Current lab members

• Jernej Ule, 'Jernej' is pronounced as Yernay (ending like RNA). I obtained my BSc in Molecular Biology from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1999, and PhD with Bob Darnell at the Rockefeller University, New York, in 2004, where I continued for a two-year postdoc. I started my research group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in July 2006, and in April 2013 we have moved to the UCL Institute of Neurology. Since August 2016, the whole group has been seconded to The Francis Crick Institute in London. I like to review papers, I serve on the editorial board of Genome Biology, am the EMBO fellow, and a member of the EMBO Course Committee.
• Lorea Blazquez, Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow since July 2014. Studies regulation of recursive splicing in neurons.
• Cristina Militti, EMBO postdoctoral fellow since October 2014. Mechanisms of long-range mRNA structures.
• Flora Lee, PhD student since May 2015 as part of the Wellcome Trust UCL neuroscience PhD programme. Studies the neuronal functions of mRNA structures.
• Igor Ruiz de los Mozos, Research assistant since November 2014. Studies the role of transposable elements in the evolution of RNA regulatory networks.
• Martina Hallegger, Postdoctoral fellow since October 2014, funded by independent MNDA non-clinical fellowship. Studies ribonucleoprotein complexes in motor neuron disease.
• Julian Zagalak, Postdoctoral fellow since January 2016, funded by SNF fellowship. Studies combinatorial control of pre-mRNA processing. .
• Andrea Elser, PhD student since October 2016 as part of the BBSRC LIDo Doctoral Training Programme. Studies the function of recursive splice sites in neurons.
• Paulo Gameiro, Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow since September 2016. Studies the metabolic control of protein-RNA interactions.
• Rupert Faraway, PhD student as part of the UCL MRC LIfe and Biomedical Science DTP PhD programme, studies the roles of RNPs in neuronal differentiation.
• Patrick Toolan-Kerr, PhD student as part of the UCL Wolfson PhD programme, studies the way that RNA methylation affects RNP assembly.
• Charlotte Capitanchik, a PhD student working jointly with the group of Nick Luscombe as part of the Crick PhD programme, performs computational analyses of RNP assembly.
• Miha Modic, Postdoctoral fellow since December 2017. Studies the functions of RNPs in stem cell differentiation. Previously, was also visiting student during October 2011 - September 2012.
• Federica Capraro, MSc student visiting during January-June 2018. Works with Patrick and Martina.
• Wei Jia Zhang, PhD rotation student, funded by UCL Wolfson programme.
• Liam Kempthorne, PhD rotation student, funded by UCL Wolfson programme.

Affiliated

• Federico Agostini, Postdoctoral fellow with Nicholas Luscombe. Computational studies of RNPs.
• Anob Chakrabarty, joint PhD student with Nicholas Luscombe. Computational studies of mRNA structures.
• Martin Stražar, PhD student at University of Ljubljana, primarily supervised by Tomaž Curk.
• Mahmoud-Reza Sina Rafiee, Postdoctoral fellow with Nicholas Luscombe, who studies RNPs with mass spectroscopy.

