Close
Lab Alumni
Dr Rosie Marshall, Post-doc
Rosie completed her PhD in 2021 (primary supervisor Prof Nick Green) before undertaking a post-doc in Prof Andy Copp’s lab. She joined the Neurulation Biomechanics lab in 2023 to study the relationship between F-actin turnover at the molecular level with neural tube closure at the tissue level. Her findings have recently been submitted for publication and she has taken up a new project in Andy Copp’s lab.
Ioakeim (Makis) Ampartzidis, PhD student
Makis completed a tissue engineering PhD project in 2024. His research aimed to develop cell-based therapeutics which may promote neuronal survival in patients undergoing in utero surgery for spina bifida.
Eirini Maniou, Post-doctoral researcher
Eirini did her PhD at the University of Dundee and then worked as a post-doc at the University of East Anglia. In the Neurulation Biomechanics lab she studied the biomechanics of mammalian cranial neural tube closure and developed tools to quantify mechanical forces during chick neurulation. Building on these outputs she secured a Marie Curie Fellowship which will be based at the University of Padua, and continues to contribute to the Neurulation Biomechanics lab as a collaborator.
Elliott Thompson, Post-doctoral researcher
Elliott recently completed his PhD in the Institute of Child Health and joined the Galea lab as co-applicant on an NIHR GOSH BRC grant working towards transplantation of autologous neuroepithelial cells into spina bifida lesions during fetal surgery. Following this post-doc position he took up a position in industry.
Henry Crosswell, MSc Student (2021/2022)
Henry is a UCL MSc Neurosciences student. For his dissertation project he studied whether stochastic molecular processes can propagate across length scales to cause tissue-level disruption of morphogenesis.
Sharuka Ravichandran, iBSc student (2021/2022)
Sharuka is UCL medical student completing her BSc research project in the Neurulation Biomechanics lab. She studied whether heterogenous tissue mechanics contributes to asymmetric morphogenesis during neural tube closure.
Tomas Rezaie, iBSC student (2021/2022)
Tom is using human stem cell-derived neurons to study why amniotic fluid exposure causes neurodegeneration in spina bifida lesions.
Yosuf Gheasuddin, iBSc student (2020/2021)
Yosuf is a third-year medical student at UCL who intercalated a BSc in Paediatrics and Child Health. Using whole mouse embryo culture, he is currently taking on a research project, to investigate if exposure to a non-narcotic component of cannabis, cannabidiol, predisposes to neural tube defects, such as anencephaly and spina bifida.
Tyler Wilson, MSc student (2021)
Tyler completed an MSc dissertation project characterising human iPSC-derived neuroepithelial cells as a model system to study the relationship between interkinetic nuclear migration and apical constriction.
Shiva Nischal, Project student (2020/2021)
Christoforos Efstathiou (2019/20) 
Chris completed his MSc project in the lab, during which he established live imaging of non-transgenic chick embryos using vital cell dyes. Chris was very successful in establishing this model and his findings are beginning to clarify how future spinal cord cells balance their requirement for proliferation with the generation of mechanical forces necessary to close the neural tube. Chris is now pursuing a PhD through a LIDo iCASE studentship working with Prof. Viji Draviam’s group at QMUL.
Faduma Farah (2018/19)
Faduma undertook her MRes project in the lab studying completion of spinal neural tube closure. She used embryo culture, 3D confocal microscopy and image analysis to establish the consequences of pharmacologically inhibiting a key pathway of interest on formation of the low spinal cord. We are actively following up her findings using genetic approaches and expect to submit them for publication in 2021. Faduma is about to start an MRC DTP/CASE PhD studentship run by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Tropical Medicine and Lancaster University.
Max Butler (2018)
Max undertook a Wellcome Vacation Internship in the lab while studying Medicine in Cambridge. He applied skills from his first degree in architecture to understand the cellular basis of shape change in the closing spinal neural tube. His work led to a joint first-authorship paper in the Journal of Cell Science and a “First Person” author spotlight. The paper has also been featured in the journal’s research highlights and reviewed by F1000. He is now in the final year of his medical degree.
Nina Short (2017)
Nina undertook a 3-month research studentship trying to work out how regulation of cell shape in developing spinal cord helps prevent spina bifida. Her work contributed to a joint first-authorship paper published in the Journal of Cell Science and she was featured in the journal’s author spotlight. Nina is currently finishing her MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at Imperial College.
Amy Hughes (2016/17)
Amy completed her BSc dissertation in the lab studying how the anti-epileptic medication Valproate causes spina bifida. Her work earned her first authorship on a paper which was featured on the cover of the journal Mechanisms of Development.
