The Lab Team

Current Members

Davis Lab Oxford

Simon Davis

“I grew up in South Australia and completed a science degree at Flinders University in Adelaide in 1982. My PhD studies on Dictyostelium developmental biochemistry, also at Flinders, were supervised by John Wheldrake. It had been John who suggested, in one of his undergraduate classes, that all biochemistry students should read “The Double Helix” by JD Watson. “

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Davis Lab Oxford

Yuan (Oliver) Lui

“After finishing my DPhil in computer science at Oxford, I joined the T-cell biology group as a postdoc.”

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Mafalda Santos

“I joined the Davis Lab as a post-doc in early 2013. I’m from Lisbon, Portugal, and there I completed my degree in Molecular Cell Biology, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.”

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Davis Lab Oxford

Mai Vuong

“After completing a BSc (Hons) degree in Biochemistry from Kingston University, I went on to do a Masters in Biochemical Engineering at University College London.”

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Visiting Students

Emily Ng

I am a fourth year biochemistry student at the University of Oxford, and I am undertaking my Part II research project in the Davis lab in 2022-2023.

Ciaran Gilbride

I am a second year biochemistry student at Oxford University, and I undertook a 9-week internship in the Davis lab in the summer of 2015. Simon gave me an opportunity to work in his lab at really short notice after another supervisor pulled out. Everyone in the lab was really friendly and helpful, especially as I often didn’t quite know what I was doing in my first few weeks. I expected to be just shadowing a researcher and making the tea, but I was able to get hands on learning a host of new skills and techniques in the first week, before I was entrusted to work independently from my second wek. It was a really fantastic experience and I would highly recommend an internship in the Davis lab for anyone who wants experience in lab work or in the field of immunology.

Shirley Yang

I’m currently a 4th year undergraduate student studying chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University in the US. I joined the Davis Lab for a summer in order to gain research experience and contribute to ongoing work in the lab. My project involved cloning multiple constructs of mouse Fc receptors and understanding T-cell activation by superagonist antibodies. While in Oxford, I enjoyed punting for the first time, learning to play cricket, traveling to the rest of Europe, and marveling at everything British!

Previous Members

Jan Fennelly

I trained in medical laboratory sciences in Newcastle prior to entering research working on cell surface receptors. Later I decided that a change was in order and moved to Oxford to work on OX40 and CD4 in Neil Barclay’s lab at the Dunn School. Then followed a brief departure back north to Manchester where I worked in Mike Dexter’s lab and completed a part-time BSc in applied biological sciences.

I have now worked in the T-cell biology group for seventeen years, taking part in many projects, including the expression and purification of many proteins and antibodies proteins. More recently my main focus has been on very  large scale expression of cell surface complexes in order that that can be purified for structural studies.

In my spare time I enjoy growing vegetables on my allotment and creating stained glass windows.

Jiandong (Dongdong) Huo

After completing an undergraduate degree in Medical Microbiology & Immunology at Newcastle University, I joined the T-cell biology group in 2008 to start my D. Phil, funded by the Clarendon fund and a Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) Research Prize, and obtained my degree in 2012.

Working in the T-cell biology group is a completely different experience for me. My previous research experience involved functional studies of a cell wall protein and a cellular protein in Bacillus subtilis (an experimental system for Gram-Positive bacteria), in Prof. Errington’s group. My current work focuses on investigating the first stage of the intracellular signaling network in T cells, i.e. the binding of SH2-domain containing proteins to the phosphorylated cytoplasmic tails of cell surface receptors, aiming to build up a systemic model of the network of such interactions in a T cell.

Meike Aßmann

I first became excited about immunology during my undergraduate studies at Jacobs University Bremen, where my thesis project focused on the biochemistry of MHC class I proteins. I then enrolled in the Wellcome Trust Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine D.Phil. programme here in Oxford. In my first year I had the chance to take part in shorter research projects in three different groups throughout the Medical Sciences Division, and I stayed in the T-cell biology group for 12 weeks.

My project focused on “superagonistic” antibodies against CD28, and I became so fascinated with the story that I decided to stay for another three years to extend it into a D.Phil. thesis project. I am now investigating the molecular basis for antibody superagonism with a super-resolution microscopy approach together with our collaborators in Cambridge. We are aiming to visualise at the single-molecule level how receptors on the cell surface re-arrange when the cell is stimulated with a superagonist.

