in 2020 but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was rescheduled for 2021. In its place, there was a two-day virtual scientific conference, ‘Connecting immunology in the time of COVID-19’, which took place on 1–2 December 2020.
Digital EASL 2020 – August 2020
A new type of congress, The International Liver Congress by EASL goes digital! Great to see friends and colleagues online, and our postdoc presented the latest in human liver multiphoton microscopy models.
Our Masters students submit their dissertations August 2020
Our Masters students in spring-summer 2020 showed remarkable resilience, as they had to deliver their projects under unprecedented circumstances.
Alia Yasin (International student, MRes in Cancer Sciences) commenced her laboratory -based project in 2019, and also helped direct undergraduate students in our team before COVID-19 restrictions. She continued to help instruct other students in high content imaging analyses for drug discovery during the lockdown, following travel to her home country.
Khadiza Lace, Hannah Cooke and Emily Williams (MSc in Immunology and Immunotherapy) worked hard to complete their dissertations to high standard remotely as their projects started during the restrictions. Congratulations all!
Becky Macpherson
Becky Macpherson wins Gold July 2020
Our Biomedical Sciences student Becky Macpherson presented her poster at the Future Physiology virtual conference and received a gold award!
Congratulations to Becky, who did four presentations back-to-back. What a way to top a very successful year with a First Class degree in Biomedical Sciences!
First 2020 lab social with our undergraduate students -February 2020
Lab meeting over pizza with our undergraduate and Masters project students in February 2020. Great to have you with us Alia Yasin (MSc in Cancer Sciences), Victoria Phipps, Becky Macpherson and Kelly Jowett (Biomedical Sciences).
Stamataki Lab at British Society for Immunology Congress -December 2019
Congratulations to our NC3R-funded trainee fellow Dr. Scott Davies who won best poster award at the BSI Congress in Liverpool, 2019 for our work on enclysis. Our team had a fantastic meeting with lots of new collaborations and great feedback for our work. We are grateful to the BSI for travel funding awards that enabled our students to attend.
Lauren Terry at the MRC Max Perutz awards for Science writing 2019
We were so proud to celebrate the science writing achievement of our MRC iCASE PhD student Lauren Terry at the Royal Institution in London. Lauren received £200 in honour of Max Perutz for her essay on Senolytics, the anti-ageing products that she studies to reverse liver injury.
Best oral presentation award for Dr. Scott Davies
Dr. Saty Kaur, UoB alumna and account manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, awarded Dr. Scott Davies the best oral presentation prize at the Mechanisms of Inflammation Symposium in Birmingham, 2019. In attendance, the President of the Academy for Medical Sciences professor Sir Robert Lechler and University of Manchester professor Sheena Cruickshank.
The Stamataki lab attended MOIS2019 in October. Excellent poster presentations by PhD students Lauren Terry and Arzoo Patel
Our second year PhD student Lauren Terry and our first year PhD student Arzoo Patel presented posters at the Mechanisms of Inflammation Symposium MOIS 2019 in Birmingham UK.
Dr. Scott Davies at Pint of Science 2019
This event showcased exciting new technologies developed by scientists funded by the NC3Rs – the National Centre for the Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement of Animals in Research. Scott explained in lay terms how he can achieve real-time imaging using authentic human disease tissue, which is superior to observations in animal models.
Project end celebrations -March 2019
Our intercalating Clinical Sciences students Maxim Harris and Florence Hockey, and Biomedical Sciences student Elly Scanlon have completed their lab-based projects with our team. Cause for celebration!
Ms Ratnam Gandhi: Guts UK/Dr Falk Medical Student Prize Winner 2018
Our talented intercalating medical student Ratnam Gandhi won a prestigious gastroenterology researcher award by Guts UK/Dr Falk Pharma.
Ratnam excelled in her studies in our lab, and wrote a winning essay to describe her project on defining the molecular mechanisms of hepatocyte efferocytosis for therapeutic intervention.
Read more about Ratnam’s project in her interview at the award web page.
A double celebration: Ben Wiggins and Scott Davies defend their PhD theses
Our PhD students funded by the MRC Centre for Immune Regulation both passed their viva voce examinations with minor corrections in September 2018. Thanks to Prof. Mala Maini and Dr. Chris Weston for examining Ben, and to Dr. Oliver Florey and Dr. Shishir Shetty for examining Scott. Celebrations!
Ben Wiggins celebrates passing his viva with Scott Davies and Kostas Aliazis
Scott Davies celebrates passing his viva with Susan Liu, Kostas Aliazis and Ben Wiggins. Our PhD students are standing in reverse order of expected thesis submission date: Kostas is next and Susan to follow!
