Group Members
Fengzhu Xiong
Group Leader
I earned my BS of Biological Sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and my PhD at Harvard University with Sean Megason, followed by Postdoc training with L. Mahadevan and Olivier Pourquie. I started the lab in Cambridge in 2019.
Susie McLaren
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am interested in understanding how symbiotic interactions develop and the consequences of these multi-species interactions for organism biology. In particular, this work seeks to inform our understanding of the interplay between corals and their symbionts during morphogenesis and in developing a stable symbiotic relationship that underpins organism function.
Previously, I earned a Natural Sciences BSc from UCL and my PhD at the University of Cambridge with Ben Steventon investigating early embryo head-to-tail elongation in zebrafish embryos. My recent postdoc work uncovered differences in tissue mechanics that lead to the divergence of embryonic brain and spinal cord shape under fluid pressure.
Lakshmi Balasubramanian
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am an EMBO and Herchel Smith fellow working on the mechanics of cell migration and tissue development. I obtained my PhD degree at Université de Paris, CNRS with Benoît Ladoux.
Fengtong Ji
Senior Research Associate
I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical and Automation Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, B.E., and M.E. from the Harbin Institute of Technology. Now I am focusing on promoting developmental mechanics and microrobotic engineering at Cambridge as a Herchel Smith Fellow and a Wellcome Early Career Fellow, aiming at developing new paradigms to better understand development.
Kiara Kok
Research Assistant
Kiara got her undergrad degree from UCL and MPhil in Developmental Biology at Cambridge. She enjoys volleyball and other competitive activities!
Lauren Moon
Postdoc Fellow (recently PhD Student, Wellcome Trust Studentship)
Ren graduated from King's College London with a Bachelors degree in Anatomy, Developmental and Human Biology. She is currently undertaking the Wellcome Trust PhD Developmental Mechanisms Programme at Downing College, Cambridge. Ren is investigating the cellular mechanisms of neural tube morphogenesis combining modeling and imaging.
Yisha Lan
Postdoc Fellow (recently PhD Student, Cambridge International Scholarship)
Yisha got her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Tongji University. She was a recipient of Cambridge International Scholarship for a PhD programme. In the lab, Yisha developed image analysis algorithms and learned molecular biology and embryology of both zebrafish and chicken. Currently, Yisha is investigating Nodal organized tissue shape change with collaborators.
Ana Hernandez-Rodriguez
Postdoc Fellow (recently PhD Student, Gurdon-VC studentship)
Ana earned her degree in Biology from Cambridge. She worked as a Research Assistant in Oxford and the Crick before joining us as a SBS-Gurdon funded PhD student. Ana works on cell fate decisions in the mechanical environment using both chicken embryos and stem cell culture. She enjoys a variety of sports including rowing and badminton.
Ruoheng Li
PhD student (Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship)
Ruoheng earned her BS degree in life sciences from Tsinghua University. After a summer placement with the lab, she returned to continue pursuing her interest in mechanics of morphogenesis in a diversity of life forms
Aimee Perry
Research Assistant
I graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours joint undergraduate degree in Cell Biology and English Literature, then completed a Master’s in Clinical Embryology at the University of Oxford. I will work with Fengtong to study the mechanics of development in chicken embryos using nanorobotics.
Sandy Xing
Research Assistant
Sandy got her undergrad degree from University of British Columbia in applied science in Biomedical Engineering and her MPhil in Cell Science at Cambridge. She will work with Fengtong to engineer nanorobotics in chicken embryos
Yuxin Gu
PhD student (Gurdon-LSI exchange)
Yuxin is a joint student with Prof. Minxin Guan at Zhejiang University. Yuxin is interested in the role of mechanics in cochlear patterning and regeneration
Jemimah Lee
Part II student (PDN)
Aimee Perry
Research Assistant
Jemimah is a Part II student from PDN. She will work with Lakshmi on the early morphogenetic events in the extraembryonic tissues
Izzy Cole
Part III student (Systems Biology)
Izzy is a Part III Systems Biology student with a background in maths. They will work with Lakshmi to model vasculogenesis using chick embryos.
