Lab News

Lab Update 29 July 2026

We are hiring! Could you be our new Research Assistant?

The lab is growing (exponentially!) and we are recruiting a Research Assistant to the team for Autumn 2026. The position support many on-going projects in the lab and is focussed on optimising cellular assays and methods for super resolution microscopy. It would suit someone who has had a taste of wet-lab work and is eager to gain new skills. Applications are accepted on the UoL portal until August 18th 2026. Please get in touch before then if you'd like to find out more!

Conference 3 June 2026

Helen's CCPEM talk is now available on YouTube

Helen was invited to give a talk at the CCPEM Spring Symposium back in April and the talk is now available online for all to see. If you would like to find out more about her postdoctoral work, please check it out here. There are lots of other great technology-focussed talks on there, some personal highlights include Tanmay Bharat's talk on correlative imaging in bacterial biofilms, Mart Last's talk talk on new methods for large-scale annotation of cryo-ET data, and Beata Turonova's talk on a new software package for analysing the spatial organisation of complexes in situ. Plenty more in the archives to explore!

New Grant 14 April 2026

The lab receives an AMS Springboard Award

The first grant for the lab has landed! This Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award will last for 2 years, and help us establish collaborations with molecular immunologists and clinicians across Leeds. Hopefully this will provide a great launch pad for our future work. This award is jointly funded by Wellcome, BHF, Diabetes UK and DSIT - click to find out more about the scheme and this years awardees.

Award 13 April 2026

Helen is awarded Biochemical Society Early Career Award

Helen is one of this years recipients of an Early Career Award from the Biochemical Society! Helen says "The previous awardees includes many exceptional scientists who I admire so I am really humbled to be listed among them. A big thank you to Takashi Ochi - my colleague and fellow cilia/centrosome enthusiast at Leeds - for nominating me. It was especially nice that Elton Zeqiraj, who I often have lunch with, was also recognised this year for Sustained Excellence" (read more here).

Lab Update 27 March 2026

We joined the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology

We are very happy to become Astbury Centre members and join a collaborative community of structural molecular biologists, chemists and computational biologists at Leeds. We share the goal of 'Understanding life in molecular detail' and are really looking forward to exploring different perspectives on this.

Lab Update 4 October 2025

The lab opens in Leeds!

Just a few weeks after arriving in Leeds, Helen has set up the soon-to-be-populated lab databases and got started in the lab! We are lucky to be sharing lab space with Michelle Peckham's lab, and their support made the set-up very smooth.