Hello new staff #14

Spyros received his bachelors in Greece. He studied at Uppsala University for his masters in Cell and molecular biology where he joined Anders Mutvei's group for his thesis. After the MSc he continued working in the group starting his PhD. The group has now moved to Labmed, KI where Spyros is continuing his PhD studying cancer cell metabolism with a focus on IMPDH2 as well as mTORC1 and Lysosomes.

Huy is from Vietnam and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical science at Monash University, Australia in 2014. Before coming to Sweden, he spent 4 years teaching and working as a medical laboratory technician at the Faculty of Medical Technology in Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam. In 2021, he completed his Master’s degree in Biomedicine at Uppsala University. During his thesis in Anders Mutvei’s group, he studied the effects of lysosome abundance and mTORC1 signaling in cells. After his thesis, he worked for one year as research assistant in Mutvei’s group. As a PhD student under Dr. Anders Mutvei, he will continue his research focusing on lysosome organization and nutrient sensing in cancer.

Dr. Theresa Vincent, a cancer biologist, specializes in tumor cell plasticity, metastasis, ribosome biology and translation control. Her groups’ pioneering work unveiled the critical role of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) synthesis in driving cancer cell metastasis and the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. She earned her M.S. in 2000 and her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2007 from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. After postdoctoral fellowships at the Karolinska Institutet and Weill Cornell Medicine from 2008 to 2011, she joined the Karolinska Institutet as a faculty member in 2012. In 2014, she established her independent lab and also held a visiting assistant professorship at Weill Cornell Medicine from 2012 to 2019. Dr. Vincent conducts collaborative research activities, primarily at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, while maintaining her faculty position at the Karolinska Institutet. She has been the Editor in Chief of Seminars in Cancer Biology since 2013, a review journal in the field of molecular oncology. Additionally, she serves as a reviewer for various international research foundations and is a standing member of the review board of the Swedish childhood cancer foundation and the Swedish Research council. 

Dipita comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she did her Bachelor in Biochemistry & Biotechnology. Afterwards, she completed her Master degree in Cell & Molecular Biology at Uppsala University, before starting her PhD in Medical Science at Karolinska Institutet. She is currently a PhD student in Theresa Vincent’s group, studying the role of ribosome biogenesis in Glioblastoma tumor cell plasticity. 

Hannes studied chemical biology in Karlsruhe, Germany, and moved to Stockholm for his PhD, where he studied RNA structure in living cells with NMR spectroscopy and developed methods for RNA production for such studies. At ANA Futura, he works with the pre-GMP facility and Vecura in Novum to set up a mRNA production pipeline that will allow faster mRNA technology transfer from idea to the clinic.

Sefanit did her Masters in Molecular Biology at Lund University, where her thesis focus was investigating the functional role of SARS-CoV-2 encoded protease PLpro in COVID-19 pathogenesis. She is now starting her PhD studies, where she will be researching on regulation of host immune responses and how viruses may modulate antiviral responses using viral DUBs and dISGs to target Ubiquitin or Ub-like modifications. 

Vikas is a virologist with a keen interest in understanding viral biology. We integrate command line tools with cell line methods to understand viral pathogenesis. He is from India and aim to use his expertise to delineate molecular pathways leading to a better understanding of Flavivirus replication.

Jiahui received her PhD in internal medicine in June,2023 at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Her research focused on innate immunity in response to fungal infections. She was also a physician in the Department of Infectious Diseases.

Her research at LabMed will be on immunoprofiles of patients with monogenic diseases and relevant molecular mechanisms.

Victoria is a cell and molecular biologist. She worked as a PI at BioNut (KI), studying protein quality control and cell division. Victoria is also an engaged educator and has taught within the biomedical study line in four main areas: biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, and laboratory methodology. At LabMed, she will teach in the Biomedical Laboratory Science (BMA) program and continue her work in cell and molecular biology.

Xinran graduated from Karolinska Institutet in the master’s program of Biomedicine in 2022. With a profound passion for cardiometabolic diseases, Xinran investigated the role of PCSK6 in atherosclerotic plaque neovascularization and cellular senescence for her master thesis.

Xinran's project will explore the role of the intestine as integrator of signaling circuits in cardiometabolic disease.

Juan has a medical doctor background and obtained her Ph.D. degree from Sun Yat-sen University (China), where she studied the mechanism of metabolism effects on cell-to-cell interaction in cellular microenvironment. 

She is currently working on the project of developing the genetic engineering system on hematopoietic stem cells, and enable to correct primary immunodeficiency diseases.

Outside of the lab, she likes traveling, playing games, and doing outdoor sports (mostly hiking and skiing).

Yong comes from Hunan, China, completed his Ph.D. at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and pursued his postdoctoral research with Joanna Rorbach at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Karolinska Institutet.

With a strong background in mitochondrial biogenesis and genome editing, his role at LabMed will focus on advancing gene editing tools for mitochondria and the development of gene editing module delivery systems in humans.

Elisa's scientific journey started at Ghent University where she studied Biomedical Sciences (major cancer). During her master she worked in the field of extracellular vesicles for liquid biopsies. After graduating she moved to London for her PhD in oncolytic virotherapy. The knowledge in cancer and immunology from her past research will be beneficial for the EU Horizon 2020 funded project she will work with at Labmed, in which breast cancer patients were participating in 6-month exercise programme, to look for possible changes in immune function and connect this to patient data such as physiological outcomes, therapy and disease progression . Secondly, she will  help to describe the acute immune response during exercise.

Irina previously worked at KTH Royal Institute of Technology initially as a master’s programme administrator and further on within central university’s education administration and administrative support matters in different roles such as: international coordinator for student insurances, introduction of new students, contact between central university administration and other state authorities.

At Labmed she will work as a magister´s programme administrator for biomedical analysts. In addition to that she will provide general administrative support in TimeEdit, Ladok, Inspera, Drupal and Klipp.

Maria previously worked as a Biomedical Engineer at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Karolinska University Hospital. At KI, Maria will work as a technician in the ANA Futura Service Team as a replacement for Mikael Hammarstedt, who recently has retired.