Sarah Teichmann FMedSci FRS (Group Leader)

Kerstin Meyer (Principal Staff Scientist in Cellular Genetics, working with the Teichmann group and Human Cell Atlas projects)

Kerstin is interested in understanding the regulation of gene expression in health and disease. Kerstin did her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Imperial College, London, followed by a PhD in immunology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Since then she has worked at the University of Cambridge studying aspects of gene regulation in immunology and gene regulatory networks in breast and lung cancer. Her appointments have included a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and a Group Leader position at the Department of Oncology. She is currently co-ordinating the Human Cell Atlas efforts at the Sanger Institute.

Anna Wilbrey-Clark (Staff Scientist)

Anna Wilbrey-Clark is a Staff Scientist working on the Human Cell Atlas project.  She is a ‘wet-lab’ scientist interested in using single cell sequencing and spatial / imaging techniques to understand the cell type composition of human organs.  Anna joined the lab in 2017, having previously completed a PhD in Molecular Biology / Neuroscience at the Babraham Institute and worked for 7 years in the pharmaceutical industry.

Krzysztof Polański (Staff Scientist)

Krzysztof Polański is a computational Staff Scientist working on the Human Cell Atlas project. He specialises in single cell and spatial data analysis, with particular interests including batch correction and clustering algorithms. Krzysztof got a PhD in Systems Biology from the University of Warwick in 2015, with his thesis focusing on regulatory events in Arabidopsis response to stress, and has joined the lab in 2017.

Laura Richardson

Laura is an ARA working in the Teichmann Support team. She moved over from the High Throughput screening team to use her experience and knowledge to benefit the Teichmann Lab.

Alicja Wilk (Laboratory Manager)

Alicja joined the team in April 2021. She manages the wet laboratory part of the group. She previously worked in Cardiovascular Genetics research section focusing on Next Generation Sequencing and in Haemato-oncology diagnostic services.

Shani Perera

Shani Perera is an Advanced Research Assistant working on the Human Cell Atlas project with a primary role in performing histology, spatial transcriptomics and imaging using cutting-edge technologies.

Shuang Li

Shuang joined Teichmann lab in June 2022 as a senior bioinformatician to study age-dependent immunity changes as well as its genetic component.

After completing a bachelor degree in biosystems engineering in Zhejiang university, Shuang did a master program in Wageningen University and went on for a PhD in the functional genomics group in the University Medical Center Groningen. During her PhD, she worked on developing computational methods and tools for variant interpretation for rare and complex diseases.

Simon Koplev

Simon completed his BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen and MScEng in Systems Biology at the Technical University of Denmark. He obtained his PhD in Medical Science from the University of Cambridge on multiplex imaging of pancreatic cancer. He has previously worked as a research scholar at Harvard Medical School; a research assistant at the University of Copenhagen; and a bioinformatician at the Icahn School of Medicine on the genetics of cardiovascular diseases. In 2023, Simon joined the Teichmann lab as senior bioinformatician with a strong interest in cross-organ analysis for the Human Cell Atlas spanning the heart, thymus, and gut, while focussing on the diverse roles of fibroblasts and tissue-resident immune cells in maintaining healthy tissue structure.

Duy Pham

Duy completed a BSc at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam. After graduation, he worked as a Data Scientist in industry for four years. In 2023, he earned a PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia. His thesis focused on developing computational methods to integrate single-cell and spatial transcriptomics with imaging data to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of neurotrauma and cancer progression. He joined the Teichmann lab in 2023 as a Senior Computational Biologist, where he uses multi-omics data to characterise the spatial structure of the lung at the cellular level as part of the Human Lung Cell Atlas project.

Peng He

Peng studied Statistics and Biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong for his Bachelor’s degree. He then went on to obtain his PhD degree at California Institute of Technology. He is now using genomics and systems biology approaches to understand transcriptional regulation and their impacts on human tissue development and pathophysiology.

He currently holds a research fellowship at St Edmund's college, University of Cambridge.

Kazumasa Kanemaru

Kazumasa completed his medical degree in 2012 and PhD in 2016 at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. During his PhD and postdoc in Dr. Akira Shibuya’s Lab, he focused on the functional analysis of C-type lectin receptors using mouse disease models, cellular assays, and other wet lab techniques. Kazumasa joined the Teichmann lab in October 2020 and is interested in the analysis of human’s biology and pathology using wet and computational technologies.