Outside of the lab I enjoy riding horses and attending Salsa dancing events throughout Oxford.

James Felce

I first joined the Davis Lab in 2008 when I completed a lab-based dissertation as part of my undergraduate master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. This work focussed on the stoichiometry of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) CCR5, a major drug target due to its role in HIV infection. I subsequently returned to begin my D.Phil in 2009, investigating the family-specific behaviour of GPCRs and the evolutionary contributions to their stoichiometry. This involved extensive use of established and novel approaches to bioluminescence resonance energy transfer as well as single-molecule imaging in collaboration with the David Klenerman lab, University of Cambridge.

Since completing my D.Phil in 2014, I have remained in the Davis lab as a post-doc but have entirely changed the focus of my work, and am now undertaking a structural study on the T-cell receptor and an investigation of triggering by Fc receptors in collaboration with the Christian Eggeling lab. I was recently awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship as a direct result of the outstanding scientific environment that I have been privileged to be exposed to within the Davis lab, and thanks to generous assistance from Simon himself, though this sadly means I will be leaving the Davis group at the end of my current position.

Martin Wilcock

I am originally from Ramsbottom in Lancashire. I studied pre-clinical medicine at Gonville and Caius College before going on to undertake my clinical training at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. After qualifying as a doctor I undertook foundation training in the Eastern Deanery followed by core medical training in the London Deanery. I am currently a renal and general medical trainee in the Oxford Deanery.

I have always had a strong interest and passion for basic science. During my undergraduate training I undertook a summer studentship at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and I subsequently undertook the part II of my pre-clinical degree in Biochemistry. It was always my intention to undertake a substantive period of research alongside my clinical training. I am currently a MRC Clinical Research Fellow undertaking a DPhil in basic immunology co-supervised by Professor Simon Davis and Professor Richard Cornall. My project sets out to understand more clearly the mechanism of B cell receptor triggering.

Chris Paluch

I was born and raised on the small Channel Island of Guernsey. I completed my undergraduate and clinical medical training in Cambridge as a member of St John’s College. I then moved to Oxford to begin work as a junior doctor, and first joined the T cell biology lab for a 4 month project as part of the academic foundation programme. After completing my foundation years in 2015 I came back to the lab to begin a DPhil, funded by the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Scheme for Clinicians. My project is co-supervised by Simon Davis and Prof Richard Cornall. I am looking at the therapeutic potential of targeting inhibitory receptors on immune cells with superagonistic antibodies.

Jemma McBride

I first moved to Oxford in 2011, shortly after graduating from my BSc (Hons) Zoology degree. In 2014 I joined the T-cell biology group as a research assistant. Since joining I have been involved in purifying SH2 family proteins for binding projects and most recently immunoglobulin superfamily studies.

Heather Brouwer

I moved to Oxford from my hometown of Burnley, Lancashire in 1999 to study a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at St Hilda’s College. During the final year of my degree I specialised in human disease, neuropharmacology and glycobiolgy, and completed a 12 week lab project at the Glycobiology Institute under the supervision of Dr Terry Butters.

I joined the Davis Lab as a research assistant in July 2003. My early projects involved cloning, expressing and purifying CD28 and its family members for crystallography and binding studies. Since then my primary area of focus has been in the Superagonistic Antibody project. My key roles involve the generation of soluble ITIM-containing Immunoglobulin superfamily proteins for immunisations and the subsequent epitope mapping of antibodies developed against these proteins.

During my time with the group I have completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Forensic science with Staffordshire University. When not in the lab I enjoy family time with my husband and two young children. My interests include paper crafts, sewing, baking, reading and watching crime dramas.

Rita Santos

I grew up in a small sunny town called Aveiro in Portugal, but I moved to Porto to do my first degree in Biomedical Science. As an undergraduate I worked at IBMC, Porto, with Prof Alexandre do Carmo, with a group of proteins that belongs to Scavenger Receptor Cystein-Rich superfamily and I immediately understood that immunology was the field that I wanted to follow. So I started my master degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at University of Aveiro, Portugal, and I did my master thesis under the orientation of Prof. Alexandre in the signal transduction field. Since that I am still in the same lab and I have been working mostly with CD5, a T cell antigen receptor.

I joined the T cell biology group (a long term collaborator of Prof. Alexandre’s lab) in July 2015 as a visiting student to be involved in the running projects. Next year, I’m going to start my PhD with a fellowship to work in Porto and Oxford.

Debbie Hatherley

After finishing my undergraduate degree, I joined Neil Barclay’s molecular immunology lab at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology where I completed my DPhil. The research focused on understanding the molecular basis of leukocyte cell surface protein interactions that are potential targets for cancer and autoimmune disease.

I have recently joined the Davis Lab with the goal of understanding the organisation and dynamics of proteins that control T cell responses.

Outside the lab I enjoy cycling, taking part in the local pantomime and going to the pub!

Elizabeth Huang

Having been fascinated by the dynamic nature of biological signalling networks and immunology since my teenage years, I have decided to decline my offers from the medical schools and to devote myself to fundamental immunological research.

After obtaining my undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University and my MSc from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), I started a D.Phil in Simon’s T-cell Biology Group at the University of Oxford (I am attached to the Queen’s college). My doctoral work focuses on super-resolution analysis of the resting T-cell surface with a special emphasis on the preTCR in collaboration with Prof David Klenerman’s Group in Cambridge. This work is aimed to further our understanding of receptor stoichiometry and signalling initiation by the TCR and the preTCR.

In my spare time, I am singing in a choir, playing the piano and rowing on the river Cherwell.

Billur Akkaya

I was born and grew up in the Aegean part of Turkey – the birthplace of ancient philosophy. After completing my degree in the Faculty of Medicine at Hacettepe University in Ankara, I joined the T-cell Biology Group as a D.Phil student in October 2008. My project here is co-supervised by Simon Davis and Richard Cornall.

My interest in scientific research began when I was a medical student. I attended several post-graduate level immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology lectures as a guest student in the Health Sciences Institute of Hacettepe University and tried to gain scientific insight and laboratory experience during my summer internships in the Glycobiology and Radiobiology Research Institutes of the University of Oxford. During my internships, I was very much inspired by the research atmosphere of Oxford and decided to apply for a place here after completing my medical degree. Amongst all the disciplines that I have had some experience of, I have always been interested in immunology the most. From a medical point of view, modulation of the immune system seems to have a key role in the solution of diverse health problems such as cancer, infections and autoimmune diseases. My project here is focused on understanding the role of costimulatory molecules, particularly PD-1 and ICOS, in autoimmune disease settings and investigating the consequences of modulating their function.

I live with another scientist, my husband Munir, who is also a D.Phil student, in the Cellular Immunology Unit at the Dunn School which shouldn’t necessarily mean we discuss immunology all day long. Besides immunology, I am very much interested in art and spend my spare time with oil painting on canvas and charcoal drawing.

Edward Evans

I currently co-manage the T-cell biology group as well as continuing my own projects, however I am leaving the lab at the end of March 2011 to work full time with Abingdon Community Church. For more details of my work please go to my archived page.

Rachel Knox

I grew up in Edinburgh, but seem to be gradually migrating southwards! After a gap year working as a classroom assistant in Tasmania, Australia, I went to Durham University to study Cell Biology. My first taste of life in the laboratory was a summer placement at Rothamsted Research (Hertfordshire), where I helped to further characterise a bacterial biocontrol agent for plant-parasitic nematodes. My undergraduate lab project, about using plant-delivered interference RNA to reduce insect feeding on crop species, and three weeks in the Netherlands Institute of Ecology doing some more molecular biology, helped to confirm my feeling that the lab is definitely the place for me.

I started as a research assistant in the T-cell Biology group in September. So far I have been working with James Felce to investigate the stoichiometry of GPCRs, and trying out a new protocol for making stable cell lines.

In my spare time, I’m usually learning German, sewing, or planning another hillwalking trip in the Scottish Munros (mountains over 3000 feet).

Ricardo Fernandes

After deciding that biochemistry was definitely my choice for my first degree I went on to spend 4 years discovering cells, proteins, pathways and reactions while having great fun at University of Porto, Portugal. As an undergraduate I worked at IBMC (Instituto Biologia Molecular e Celular, Porto) studying transthyretin 3-D structure with Prof Ana Margarida Damas and later studied cellular stress using a yeast model with Prof Pedro Moradas Ferreira, again at IBMC. Following this new challenge I joined Prof Suresh Rattan, at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, for a 6 month project under the ERASMUS program, where I literally tracked hundreds of fibroblasts to understand the effects of stress and ageing on both motility and cell division.