The first BSI liver interest immunology symposium, February 2018
Our team enjoyed presenting posters and attending exciting talks at the first symposium for liver immunology organised by the British Society for Immunology London Immunology Group.
Our intercalating medical students Ratnam Gandhi and Rehana Rahman presented posters, alongside PhD students Scott Davies and Kostas Aliazis.
A great meeting, we hope the first of a series on liver immunology.
Congratulations to our award-winning intercalating Clinical Sciences students!
Ratnam Gandhi and Rehana Rahman both won the highly prestigious Sir Arthur Thomson Trust Intercalating Bursary of £4,000!
This competitive award recognises their academic ability and researcher potential as their proposal and preliminary data were selected by a panel of trustees and university representatives.
5000 Liver Transplants in Birmingham! September 2017
Exciting science and great poster session at the #5000Livers celebration conference in Birmingham. In the early 1980s, attempts to launch a pioneering liver transplant programme in Birmingham were met with hostility and disbelief- liver transplants had only been performed in a few centres throughout the world and results were poor- fewer than one in three patients lived beyond a year. The vision and courage of the early pioneers helped to sustain the pressures and overcome the challenges that lay ahead them.
Poster Presentations by our Masters Students
Our project students Anastasia Kapsali and Thomas Bean proudly presenting their work as part of their MSc in Immunology and Immunotherapy in July 2017.
Scott’s Presentation at the NC3R Summer School in Nottingham
Scott Davies has developed systems to screen pharmaceuticals using human liver tissues during his MRC-funded PhD. He presented his work at the NC3R summer school in Nottingham. NC3R stands for National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research.
Our PhD student Scott Davies presenting his work at the NC3R Summer School in Nottingham, in July 2017
Celebrating BCHRF Grant Success
Congratulations to the team and especially Dr Gary Reynolds, for gaining funding from the Birmingham Children’s Hospital Research Foundation to study biliary atresia. Best of luck on this exciting new project!
Well done team and especially Dr Gary Reynolds. Thank you for all your hard work!
Graduation time! Well done Dr Purswani
A proud and emotional time, as our first PhD student of the Stamataki Lab graduates. Sudha was funded by the Wellcome Trust and completed a four year PhD programme that included an MRes in Immunology with three laboratory rotations.
Dr Sudha Purswani, PhD July 2017
Sudha Purswani Defends her PhD Thesis
Congratulations to our PhD student Sudha Purswani for defending her thesis at viva voce examination. Wishing her all the best for a bright future!
Congratulations to Sudha Purswani, for her PhD thesis defence, in April 2017
Scott’s presentation at the British Society for Immunology Congress 2016
Our PhD student Scott Davies presented his work at the Immune Regulation and Communication session in Liverpool in December 2016: a much-tweeted event at the Congress, which was jointly organised by the British and Dutch Societies for Immunology. Scott is funded by the MRC Centre for Immune Regulation.
Well done Scott for a fantastic presentation! BSI/NVVI Congress in Liverpool, UK
Team presentations at the Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy Away Day
The inaugural Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy away day was a great opportunity for our students to showcase their work.
Scott Davies, Ben Wiggins, Emily Li, Kostas Aliazis and Jai Matharoo presented their work at the I&I Away Day in November 2016
Congratulations to Ben Wiggins for his presentation at ECLCB-7
Our PhD student Ben gave an excellent presentation on his favourite topic of T cell activation and tolerance in the liver at the European Club for Liver Cell Biology meeting, Ascot, UK. Ben is funded by a PhD studentship from the MRC Centre for Immune Regulation.
Ben Wiggins presenting at the 7th symposium of the European Club for Liver Cell Biology (ECLCB-7) in Ascot, UK.
Stamataki Lab Work Experience Students for Summer 2016
Welcome to our new work experience students, who joined our team this summer for a taste of liver biology.
Yanbo Yin (Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge), Ibtisam Dirie (BMedSc, University of Birmingham), Jai Matharoo (Medicine, University of Birmingham) and Sophie Wiggins (Cotham School, Bristol)
Science Week visit to Cotteridge Junior and Infant School
STEM ambassadors from our team visited Cotteridge Junior and Infant School as part of Science week 2016. We spent time with students from Year 1 and Year 4 classes, performed experiments and demonstrated how much fun it is to be a scientist and work on our amazing livers.