He currently holds an overseas research fellowship from the Takeda Science Foundation (Japan).

Chuan Xu

Chuan obtained his B.S. in Biology and Management in the University of Science and Technology of China in 2013. After that, he received his Ph.D. in Computational Biology in CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology in 2018, and then started his postdoc in Yale School of Medicine, researching into how evolution and development shape the molecular organisation of brains. Chuan joined the Teichmann lab in November 2020, and is interested in elucidating the genetic principles behind complex tissue organisation and corresponding functionalities.

Dinithi Sumanaweera

Dinithi completed her BSc (Honours) and MSc (Research) degree at University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, for which she studied Computer Science & Engineering and Bioinformatics, respectively. She then joined Dr. Arun Konagurthu's lab at Monash University, Australia, to work on protein alignment modelling using Information theory and Bayesian inference, and received her PhD in Computational Biology in 2021. Dinithi will be joining the Teichmann lab in June 2021 as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow and will focus on computational models for comparing in vitro and in vivo single-cell transcriptomic profiles.

Ana-Maria Cujba

Ana-Maria completed her integrated BSc and MSc degree in Biochemistry (Immunology) with a year placement at GSK in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is completing her PhD work focused on monogenic diabetes using stem cells, genome engineering and organoids at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London, UK. She is interested in both wet lab and bioinformatics approaches for investigating cell fates and composition in healthy and diseased states using relevant in-vitro human model systems. Ana-Maria will be joining Teichmann lab from July 2021 and will be working as part of the Human Cell Atlas.

Amanda Oliver

Amanda studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Queensland before completing her PhD in Immunology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne. For her PhD, Amanda uncovered a mechanism for cancer immunotherapy resistance through tissue-specific immunity in lung metastases. Amanda joined the team in January 2021 and is interested in defining the complex immune environment in healthy lungs and understanding the mechanisms of dysregulated immune responses in disease, such as asthma.

Jan Patrick Pett

Patrick joined the Teichmann lab at the end of 2020 to work on projects for the Human Lung Cell Atlas as a Senior Bioinformatician. He is interested in multi-omics integration, trajectory analysis and gene regulatory networks. From November 2021 on Patrick will develop computational methods for gene regulatory network inference using multi-modal single cell data as part of a Marie-Curie Independent Fellowship.

He completed his BSc and MSc degrees in Bioinformatics at the Free University Berlin, followed by a PhD in computational systems biology at the Humboldt University of Berlin during which he studied rhythm generation by the circadian clock using mathematical models.

Ana Raquel Maceiras

Ana Raquel has a BSc in Biochemistry from University of Porto, and a MSc in Molecular Genetics from University of Minho that included a one-year placement at the Department of Molecular Biology of Umeå University. She then moved to IMM, in Lisbon, where she completed her PhD studies focused on Tfr cells. Afterwards, she went back to Porto where she did a postdoc, at i3S, on the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. In 2020 she started a MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Porto since she is interested in applying single cell RNA sequencing and bioinformatics to better understand the immune system.

Ana Raquel joined the Teichmann lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022 to study the immune system aging.

Lijiang Fei

Lijiang is interested in systematically understanding molecular mechanisms that underlies cell fate decisions based on cell atlases using computational tools. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Ocean University of China in 2017.  And she received her PhD degree in Stem Cell and Regeneration Medicine in Zhejiang University. Lijiang joined the Teichmann lab in August 2022 and will work on the Human Cell Atlas project.

Lorenz Kretschmer

Lorenz studied medicine at the Technical University of Munich (TUM, Germany) and completed specialty training in "Microbiology, Virology and Infection epidemiology". His research focuses on memory T cells and understanding how immunological memory develops in response to infection or vaccination using various single cell technologies. Lorenz served as a board member of the "Young Immunologists" in the German society for immunology (DGfI), where he has been representing and supporting early career researchers.

He joined the Teichmann laboratory in May 2023 as a postdoc in the Accelerate Programme at the University of Cambridge and has recently transitioned to the Wellcome Sanger Institute with fellowship support from EMBO and the Royal Society.

