Group members

Jesús Gil Group Head jesus.gil@csc.mrc.ac.uk Jesús was born in Zaragoza, Spain. He obtained his PhD, on the the elucidation of how the dsRNA-dependent protein kinase induces apoptosis and activates NF-κB, in 2000 at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid. From 2000 to 2003 he worked with David Beach at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, where he screened for genes bypassing senescence, identifying CBX7. In January 2004, he joined Gordon Peters' group at the CRUK London Research Institute, investigating how CBX7 regulates the INK4/ARF locus. During 2005 he worked in Scott Lowe's laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, developing models to study CBX7 function in vivo. He now leads The Cell Proliferation Group at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (part of the the Faculty of Medicine of Imperial College London, and located on the Hammersmith Hospital Campus in London), investigating the regulation of the INK4a-ARF locus by PcG complexes and screening for agents controlling senescence. In November 2008, Jesús was named an EMBO Young Investigator.

Juan Carlos Acosta Postdoctoral Fellow Juan Carlos was born in Gerona, Spain. He obtained his PhD, on the elucidation of functional interaction between MYC oncogene and the tumor suppressor p27 in erythroid differentiation, in 2005 at the University of Santander, Spain. He joined the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2006.

Ana Banito PhD Student ana.bonito06@imperial.ac.uk Ana was born in Lisbon, Portugal. She obtained her degree in Molecular Biology in 2005 from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. From 2004 to 2006, she worked at the Portuguese Cancer Institute, studying the mechanisms involved in thyroid tumorigenesis. She joined the Cell Proliferation Group as a PhD student in January 2007.

Marta Barradas Postdoctoral Fellow m.barradas-solas@csc.mrc.ac.uk Marta was born in Madrid, Spain. She obtained her PhD in 2001 at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, working in the group of Manuel Serrano on the characterisation of the senescence-like arrest induced by oncogenic ras in human primary fibroblasts. In 2003 she held her first postdoctoral position in Fiona Watt's group at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and later on at the Cambridge Research Institute when the group moved there in 2007. She joined the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2008.

Ana Rita França a.franca@csc.mrc.ac.uk

Nadine Martin Postdoctoral Fellow nadine.martin@imperial.ac.uk Nadine is French. She obtained her PhD in 2007 at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, working in the group of Anne Dejean at the Pasteur Institute on the role of the SUMO E3 ligase PIASy in the control of cell proliferation and stress response. She joined the Cell Proliferation Group in April 2009.

Ana O'Loghlen Postdoctoral Fellow ana.ologhlen@imperial.ac.uk Ana did her BSc in the Faculty of Biology in Madrid, Spain. She then worked in Dr De Caterina's laboratory at the Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica in the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Pisa, Italy, studying the first step in the development of atherosclerosis before starting her PhD under the supervision of Dr Elena Martin at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid, where she characterised a new human protein synthesis kinase, Mnk1b. During her PhD, Ana worked briefly on new substrates of the kinase, Mnk1a, in Professor Chris Proud's laboratory at the University of Dundee, Scotland. She began her postdoctoral research at the CNIO in Madrid before joining the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2007.

Nikolay Popov PhD Student nikolay.popov@imperial.ac.uk Nikolay was born in Burgas, Bulgaria. He obtained his BSc degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology in 2005 at the International University Bremen, Germany. Nikolay then entered the MRes/PhD programme at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and in October 2006 he joined the Cell Proliferation Group as a PhD student.

Selina Raguz Investigator Scientist s.raguz@csc.mrc.ac.uk Selina was born in Lima, Peru. She received a PhD in Microbiology from King's College London in 1991 and did her first postdoc on the human ß-globin locus control region with Frank Grosveld at the NIMR from 1991-1994. Salina then worked with Michael Antoniou at Guy's Hospital Medical School to investigate muscle specific gene therapy vectors. In 1999 she came to the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre to work in the Membrane Transport Biology (now Membrane Transport Proteins and Disease) Group to research the regulation of MDR1 P-glycoprotein expression and mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance. Salina joined the Cell Proliferation Group in April 2007.

Past Group members

Marco Da Costa Postdoctoral Fellow, 2006-2008 Marco is French of Portuguese origin. He obtained his PhD in 2004 from the Université Paris XI-Orsay, France and held his first postdoctoral appointment in the laboratory of Eric Lam at Imperial College London before joining the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2006.

Ana Maria Muñoz-Cabello Postdoctoral Fellow, 2008 Ana is from Seville, Spain. She obtained her PhD in 2007 in Dr López-Barneo's laboratory in the Department of Physiology, University of Seville, where she worked on CO2 and O2 chemoreception processes. She did her first postdoctoral work in Dr Fiona Watt's laboratory at the Cambridge Research Institute for six months before joining the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2008.

Kyoko Takatsu Postdoctoral Fellow, 2007-2009

Yoshihiro Takatsu Postdoctoral Fellow, 2007-2009 Yoshihiro is Japanese. He obtained his PhD in 1999 at Hokkaido University, Japan and then worked at the Frontier Research Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Japan. He joined the Cell Proliferation Group in January 2007 as a visiting scientist and has remained since April 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow.