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
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 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 Maiar Elgobashy, 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 