Isaac Morley
Part III student (Systems Biology)
Ike is a Part III Systems Biology student who will work with Susie to analyze and model spatial distributions of symbionts in coral.
TBD
RA/Lab Manager
Aimee Perry
Research Assistant
We are hiring! Please feel free to get in touch!
Bilyana Popova
Visiting student (incoming)
I am a M.Sc. Molecular Biosciences student, majoring in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology in the Univeristy of Heidelberg. Especially interesting for me is understanding how complex patterns arise during development and how these are conserved and regulated across species.
Yuxuan Jiao
Visiting PhD student (Gurdon-LSI exchange, incoming)
I am a PhD student with Prof. Heng-Yu Fan at Zhejiang University. My research interest is about understanding how mechanical forces regulate tissue morphogenesis and gene expression during chicken embryo development.
Alumni
Emily Holmes (RA/Lab manager)
Lucas Bray (summer student/Amgen Scholar - current: biology student, Oxford University)
Alex Sutherland (RA - current: Data officer, Northumberland National Park)
Yixin Dai (Joint PhD student, Xia Lab, LSI-ZJU)
Joana Marujo Do Nascimento Vidigueira (RA/Lab manager/MPhil - current: PhD student, Brugués lab, TU Dresden)
Xinyi Li (Summer student, Tsinghua Univ. - current: PhD student, Carnegie Mellon University)
Brendan Chiong (Summer student, UCL - current: Biomedical sciences student, UCL)
Yuchi Guo (Summer student, Cambridge - current: Physics student, Cambridge)
Harvey Williams (Summer student, Cambridge - current: Physics student, Cambridge)
Ho Sin Yiu, Venus (Summer student, HKU - current: Biology student, HKU)
Ameera Cunningham (Part II student, Cambridge - current: PhD student, CTR, Cambridge)
Shaarukkan Kankeyan (Part II student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Vivian Wang (Summer student, Cambridge - current: engineering student, Cambridge)
Samantha Burley (Summer student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Dr. Daniele Kunz (Postdoc - current: researcher, Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge)
Krithi Muli (Part II student, Cambridge - current: veterinary student, Cambridge)
Vithusan Kuganathan (Part II student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Yiyuan Huang (Summer student, Tsinghua Univ. - current: PhD student, MIT)
Shanker Narayan (Summer student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Shreya Dwarakacherla (Summer student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Anfu Wang (MPhil, Developmental Biology, Cambridge - current: PhD student, Shahbazi lab, LMB)
Dr. Changqing Lu (CSC scholar- current: faculty of human anatomy, Sichuan Univ.)
Oscar Baldwin (Part II student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Siyuan (David) Ding (Part II student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Kathy Oswald (Admin)
Zher Yee Ooi (Summer student, Imperial - current: PhD student, HKU)
Melissa Yuan (Part II student, Cambridge - current: medical student, Cambridge)
Alicja Maksymiuk (Summer student, Cambridge - current: PhD student, Oxford)
Yifan (Stephen) Wang (Undergrad, ZJU and U. Edinbrough - current: PhD student, NUS)
Melinda M. V. Kerckvoorde (MPhil, Developmental Biology, Cambridge - current: Associate Consultant, Scendea)
Chris Chan (Part III student, Systems Biology, Cambridge - current: PhD student, Priya Lab, Crick)
Ziqi Dong (Rotation student, Wellcome - current: PhD student, Rawlins Lab, Gurdon Institute)
Arianna Pezzuolo (Admin)
Rae Wong (Summer student, U. Liverpool - current: PhD student, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência Portugal)
Elisa Terenzani (Summer student, U. Pavia - current: PhD student, IMPRS, Germany)
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