Lab members
Adrian Biddle - Principal Investigator
Adrian is a group leader and senior lecturer within the Centre for Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research at the Blizard Institute. His research interest is in non-genetic cellular heterogeneity in oral cancer, and the importance of such heterogeneity for tumour spread and therapeutic resistance.
Adrian obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, then spent a year working on lung cancer therapeutics at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Adrian performed his PhD with Professor Sir John Gurdon at Cambridge University, studying nuclear reprogramming in Xenopus laevis oocytes, and obtained his PhD in 2008. He then joined the Blizard Institute as a postdoctoral fellow working on cancer stem cells in oral cancer with Professor Ian Mackenzie. Adrian was awarded an NC3Rs David Sainsbury fellowship in 2012 and became a Principal Investigator in 2017. Adrian was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021.
Adrian organises the London cancer and stem cell in vitro models club. If you are interested in joining the club mailing list, please get in contact.
E-mail: a.biddle@qmul.ac.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drabiddle
Abigail Coetzee - Postdoctoral Fellow
Abigail is investigating the molecular pathways involved in driving metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma. She will be looking at the transitions between sub-populations of cancer stem cells in response to TGFβ treatment and manipulating these pathways to identify those that are responsible for producing metastatic cancer stem cells. She will be using a variety of 2D and 3D methods to study the role of these pathways in invasion and metastasis.
Abigail obtained a BSc in Biomedical Science from the University of Surrey in 2013, which included a placement year at GSK. She then obtained an MSc in Cancer Therapeutics at Barts Cancer Institute in 2015, before continuing in the labs of Prof Richard Grose and Prof Hemant Kocher for her PhD project focused on targeting FGFR signalling cross-talk in pancreatic cancer. Abigail completed her PhD in 2019 and continued working in the Grose lab for a short-term postdoc, before starting in the Biddle lab in 2021.
E-mail: a.coetzee@qmul.ac.uk
Sophia Lunetto - PhD student
Sophia is a member of the BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme. She is researching the heterogenous modes of migration in oral squamous cell carcinoma, and how these overlay onto cancer stem cell identities. This involves combining computational methods, such as network analysis, with an in vitro metastasis-on-a-chip model. Sophia aims to probe the response to paracrine and juxtacrine signalling environments within this model, particularly the effects of IGF, TGFβ, and Notch pathways, to elucidate cancer stem cell driven mechanisms of single cell and collective invasion. Sophia's project is a collaboration with www.sanz-moreno-lab.co.uk/.
Sophia obtained a BSc in Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin, while working at Cellbricks, a Bioprinting start-up. Afterwards, she pursued her MSc in Bioengineering at Imperial College London specialising in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering before joining the Biddle Lab.
E-mail: s.lunetto@qmul.ac.uk
Celia Gonzalez Maroto - PhD student
Celia's PhD is a collaborative project with Prof Mahvash Tavassoli at KCL. Celia is investigating hypoxia tolerance mechanisms in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas and the impact in radiotherapy effectiveness. During the 4-year PhD she will focus on the interaction of tumour microenvironment cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) with cancer stem cells (CSCs) using 2D and 3D in vitro models. Throughout the investigation Celia aims to characterise different phenotypes and underlying biological processes of CAFs and CSCs in hypoxia tolerance associated with metastasis and radioresistance. Moreover, Celia plans to examine and profile the tumour microenvironment in patient samples with Hyperion imaging mass cytometry.
Celia obtained a BSc in Applied Biomedical Science at Glasgow Caledonian University, where she completed a 6-month placement in Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Haematology and Transfusion laboratory. Prior to her Cancer Research UK funded PhD Celia carried out an MRes in Biomedical research at Imperial College London.
E-mail: celia.gonzalez_maroto@kcl.ac.uk
Nada Nurein - Research assistant
Nada has a background in dentistry, and is establishing a tissue back for oral squamous cancer. Nada's work involves liaising with surgeons, developing SOPs, samples collection, and tissue culture using explant and dissociation techniques. Nada will also be working on developing a tumorigenesis model for oral squamous cell cancer.
Nada obtained a bachelor’s in dental surgery from the University of Science and Technology, Sudan in 2013. She then obtained an MSc in Oral Medicine from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa in 2020, followed by clinical work in the specialty for a year in Sudan. Afterwards, Nada pursued another MSc in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at Aston University in 2022, before joining the Biddle Lab in 2023.
E-mail: n.nurein@qmul.ac.uk
Momita Bhuiyan - PhD student
Momita's PhD project focuses on modelling an in-vitro, animal-free model of the Lymph Node (LN) to investigate Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) metastasis in LNs. She will be using hydrogels made of matrix-free, self-assembling peptides which provide a user-defined 3D environment with independent control of different properties such as stiffness and addition of matrix and cells of interest. Momita aims to apply computational methods on available OSCC and LN datasets and use pathological LN tissue slides to identify, and subsequently investigate genes and proteins of interest in the model. Momita's project is in collaboration with Dr Mirjana Efremova and funded by AFRUK and QMUL.
Momita obtained a BSc in Biomedical Sciences in 2019 followed by a MRes in ‘Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine’ in 2020 from the University of Liverpool (UoL). She then worked as a lab and teaching technician at UoL, before starting her PhD in the Biddle lab in 2022.
E-mail: m.bhuiyan@qmul.ac.uk
Artysha Tailor - Clinical PhD student
Artysha is a dentist with postgraduate dental training in both pathology and maxillofacial surgery and thus her research interests lie in oral cancer. During her PhD she aims to investigate the bi-directional relationship between cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the tumour-immune infiltrate in oral cancer. Methods include using the state of the art CellDIVE for multiplex immunofluorescence, to identify CSC-immune specific intra-tumoural spatial relationships. This will help guide the latter portions of her PhD utilising a 3D microfluidic model to test these heterocellular interactions and identify important signalling molecules that may act as a therapeutic target. Her PhD is funded by The Medical College of Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust.
Artysha Tailor gained her dental BDS degree and Neuroscience BSc (hons) from King’s College London in 2017. Before joining the Biddle lab she completed postgraduate dental core training in pathology and maxillofacial surgery as well as having worked in general dental practice. She continues to work in general dental practice throughout her PhD.
E-mail: artysha.tailor@qmul.ac.uk