Team
meet the team
Team
meet the team
Matthew Child
Principal Investigator
Matthew studied for a PhD in molecular parasitology with Prof. Mike Blackman at the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK. After his PhD, he moved to the USA to continue his academic career as a post-doc in the chemical biology laboratory of Prof. Matt Bogyo at Stanford University, California. His group is currently based at Imperial College London, where he is currently funded as a Wellcome Trust & Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow. Part-man, part-fish, part-yeti, Matthew is a keen swimmer, skier, and avid cook.
Janessa Grech
Senior Post-doctoral Research Associate (Life Sciences)
Janessa has been in love with Toxoplasma ever since they met back in 2017. She worked on the parasite during her MSc. at the University of Glasgow under the supervision of Prof. Lilach Sheiner, where she worked on two proteins localising to the mitochondria. She then went on to investigate Toxoplasma actin- and Golgi-related proteins during her PhD at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich under the supervision of Prof. Markus Meissner. Janessa is now looking into PTMs, particularly palmitoylation and palmitoylated proteins. When not at the lab, Janessa can be found in one of the neighbouring museums, or reading a book and thinking about sunny Malta.
Fatima Taha
PhD Student (Life Sciences), co-supervised with Calvin Tiengwe
Fatima graduated with an MSci degree in Human Genetics from the University of Nottingham in 2020. After this, she worked as a research assistant in the Southgate lab at St George’s University of London where she worked on characterising the role of ATP13A3 in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Funded by the BBSRC (as part of Imperial’s widening participation programme) and co-supervised by Dr. Calvin Tiengwe, Fatima’s PhD focuses on how distinct ecological niches in a murine host shape Trypanosoma brucei population structure. Outside of the lab, you can find her in the dojo kickboxing or at home knitting.
Kevin Yeung
PhD Student (Chemistry/Life Sciences, co-supervised by Prof Yaliraki, Prof Tate, Dr Walport)
Kevin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in chemical engineering. Inspired by the work he did in de novo protein design, he is now pursuing a MRes+PhD in chemical biology to research new potential druggable sites in human disease-associated proteins and improve our understanding of allosteric mechanisms. As this is his first time living outside of the US, he spends his weekends traipsing around Europe, hiking in breathtaking locales, and definitely soaking in the sun when given the (limited) opportunity.
Gus Gus Green
Laboratory Mascot and Dog-toral Student
Gus Gus is a four-year old white Labrador retriever studying for his dog-torate in naptime at Imperial College London. Trained by Patriot PAWS Service Dogs in Rockwall, Texas, his most notable research projects include, "The Art of Snoring so Loud You Startle Yourself Awake" and "A Detailed Investigation into Convincing Others to Share Snacks with You." In addition to assisting his handler inside the lab and out, he is a dedicated morale booster, entertaining Imperial faculty and students through his strict adherence to lab safety.
Ana Patricia Natsui Yatsuda
Visiting Professor
A long, long time ago Ana had her PhD in Parasitology working with Cooperia punctata at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil, including one year at Utrecht University (UU-NL), where she continued her career as a postdoctoral. Her first project, with nematodes in ruminants (Haemonchus contortus) was an EU Framework (Scotland -Dr Dave Knox, Belgium -Prof. Josef Vercruysse and UU-NL-Prof Maarten Eysker and Dr Lonneke Vervelde). A big twist (from worms to protozoans) happened when she got involved in a Babesia bovis project sponsored by Intervet BV (AkzoNobel group) with Prof Erik de Vries. After getting a permanent position at USP, she established her research group focusing on Neospora caninum. So, what is she doing in the Child Lab? “After so many years, I decided to challenge myself and wrote a one-year project to work on acylttransferases responsible for palmitoylation in Toxoplasma gondii, granted by FAPESP (Brazil). So here I am, thanks to Matthew who decided to accept an old lady in his team 😊”. Outside the lab, she enjoys being a mother of a 15-year-girl and together they are discovering how to happily live in London.
Melanie Teng
Undergraduate student (Life Sciences)
Melanie is currently a third-year biochemistry student at Imperial College. During the summer of her second year, she was fortunate enough to begin her research journey with the Child Lab, working on the optimisation of the existing CRISPR-based oligo recombineering (CORe) tool. After her UROP project, she found herself missing the lab and has since been determined to continue working on her project. If you happen to meet Melanie in the lab, wishing her success with her PCR experiments would be greatly appreciated. Outside the lab, she is an avid gamer and a big fan of musicals, often searching for last-minute 'rush' tickets to various shows.
Daisy Yu
Molecular and Cellular Biosciences MRes Graduate (Life Sciences)
Daisy graduated with a BSc in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London in 2023. With her research interest and skills in infectious diseases, parasitology and immunology, she decided to further her studies at Imperial through an MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. She is currently doing a lab project under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Child for her first lab rotation, investigating the role of host lectins in the Toxoplasma gondii host-pathogen interaction. Outside the lab, you may find Daisy baking, watching movies, or exploring the city with her old Nikon.
Daniel Anderson
Part of the lab’s first tool development team, Daniel is currently working towards his PhD at EMBL-EBI. He continues to support lab tool development projects, cleaning code and squashing bugs.
Selina Hung
Toxoplasma gondii
a.k.a the King of Parasites
All rights for this image belong to Henry Benns
Lab Alumni
Lab mascot: Gus Gus Green (Dog-toral Student) - ongoing honorary photo representation
Graduated PhD students: Henry Benns, Ceire Wincott
Post-docs: Gisela Lourenco-Henriques, Eduardo Alves
Masters Students: Signe Lagercrantz, Kristy Ke, Henry Benns, Frida Svanberg-Frisinger, Gayathri Sritharan, Wen Wen Low, Mai Ito, Sze Lui, Sofia Pedersen, Natasha De Winter, Holly Baker, Hailun Li, Yuelang Yao, Yi Ong, Freedom Green, Eunji Hong, Mathias Fagbemi, Aisling Fairweather, Becky Otoxby, Hannah Philips, Soomin En, Daisy Yu
Undergraduates: Chris Chan, Lilian Magnus, Daniel Anderson, Oana Popescu, Melanie Ng, Tamas Dobai, Kenta Renard, Sifeng Chen, Elena Kayayan, Justin Bauer, Celeste Callafe, Krishna Keerthana, Tony Ye, Jiali Wu, Selina Hung, Melanie Teng
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Post-doctoral fellows
We welcome informal enquiries from potential post-doctoral research fellows with outstanding research track records who are prepared to apply for independent research funding, for example from the European Union, HFSP, etc. Full assistance will be given in preparing a competitive research proposal
Please contact us via email with a CV and covering letter attached, or apply directly for open positions through the Imperial College recruitment pages.
PhD studentships
Our group is very happy to provide support for future PhD candidates. Students interested in undertaking postgraduate research in our group should contact the lab directly; all prospective applicants should have or expect to obtain a 1st class honours degree (or equivalent) in chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, or a closely related discipline; non-UK students must be able to obtain independent funding for their studies, e.g. via a government bursary.