After this period in Denmark I almost immediately joined the T-Cell biology Group to work towards my D.Phil. Learning with John James, I started expressing fluorescent tagged proteins at the cell surface in order to image them at the single molecule level in collaboration with Prof David Klenerman’s Group in Cambridge. My other major projects focus on T-cell receptor triggering – which is still one of the major unresolved problems in T-cell biology – trying to understand, at molecular level, how signals crosses the T cell membrane.

Sara Morgan

A native of Wiltshire, I headed to Wales for university and studied at Cardiff University, gaining a B.Sc (Hons) in Applied Biology. As part of my 4 year course I spent a year working at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratories in Salisbury. During this time I worked in Virology, specifically with Vaccinia looking at subunit orthopox vaccines.

Having completed my studies, I decided I wanted to continue the student lifestyle, and started a D.Phil in the T-cell biology group, indulging my interests in cellular signalling and immunology. My project looked at the interactions of superagonistic antibodies with some of the CD28 family of T cell surface molecules, which are involved in T cell activation.

I returned to the group as a post-doc this year and am continuing to investigate the mechanisms of superagonistic antibody signalling.

When not in the lab you can find me at the cinema, playing sport and socialising with friends.

Shinji Ikemizu

Prof. Shinji Ikemizu is a long standing collaborator who was visiting at the time of this photo. He is based at the University of Kumamoto in Japan.

Veronica Chang

I obtained a D. Phil from Oxford University in 2003. I had been studying the biology of foraminifera since I was an undergraduate. Foraminifera is a marine single-cell protist, and has a very distinct phenomenon in its cellular biology – the cell engulfs seawater as vacuoles into the cytoplasm, and then molecular-mediated crystallisation takes place in these vacuoles to form their new CaCO3 shells. Foraminifera shells are the most important biological materials in the Earth Sciences since the composition of their CaCO3 skeletons has provided us with information about the history of ocean circulation and climate change. Thanks to its interesting process of seawater vacuolisation, foraminifera is also a very promising research model for studying the transportation of Mg and Ca from seawater into their shells.

It might seem odd that someone with my experiences would be interested in a post in molecular immunology, but in a rather convoluted way, this seems to be a right path. My previous work can be divided into three parts: (1) foraminifera cell biology and ecology, (2) the regulation of trace elements, and (3) the biomineralisation of foraminifera. In 1992, I started to work on foraminifera biology at Taiwan University under the supervision of Professor C.-Y. Huang. My primary responsibility was to identify foraminifera species and to correlate their assemblage changes to the environments. The Cd2+ caught my interest, and I had the good fortune of being co-supervised by Professor S.-C. Pai, an expert on analytical chemistry.

In 1998, I came under the tutelage of Professor Sir R. Keith O’Nions at Oxford. I initiated an unprecedented approach – using Mg and Ca stable isotopes – to study an extremely exciting subject, the biomineralisation of foraminifera. The lack of any research techniques available for such a study meant that the first challenge was – to design new chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to purify samples for high precision measurement, using MC-ICPMS (multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). These techniques enabled me to report the first ever Mg isotope composition of biological samples. However, these techniques can be applied to fields beyond that of biogeochemistry: among other things, they can shed light on the diet changes in archaeological studies by analysing the Ca and Mg isotopes of teeth and bone remains. These techniques have been published in J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 18 (2003) 296-301. The second part of my thesis work was to apply the techniques to study biomineralisation. I analysed natural foraminifera samples, seawater and laboratory crystallised samples, and discovered to my delight that the combination of Mg and Ca isotopes constitutes a powerful new tool to distinguish the different mechanisms in which Mg and Ca are involved in cell biology. A paper based on these results was submitted to Science and went on review. Although it was finally thought by the reviewers that yet more evidence should have been marshalled, the experience was nonetheless an encouragement for me and I obtained a much better appreciation of the rigorous standard of first-class science.

