Rija Zaidi
Rija Zaidi
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PhD Student
PhD Student
I carried out my undergraduate studies in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, with a focus on viral protein-RNA interactions in my final year. Following this, I joined the Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Programme at UCL within the Fundamental Mechanisms of Disease theme.
My PhD research focuses on developing statistical algorithms to reconstruct tumour evolution from single-cell whole-genome DNA sequencing data. In particular, I work on reconstructing single-cell tumour phylogenetic trees using single-nucleotide variants.
Positions
08/2021-09/2021 | Visiting Associate ⋅ Boston Consulting Group, Oslo, Norway
09/2020 | Summer Intern ⋅ Dehns, London, UK
06/2020 | Summer Intern ⋅ Carpmaels & Ransford, London, UK
08/2019 | Intern ⋅ DJS Antibodies, Oxford, UK
06/2019-07/2019 | Lab Intern ⋅ Division of Structural Biology at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, UK
12/2018 | Lab Intern ⋅ Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University, Oslo, Norway
Roles
10/2022 – Present | Visiting Scientist, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
Fellowships
2021 | University College London Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Programme Studentship, London, UK
Honors and Awards
2024 | HitSeq Best Presentation Award, Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) Conference, Montreal, Canada
2024 | Travel Fellowship, Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) Conference, Montreal, Canada
2023 | Best Poster Prize, Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress 2023, Paris, France
2023 | Merit Travel Award, Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress 2023, Paris, France
2022 | Colin Woolf Memorial Award for Best Poster, University College London Cancer Institute Annual Conference, London, UK
2021 | Mary Somerville Prize, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2020 | Examiners' Commendation, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2020 | College Prize, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2019 | Catherine Hughes Award, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2017 | Top 10 Finalist, Norwegian Philosophy Olympiad, Oslo, Norway
2016 | Silver Medal, Baltic Sea Philosophy Essay Event, Oslo, Norway
Education
2021 – Present | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Programme, University College London, London, UK.
Thesis title: Estimating the evolutionary and chronological timing of cancer metastasis with single-cell whole-genome sequencing.
Supervisors: Dr. Simone Zaccaria & Prof. Nicholas McGranahan.
2017 – 2021 | Integrated Master of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (M.Biochem), First Class
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Part II supervisor: Prof. Alfredo Castello
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