People

Carlos Maluquer de Motes

Carlos Maluquer de Motes

Principal Investigator

I earned my PhD in the University of Barcelona, where I am from. After post-doctoral training in the University of Pennsylvania (US), Imperial College London and University of Cambridge I settled down at the University of Surrey in 2014 to start my own lab. Now my job is to boss people around! 😉

Becky Sumner

Becky Sumner

Post-doctoral researcher

I joined the lab in 2020 after spending six years as a postdoc at UCL in the Towers lab working on evasion of innate sensing by HIV-1. Prior to that I worked on innate immune evasion strategies of poxviruses in the Smith lab for two years as a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and also as a PhD student at Imperial College. I’m now returning to poxviruses and innate sensing, as well as other interesting projects on viruses, cell cycle and innate immunity.

Lucy Eke

Lucy Eke

Research Fellow

I obtained my PhD in Gill Elliott’s lab working on a variety of viruses including HSV, SARS-CoV-2, IAV and ZKV. I joined the lab in 2022 as a Research Fellow to study novel ubiquitin ligases involved in inflammation and antiviral responses.

Hannah Ashby

Hannah Ashby

PhD student

I’m Hannah. I graduated in Veterinary Biosciences from Surrey. I then I joined the lab in 2022 with a joint Dstl/Surrey studentship to study innate immune responses to orthopoxviruses in skin cell models and how these restrict virus spread.

Isobel Stokes

Isobel Stokes

PhD student

I joined the lab in 2020 as a PhD student funded by the Surrey Doctoral College after obtaining my MSc degree and spending some years at the Pirbright Institute. My aim is to characterise poxviral manipulation of host factor DBC-1 and how this results in cell survival and inhibition of inflammation.

Preetam Parija

Preetam Parija

PhD student

Hello everyone, I am Preetam from India. After few years of dabbling with various virology projects, I joined the lab in 2021 as a PhD student funded by a Vice-Chancellor’s Studentship Award. My Ph.D. work primarily focuses on elucidating how and why certain key regulatory proteins involved in the ubiquitin proteasomal pathway are being degraded by poxviruses.

 

Ailish Ellis

Ailish Ellis

Research Assistant

I joined the lab in 2022 to conduct my master’s research project, which involved the characterisation of the poxviral cGAMP nuclease. Then I was employed as a research assistant under Dr Becky Sumner working on an exciting project which links the cell cycle to innate immunity. Now I have a studentship to study the ISG restriction of poxviruses. The lab is so great apparently I can’t leave! 😉

 

PAST MEMBERS (First post)

  • Alasdair Hood, PhD, 2020-2024 (PDRA at University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
  • Sian Lant, PhD, 2019-2023 (PDRA at The Pirbright Institute, United Kingdom)
  • Telma Sancheira Freitas, RA, 2022-2023 (PhD student at University of Surrey)
  • Misbah El-Jesr, MSc, 2019-2022
  • Sandra Gomez, Erasmus UG, 2022 (PhD student at Hospital Gregorio Maranon, Spain)
  • Muad Teir, MSc, 2020-2022
  • Joe Holley, PhD, 2014-2018 (Staff scientist at Oxford Biomedica Plc, United Kingdom)
  • Pau Ribo, Erasmus UG, 2018 (PhD student at Erasmus MC, The Netherlands)
  • Iliana Georgana, PhD, 2015-2018 (PDRA at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
  • Valerie Odon, PDRA, 2015-2018 (PDRA at University of Oxford, United Kingdom)