During my study of foraminifera, the process of seawater vacuolisation was what most caught my attention. The seawater vacuolisation of foraminifera occurs periodically during its life cycle and is believed to be triggered by cell stress, which may be similar to the initiation of phagocytosis. As I learned the phagocytosis of lymphocyte is not only through pinocytosis but also by opsonisation, I became very interested. What is more exciting is the phagocyte can present the digested antigen on its cell surface to bind T-cell receptor to trigger cell-mediated immunity. Up to this point, I have been completely attracted by such a fascinating recognition and communication network and came to an understanding that to do lymphocyte cell surface biology research is a wise long term career strategy.

I joined the T-cell biology group in July 2003. Although at this point, I have yet to learn all the biochemistry techniques and related knowledge, the group has been very helpful and I am a quick learner and very keen on exploring new disciplines. Versatile methodologies have been carried out in this lab, and among other things, I am eager to see the if my previous research experiences on isotopes, chromatography and MS might one day have an impact on protein structure analysis and T-cell biology.

Alex Carmo

I am in the T-cell Biology Group on sabbatical leave, visiting Oxford for the second time – before (1991-1996) I had been based at the Dunn School, and obtained my DPhil in 1995 from Wolfson College. I have a background in Biochemistry (Univ. Lisbon) and a Masters in Immunology (Univ. Porto), and have a deep interest in signal transduction in T lymphocytes.

In the last years I have been interested in the role of receptors of the Scavenger receptor cysteine-rich family such as CD5 and CD6 in the regulation of T cell activation, as well as in the characterization of other members, like our newest acquaintance SSc5D (platypucin). I came to the TCBG to learn the concepts of TCR triggering, and a number of in-house designed approaches (rigorous BRET, TCCD, DysCo) to better understand the topology of the T cell surface (and how to get activation without actual triggering).

Outside the lab, and unlike Dave, I seem to be unable to find pubs without tourists, which must mean that I’m a tourist myself. Also, it appears I have brought a lot of rain from my native Portugal.

Shinji Ikemizu

Prof. Shinji Ikemizu is a long standing collaborator who was visiting at the time of this photo. He is based at the University of Kumamoto in Japan. Link to his site here.

Chao Yu

I am from the south part of China and completed my Masters degree study at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Science in 1999. Then I joined the group supervised by Prof. Gunter Fishcer in the Max-Planck Research Unit on the Enzymology of Protein Folding in Germany to continue my PhD studies. My PhD research was focussed on the study of protein-protein interactions based on matrix-bound peptide arrays, and the study of catalysis of the peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerization of fluoroproline containing protein and peptide substrates by PPIases.

I started my post-doctoral position in the T-cell biology group in Oxford immediately after finishing my PhD study in 2003. Therefore, I now have a good opportunity to pursue my scientific interests in protein-protein interactions, mainly focusing on T-cell surface proteins which is an exciting and challenging field. My study of the interactions between T-cell surface proteins is mainly based on structural methods.

Charlotte Whicher

I completed my A-levels in York where I live and grew up, and am now studying Physiological Sciences at Oxford. I joined the T-cell biology group for 2 months at the end of my 2nd year to collect data for my dissertation. I worked alongside Mai on a novel mutagenesis strategy the group is developing to investigate buried surface in protein complexes as well as performing some antibody epitope mapping. After I complete my course at Oxford I want to continue in Biomedical research and will hopefully do a PhD.

Dave Sleep

Having grown up in a sleepy sea-side town on the South coast, following my A-levels I escaped to Southampton University where I spent two and a half years studying Biology with Oceanography. Seeing the error of my ways after all that time, I switched to a pure Biology honours BSc so that I could study parasitology and immunology in the last half of my final year.

After graduation I worked for a year with the Health Protection Agency in Southampton General Hospital testing blood, urine and other revolting patient samples for even more revolting diseases. Deciding I wasn’t quite ready for the real world yet, I moved to London to study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for an MSc in the Immunology of Infectious Diseases. The course was absolutely fantastic and persuaded me that a PhD was the way forward. After some searching, I was offered an interview for a D.Phil. in Simon’s lab and was given the position.

My D.Phil. centres around the introduction of a number of immune effector molecules on to B16-F10 melanoma cells so that we may elicit an immune response against them in an appropriate model. I also work with John James making conjugated Fab fragments for the investigation of single molecule cell movements on the T cell surface.