Past lab members

• James Tollervey, PhD student during October 2006 - April 2010, then postdoc till December 2010. Worked on regulation alternative splicing in age-related neurologic disorders. Now scientist at Aelan Cell Technologies, San Francisco.
• Zhen Wang, PhD student during October 2007 - September 2010, then postdoc till September 2011. Studied how TIA proteins regulate RNA splicing and 3' end processing. Now senior scientist at Depixius, Paris.
• Melis Kayikci, PhD student during October 2008 - September 2011. Studied the positional principles, or 'RNA maps', which guide the regulatory activity of RNA-binding proteins. Now bioinformatician at Genomics England.
• Michael Briese, postdoc during December 2007 - March 2012. Studied how CELF4 protein regulates translation in mouse brain. Now postdoctoral fellow at University of Wurzburg.
• Nicholas McGlincy, joint postdoc with the group of Michael Hastings during November 2008 – August 2012. Studied the role of alternative splicing in circadian rhythms. Now postdoc at the University of California, Berkley.
• Julian König, postdoc suring November 2008 - October 2013. Studied the function of hnRNP C protein in the regulation of alternative splicing. Was funded by HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowship. Now group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Mainz.
• Yoichiro Sugimoto, PhD student during October 2010 - July 2014, and then postdoc during May-September 2016. Studied the function of in vivo RNA structures. His PhD was funded by the Nakajima Foundation Scholarship.
• Chris Sibley, postdoc during August 2011-October 2015. Studied intronic splicing regulatory elements in neuronal genes. Now group leader at the Imperial College Londony.
• Jan Attig, PhD student during October 2011-April 2015, then postdoc till September 2015. Studies the coordinated control of mRNA life cycle. Was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Scholarship. Now postdoc at the Crick Institute.
• Ina Huppertz, PhD student during October 2012-September 2015. Studies the regulation of pre-mRNA processing. Was funded by Marie Curie International Training Network. Now postdoc at EMBL.
• Claire Hall, PhD student during Sept 2013 - Sept 2016. Studied RNA regulatory networks in motor neuron disease, and was funded by UCL Grand Challenge programme. Now at medical school.
• Nejc Haberman, PhD student during August 2013 - June 2017. Performed computational studies of protein-RNA interactions, and was by UCL Grand Challenge programme. Now postdoc at MRC CSC in London, UK.
• Lilach Soreq, Postdoctoral fellow during August 2013 - November 2016, now an independent Research Associate funded by the Alzheimer Society UK. Studies RNA regulatory networks in neurodegenerative diseases.
• Warren Emmett, Postdoctoral fellow during March 2016 - February 2018. Coordinated computational studies of non-canonical splicing. Now Bioinformatics Analyst at Inivata Limited in Cambridge, UK.

Past lab members (<3 years)

• Iris Kramberger, visiting student during August-September 2010. Now a PhD student in Oxford.
• Matteo Cereda, a visiting student for 9 months in 2010 and 2011, working on a computational approach to define RNA splicing maps. Now postdoc at KCL, London
• Dalia Daujotyte, short-term postdoc for five months in 2010 to study Staufen 2 protein using iCLIP. Now Research Scientist at the Lexogen company in Vienna.
• Tina Lence, visiting student during March-August 2011. Now postdoc at IMB Mainz.
• Josh Witten, short-term postdoc during January 2010 – June 2012. Now runs The Finch & Pea Group, Ltd - a life sciences and communication consulting firm.
• Katherine Godin, short-term postdoc during October 2011 - September 2012. Now NMR Senior Scientist at Beryllium
• Deepak Barnabas, 3-month visiting student November 2012 - January 2013.
• Peter Juvan, visiting scientist December 2012 - February 2013.
• Mojca Tajnik, visiting student, staying from March 2011 - March 2012, and March 2013-June 2013. Mojca was funded by EMBO Short-term scholarship.
• Laura Easton, research assistant during October 2011 - March 2013.
• Andrea D'Ambrogio, postdoc during January 2013-August 2014. Now Senior Scientist at Horizon Discovery.
• Rubika Balendra, PhD rotation student in 2015, funded by UCL Wolfson programme.
• Liza Malong, PhD rotation student during March-May 2015 as part of the neuroscience PhD programme.
• Aarti Singh, MSc student during March-September 2014, then research assistant during October 2014-September 2015. Now PhD student at UCL.
• Alexandra Zirra, MSc student during March-September 2014, then research assistant during October 2014-September 2015. Now PhD student at KCL.
• Rehan Hussain, MSc student during March-September 2016. Worked with Cristina Militti.
• Isabel Weisheit, visiting student from Ludwig Maximilans University of Munich, visited from June-November 2016 to work with Martina Halleger.
• Gregor Rot visited our group and collaborated on bioinformatic projects to study the regulation of 3' end processing .
• Frederique Rau, Postdoctoral fellow with Rickie Patani, who was hosted in our lab for a year.
• Eleni Anastasakou, Lena was an MRes student during Oct 2016 - Sept 2017. Studied the long-range mRNA structures, together with Cristina.
• Violeta Castelo Szekely, one-year visiting student Oct 2016 - Sept 2017 from the University of Lausanne, funded by the NCCR Doctoral Mobility grant.
• Pablo Izquierdo Garrudo, PhD rotation student in spring 2017 as part of the Wellcome Trust UCL neuroscience PhD programme.
• Christoph Sadee, Research assistant Oct 2016 - Nov 2017, focusing on iCLIP and its optimisation.
• Katja Egli, Research assistant since October 2016, works mainly with Martina and Flora.