Ioannis Sarropoulos 

Ioannis studied Biology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and then moved to Heidelberg, Germany for a MSc in Molecular Biosciences. He stayed in Heidelberg for his PhD, during which he explored the contributions of non-coding elements, such as lncRNAs and cis-regulatory elements, to the development and evolution of mammalian organs.

Ioannis joined the Teichmann lab as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow in July 2023 and aims to use single-cell genomics to study gene regulation in the human thymus.

Olli Dufva

Olli completed his medical degree in 2020 and PhD in 2022 at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he studied immune interactions and precision medicine in blood cancers using functional genomics.  

Olli joined in September 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow jointly in the Teichmann and Garnett labs. His research focuses on deciphering genomic determinants of anti-cancer immunity using organoid models, single-cell genomics and genetic engineering

Chenqu Suo

Chenqu joined the Teichmann group in 2019 as a Wellcome Trust funded clinical PhD student. After finishing her PhD, she was elected as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Her area of research has been primarily focused on human immune cell development from both in vivo and in vitro angles, utilising a combination of experimental tools such as artificial thymic organoids and newly developed computational approaches on scVDJ-seq data and trajectory alignment.

Before joining the lab, Chenqu completed her medical degree and undertook an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in the University of Cambridge. She is a paediatrician in training, with a clinical interest in Paediatric Rheumatology.

Veronika Kedlian

Veronika has a long-standing interest in using the power of computational approaches and single-cell RNA-sequencing to understand the mechanism of ageing changes.

Before joining the group, Veronika studied expression variability in the human brain with age as a trainee in Janet Thornton group at European Bioinformatics Institute, UK and looked into the cellular mechanisms of the Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria - rare accelerated ageing disease - as an intern in Oliver Dreesen group, IMB, Singapore. Veronika has completed M.Sc. and B.Sc. training in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine. Veronika is jointly supervised by Sarah Teichmann and Inigo Martincorena.

James Cranley

James is a Wellcome Trust funded PhD student who joined the Teichmann group in 2021. He received his medical degree from Oxford University before undertaking a NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship based in Cambridge. He is a cardiologist in training, with a clinical focus in electrophysiology and inherited cardiac conditions. He will use scRNAseq to characterise site-, age- and disease-dependent changes in the cardiac transcriptome.

Sid Lawrence

Sid is a Wellcome Trust funded PhD student interested in bone and cartilage development and its implications for disease modelling and treatment. He received his medical degree from Cambridge University before specialising in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow. Sid is jointly supervised by Sam Behjati.

Emma Dann

Emma is a Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute PhD student jointly supervised by Sarah Teichmann and John Marioni. As part of her PhD project, Emma uses statistical and computational methods for single-cell genomics data to study epigenetic and transcriptional dynamics in human development.

Emma has a B.Sc. in Biotechnology from the University of Trento (IT) and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences with major in Bioinformatics from Utrecht University (NL). During her studies, she was a computational biology trainee at the KNAW Hubrecht Insitute in Utrecht (NL) and at EMBL Heidelberg (DE).

Ken To

Ken is an MRC funded clinical PhD student. He is interested in the development of the peripheral nervous system, and how this relates to the development of musculoskeletal pain in adulthood. He completed his medical degree at the University of Cambridge and was a junior doctor based in Cambridge prior to joining the lab.

Lisa Dratva

Lisa obtained her BSc and MSc degree from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland before joining the Teichmann lab in March 2022 for her PhD. She completed her Master thesis as a Visiting Graduate Student at Harvard University in the Church lab, where she built a deep learning model to predict gene expression. Lisa also went through multiple experiences in industry, both with big pharma and small start-ups.

As an Early Stage Researcher supported by the ENLIGHT-TEN+ training network, her research will focus on the human T cell response using computational analysis and leveraging single cell multi-omic atlas data.

Madelyn Moy

Madelyn is a Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute PhD student who started in 2022 and is jointly supervised by Sarah Teichmann and Trevor Lawley. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University, where she majored in Anthropology, Biological Sciences, and Integrated Science. For her PhD project, she will use computational approaches and in-vitro human model systems to study host-microbe interactions during early-life intestinal development.