Originally from Germany, I became interested in biology and how the human body works early on during education. After some down time, I decided to study Biomedical Sciences in Bonn, Germany. During my Masters with Thorsten Lang I became really interested in advanced imaging approaches and the biophysics of membranes. This fascination lead me to do a Marie Sklodowska-Curie PhD with Prof. Elizabeth Smythe in Sheffield, UK, where I studied how the plasma membrane is deformed during clathrin mediated endocytosis. I really enjoyed my time as a PhD student and was keen to perform a postdoc but wanted to broaden my skillset. This lead me to do a four year Postdoc with David Murray in Dundee, where I worked on the scary Exocyst complex and became an expert in protein and membrane reconstitution techniques. In my independent fellowship I aim to combine the expertise in cell imaging and membrane reconstitution to investigate how membrane identity changes control diverse cellular events. 

• 2023 – Present: Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow, University of Sheffield

• 2019-2023 Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Dundee, Cell and Developmental Biology, Supervisor: Dr. David Murray

• 2015-2019 PhD University of Sheffield, Supervisor: Prof Elizabeth Smythe

• 2013-2015 MSc, Life and Medical Sciences, University of Bonn, Germany Supervisor: Prof Thorsten Lang

• 2010-2013 Bsc, Molekulare Biomedizin, University of Bonn

Lewis joined us for his first postdoc in April 2024 and is working on the reconstitution of phosphoinositide conversion cascades. He is a skilled Biochemist with a strong background in computational modelling of protein dynamics. His aim is to model the biochemical regulations of enzyme kinetics and membrane binding. He did his PhD in Sheffield with Prof Kathryn Ayscough and Prof Mike Williamson on the regulation of Actin polymerisation by poly proline regions in Las17 which will soon be published.

Ben is the first PhD student in the lab and works on the mechanisms by which phosphoinositide signalling regulates the formation of membrane contact sites between Peroxisomes and Lipid Droplets in response to oxidative stress. He did his undergrad and masters in Sheffield working with Izzy Jayasinghe on expansion microscopy and became proficient in the use of advanced imaging approaches. He has already contributed to a recent preprint during his time as Msc student:

Seehra, R.S., B.H.K. Allouis, T.M.D. Sheard, M.E. Spencer, T. Shakespeare, A. Cadby, and I. Jayasinghe. 2023. Geometry-preserving Expansion Microscopy microplates enable high fidelity nanoscale distortion mapping. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101719