Outside the lab you’ll find me either cycling, climbing up a wall, kayaking (on a river!), playing rugby, running, or just trying to find a decent pub with no undergraduates or tourists in.

Sreenu Vattipally

I come from Ramancha, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, India. After completing my schooling in Ramancha, I went on to do a Bachelors degree at the Government Degree college, Siddipet, and my Masters in Microbiology at the Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Following my masters, I pursued my PhD in the Laboratory of Computational Biology at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad. I was under the supervision of one of India’s eminent computational biologists, Dr. H. A. Nagarajaram. My PhD research work was the first to show the role of microsatellites’ in mycobacterial pathogenesis. In addition, the work also provided new insights into the influence of microsatellite repeat number variations in fusion, fission and premature termination of genes in mycobacterial genomes.

I joined the T-cell biology group as a bioinfomatician in the summer of 2006. My work mainly involves analysing SAGE data by means of computational analysis. In my spare time I play chess, SuDoku and the keyboard. I am a computer geek and love familiarizing myself with new software.

Amit-Kumar Singh

I am a Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Scholar, studying ‘Evolution of the biophysical parameters of molecular interactions involved in T-cell costimulation’ for my D.Phil. degree. In order to improve fundamental understanding of T-cell costimulation my current activities are focused on the unique aspects of the interactions of avian costimulatory molecules. Most of my work is done in the Institute of Animal Health, Compton, in the laboratory of my co-supervisor John Young. I completed my B.Sc. and M.Sc. at Bareilly College, India and before joining T- Cell group I was working as a Junior Research Fellow in the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. I love oversleeping, cricket and my Indi-Panjabi guitar tabs.

Clare Gent

I came to the Davis Lab for work experience following completion of my GCSE exams at Oxford High School.

Claire Jessup

I completed my Biotechnology honours degree and doctoral studies at Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia). My PhD project, under the expert guidance of Keryn Williams in the Department of Ophthalmology, examined the potential of gene therapy for the treatment of corneal transplant rejection. Having lived all of my life in beautiful Adelaide, I decided it was time to have a look at ‘the rest of the world’ and was fortunate enough to meet Simon at a conference. I was awarded a NHMRC CJ Martin Travelling Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Australian Government and was welcomed into the T-cell Biology Group in July 2006.

Currently my work investigates molecules involved in T cell triggering, including CD28 and CTLA-4. My main project involves reconstituting T cell-surface signaling machinery in insect cells. Being a cellular immunologist at heart, it has been an enjoyable challenge adjusting to the molecular and structural focus of the lab, and I have appreciated the support of my fellow lab members in making the transition as smooth as possible!

Outside of the lab you’ll find my on my trusty (rusty) bike or on a netball court. I think Oxford is a beautiful place to live, and I’m looking forward to exploring as much of the northern hemisphere as I can over the next two years.

Farhana Ahmadi

I came to the lab to undertake a project looking at the biophysical properties of murine PD-1 and its ligands as part of my M.Sc. in Immunology.

Jamie Tarlton

I came to the T-cell biology group on work experience placement. My first such placement had been at an architects office as I was convinced that this was my calling; as you’re reading this you can obviously tell that I changed my mind. This placement went a lot better (at least I still want to do something in science). While here I successfully inserted the gene TCRa into the vector pGFP2 at position n3. This involved PCR and plasmids which I’d been learning about in my biology AS-level and now understand a lot more.

John James

Having spent four years at Oxford doing an M.Biochem, I couldn’t escape the bubble and decided to spend (at least) another three years here doing a DPhil in the Nuffield Dept Medicine. I had previously done a summer project in the T-cell biology group and, after some very persuasive coaxing by Simon I returned to the group in October 2002, on a Wellcome Prize Studentship. Prior to this I had done a summer project in Microbiology with Prof Judy Armitage and my part II project in Groningen, The Netherlands.

I moved to Linacre college from Merton so I could have something resembling a social life and the move has paid off well, enjoying the last years of tax-free earnings in style. All going well with the rest of my doctoral work I’d like to continue research as a post-doc, preferably somewhere sunny.

My work in the T-cell biology group focuses on the global organisation of molecules at the T-cell surface and how they function as a cohesive system. I get to do “sexy” single molecule microscopy and other cell biology techniques such as bioluminescence resonance energy transfer, or BRET (not quite as sexy).

