People

Dr Alper Akay

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Principal Investigator

I studied Biology at the Middle East Technical University in Türkiye and took an MSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Amsterdam. I then moved to Scotland for a PhD on RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNAs in C. elegans with Anton Gartner. During my postdoc with Eric Miska at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge I worked on small silencing RNAs, long non-coding RNAs and RNA modifications. I am interested in how RNA regulates essential processes in the cell, and how it works as a signalling molecule during development.

• 2012–2019 — Postdoctoral researcher, Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge
• 2007–2012 — PhD, University of Dundee, Anton Gartner's lab
• 2005–2007 — MSc, University of Amsterdam
• 2000–2005 — BSc, Middle East Technical University

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Dr Tim Pearson

Senior Research Associate

I studied physiology at Southampton and neurobiology at Durham. My postdoctoral work has covered CNS oxygen deprivation and adenosine signalling in stroke models, obstetric research into premature labour, and skeletal muscle research on sarcopenia and ageing — the role of reactive oxygen species, amino acid transport and satellite cells.

Katarzyna Hencel

Senior Research Associate

I studied at the University of Dundee, receiving a BSc in microbiology. During my studies I worked in Dr Sarah Coulthurst’s lab on the type VI secretion system in Serratia marcescens. My PhD investigated how metabolism regulates RNA modifications in C. elegans.

Aykut Shen

PhD student, BBSRC NRPDTP

I completed a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Dundee, focusing on bioinformatics. Through the James Black student internship in the Holden lab at the James Hutton Institute I contributed to a project on vertical farming. My honours project in the Simpson lab identified and characterised non-coding RNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana. In my PhD I use RNA sequencing to study RNA modifications and splicing.

John Williams

PhD student, BBSRC NRPDTP

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of East Anglia, with a final year project at the Earlham Institute. I started my BBSRC-funded NRPDTP PhD in October 2023, studying how modified RNAs and RNA-modifying enzymes are deposited into oocytes.

Max Brown

PhD student, Big C Cancer Charity

Bio to come.

Ekemini Okon

PhD student, BBSRC MMBDTP

I completed my undergraduate studies at Landmark University, Nigeria, and earned two master’s degrees from the University of Stirling and Ghent University through the Commonwealth and Erasmus Mundus scholarship programmes. I began my MMBDTP funded PhD in October 2025. My research focuses on bacterial metabolites that can alleviate vitamin B12 deficiency, using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model.

Juliet Ibuchim Agu

MSc by Research student

Bio to come.