STEM ambassadors Ben Wiggins, Zania Stamataki, Ditte Hedegaard, Sudha Purswani and Kostas Aliazis at Cotteridge Junior and Infant School -March 2016
Farewell to our visiting postdoc Ke who is returning to China.
Farewell and thank you to Dr Ke Wang, our visiting postdoc from Professor Yuehua Huang’s team at the Third Affiliated Hospital in Sun Yat-sen University, China. Ke is going back to continue his clinical work after a year with us.
Thank you Ke for your hard work during the past year.
Stamataki Lab welcomes the new BMedSc project students
A very warm welcome to Dev and Fras, who joined our lab this week. They will perform experiments towards their final year dissertation for the Biomedical Science BSc.
From left to right: Dev Sangha, Ben Wiggins, Kostas Aliazis, Zania Stamataki, Sudha Purswani, Hania Asim, Susan Liu, Scott Davies, Bardia Guevel, Fras Ahmad, Ke Wang. 15/01/2016
Members of the Stamataki Lab at the “Meet the Scientist” Event at Think Tank
Scott, Ben, Susan and Zania joined the Centre for Liver Research outreach team at the “Meet the Scientist” event which took place at Think Tank, the Science Museum in Birmingham in October 2015.
Aspiring young scientists performed experiments, learned how to look after their amazing livers, and what can go wrong in liver disease.
Sudha Purswani and Ben Wiggins report from the ECI 2015 in Vienna
The 4th European Congress in Immunology (ECI) took place in Vienna. Our PhD students Sudha Purswani and Ben Wiggins secured funding from the BSI+ECI and BSI respectively to travel to Vienna and present their work on the 6th-9th of September.
Sudha’s talk on Mapping the human liver B cell compartment in health and disease was first in the session on B Cell Development & Homeostasis. Ben presented his work on the importance of considering migration when assessing T cell function as a poster.
Rukhsarr Ahmed won £10,000 scholarship
Rukhsarr Ahmed secured a £10,000 scholarship towards a Masters Degree in Cancer Studies.
Congratulations to our BMedSci project student Rukhsarr Ahmed, who won a competitive scholarship by the University of Birmingham worth £10,000 towards a Masters Degree in Cancer Studies (September 2015).
Rukhsarr’s passion for tumour biology shone through during her time with us, where she studied Hepatocellular Carcinoma biology.
Find out more about the University of Birmingham Masters Scholarships competitive scheme here.
Our new intercalating medics started this week
Bardia and Hania seen here with all six intercalating medics that joined the Centre for Liver Research this week (1st September 2015).
Intercalating Medics joining the CLR in 2015
Susan and Colin’s chocolatey treats
Susan and Ben baked tasty chocolate treats to celebrate the completion of Susan’s MRC Confidence in Concept project and the end of Colin’s summer placement.
Sunny Days 2015
Summer 2015 in the IBR garden, with Colin our visiting summer student from Cambridge and with Shar and Dan, PhD students from the Bailey lab.
Zania selected for the inaugural SUSTAIN programme
SUSTAIN is a new programme that will work with women researchers to enable them to thrive in their independent research careers. It provides an innovative programme of training and support to develop participants’ leadership and career potential.
Twenty female scientists have been selected to take part in this programme to help more women achieve senior research positions.
Those chosen to take part in the inaugural SUSTAIN programme, run by the Academy of Medical Sciences, will take part in a year-long programme of training, mentoring and peer networking around research.
Congratulations to Scott Davies for winning best PhD student talk prize
Our Scott won this fluffy penguin prize for giving the best oral presentation at the College of Medical and Dental Sciences’ PhD student away day. Dudley Zoo, 20th of May 2015.
Our PhD student Scott Davies with his Best Talk penguin prize!
Ashley Retchless winner of the Dr Falk Pharma UK / Core Awards
Congratulations to Ashley Retchless, our intercalating medical student, who was awarded a Dr Falk Pharma UK / Core charity bursary for 2015. 5th of May 2015.
The Dr Falk/Core awards were established in 2007 to encourage and reward medical students and healthcare professionals with a research interest in gastroenterology and hepatology.
Congratulations to Ben Wiggins, for his MRC Supplementary Funding Award
Our first year PhD student Ben Wiggins was successful in securing competitive funding to support his placement with Bioniz, in California, US. 20 February 2015
Ben Wiggins seen here with Dr Nazli Azimi, Founder and CEO of Bioniz, and postdoctoral scientist Asjad. Bioniz is an emerging bio-pharmaceutical company located in Irvine CA.
Stamataki Lab 