Kasim Alam

I am part way through my A-levels and was awarded a Nuffield Bursary to work with the T-cell biology group for 6 weeks in the summer. My project involved making constructs to test the association of CD3 chains transfected into 293T cells using BRET.

Hussain Abidi

I grew up in Pakistan and did my Master’s degree at the University of Karachi, majoring in Microbiology. I then had an opportunity to join Qasim Mehdi`s laboratory in Islamabad where I learnt linkage analysis using microsatellite markers and SNP analysis on a pedigree of diseased and normal individuals.

In 2002 after meeting with a handful of principal investigators I decided to join the T-cell biology group at the University of Oxford as a D.Phil student. Here I started working on signal transduction pathways induced in CTLs via CD8 antibody cross-linking by using the global gene expression analysis method, SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression). Parallel to this I am working on identifying the antiviral factor(s) secreted by CTLs due to transcriptional remodelling in response to extrinsic factors, such as CD8 cross-linking.

Suzanne Birks

Currently an undergraduate in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Exeter, I won a vacation scholarship from the Wellcome Trust to work here in the Davis Lab for 8 weeks. My project has involved chimeric PCR, cloning, bacterial expression and protein refolding to generate a form of hB7-2 that can bind to hB7-1 specific drugs. I am now in the final stages of my project and, hoping to continue in the field of T-Cell immunology, I am applying for a PhD. Working with the group has been a fantastic experience and I would like to thank Simon for giving me this opportunity as well as Heather, Jan and Chao for their guidance.

Tom Strong

I came to the T-cell biology group for work experience following completion of my GCSE exams at Magdalen College School.

Andreas Sonnen

After completing my undergraduate education in Germany, I decided it would be a good opportunity to leave Germany and do my D.Phil. in a foreign country. Eventually I landed in Oxford, enrolling in a 4-year programme in Structural Biology. In my first year I have to complete two five month research projects. After working on cryo-EM reconstructions of the 40S eukaryotic ribosome in the group of Robert Gilbert (Division of Structural Biology), I transferred to the T-cell biology group in April. I am currently trying to express and crystallize the extracellular domain of CTLA-4; an inhibitory receptor on the T-cell surface. This project is in close collaboration with Chao Yu, who is supporting me a great deal. When I am not in the lab, you will probably find me either in the pool, on the running track or enjoying my social life with friends.

Emma James

After completing A Levels at Ysgol Gyfun Tasker Milward, Pembrokeshire, I went on to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where I achieved a first class honours degree in Biochemistry and Genetics. I came to Oxford in 2000 where I explored the role of polymorphisms in the new members of the CD28 and B7 families (ICOS, LICOS, PD-1, B7-H1 and B7-DC) in the pathogenesis of asthma, in an extensive collaboration with Professor William Cookson at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. This work indicates an important role for the PD-1 pathway in asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Following completion of my DPhil, I intend to continue into full-time post-doctoral research at the University of Wales College of Medicine.

Lawrence Hene

Having enjoyed four years in Oxford obtaining an M.Biochem, I was delighted to start a DPhil in 2001 in the Davis Lab. The majority of my time in the lab is spent analysing SAGE data.

Matthew Mair

I did not have far to travel to the lab, having grown up in Weston on the Green, outside Oxford. As yet I have no qualifications to my name, being a student at Magdalen College School. However, I was delighted to be able to spend my work experience in Professor Davis’ lab, having only previously known him as village Duckmeister! During my week in the lab, I worked on a mutational analysis of the organizational properties of the T cell receptor. I really enjoyed the week, due to the friendliness of Simon and his team, and have a much clearer idea of how science is applied day to day.

Srinika Ranasinghe

After completing my A-levels at my local sixth form college in South west London, I began a broad spectrum Biological Sciences degree at St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford in 2000. During my 3 years as an undergraduate student I learnt bits of everything; from lectures on malaria control in the 1960s to Arabidopsis plant genetics, and I even spent a whole summer visually recording the sexual mating behaviour of wild guppies!

Upon graduation I then worked as a research assistant for 9 months under the supervision of Dr Greg Towers and Prof Robin Weiss at the Wohl Virion Centre, Windeyer Building, UCL. Our group focused on the characterisation of TRIM5α, an intracellular anti-retroviral factor found in humans and monkeys that is able to block infection by both lentiviruses (e.g HIV & SIV) and gamma retroviruses.

Then in October 2004 I was delighted to start an ambitious 4 year D.Phil. in the Davis Lab, as part of an ongoing collaboration between Prof Simon Davis, another student Hussain Abidi, Dr Tao Dong, Prof Sarah Rowland Jones and Prof Andrew McMichael. My D.Phil. project aims to identify CD8+ T cell Antiviral Factor (CAF) or CAF-like proteins that are secreted by CD8+ T cells cross-linked by anti-CD8 antibody.

CAF is a soluble protein expressed at very low levels that is released by CD8+ T-lymphocytes (CTL) resulting in the suppression of HIV replication in infected CD4+ cells, in the absence of CTL induced cell death. CAF is able to inhibit all strains of HIV-1 and HIV-2 tested, and has strong clinical relevance because it has strong activity in healthy HIV-infected individuals, whilst it is not commonly detected in those that have progressed to AIDS. However, despite numerous attempts, the molecular identity of ‘CAF’ has remained a mystery for almost two decades and thus it is often referred to as ‘The Holy Grail for AIDS researchers’.

Alison Collins (now Turner)

Alison was one of the top students of her year at Southampton University where she worked with Professor Martin Glennie on the characterization of antibodies raised against B-cells. In Oxford, Alison was the recipient of a prestigious Arthritis Research Campaign Studentship and won the Trinity College Progress Prize in her first year. Alison’s work focussed on the interactions of costimulatory molecules and, in particular, B7-2. These experiments signalled the demise of the concept that B7-1 and B7-2 are functionally interchangeable. With Doug Brodie of Anton van der Merwe’s group, Alison discovered the ICOS-LICOS interaction. Alison’s work has been published in Immunity, Current Biology and elsewhere. At the end of her studies here Alison seized an opportunity to join industry.

Andrea Iaboni

After graduating from the University of Toronto Schools, Andrea Iaboni entered the University of Toronto on a Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation’s National Award and a Canada Scholarship for Science and Technology. At U of T, Andrea played for four years on the women’s varsity rugby team, as well as playing soccer, volleyball and basketball. Andrea came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in October 1998 and within 6 weeks broke her collarbone representing the University at rugby. Three days after that she perfected one-armed dideoxy sequencing.

For her thesis work, Andrea explored the outer reaches of the B7 family of costimulatory proteins using HMM searches, cloned human and mouse LICOS, and characterized all of the murine costimulatory interactions. Towards the end of her studies Andrea also showed, with John James, that human B7-1 dimerizes at the cell surface using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer and an unloved fluorimeter from an adjoining department.

Rather than continuing directly into full-time post-doctoral research, or becoming an astronaut, Andrea returned to Canada to complete medical studies at U of T in 2002. This, we felt, was a good idea. The Space Station is far too small for a person like Andrea.

Lisa Sparks

Lisa came to Oxford as a Research Assistant in 1995 after taking a very good degree at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and having turned down a similar post at Smith-Kline Beecham Laboratories. Lisa’s arrival doubled the size of the Davis Lab and her work immediately established the standard to which we have all since been aspiring. Lisa worked initially on the generation of two chimeric forms of the CD2 ligands for X-ray crystallography, each of which yielded nice structures. She subsequently, and essentially single-handedly, established the serial analysis of gene expression method in our laboratory. At the time, Lisa was one of only two people in the UK able to use the procedure. In 2001, Lisa left with her husband for a new life in the US.

Raquel Manso-Sancho

Our Spanish member of the lab graduated from high school with honours. She then studied Biology at the University of Salamanca, famous for being one of the oldest universities in Europe and the place where Colombus argued his case for sailing westwards to the Indies. At University she represented her year on the staff-student committee two years running and was president of the Christian Union for 5 years.

Raquel joined the lab in 1999 and worked on CD28 from day one. With the help of the rest of the team she managed to clone, express, mutate, reduce and alkylate CD28, representing a triumph of ambition and will that make Columbus’ efforts seem half-hearted. She also succeeded in teaching the lab members essential Spanish (Hola! Que tal? Una cerveza, por favor).

Raquel is currently persuing her alternative career as mum to her three daughters Damaris, Noemi and Rebeca.