Contact us

Interested in being a part of the club? 

Get in touch with us at doid.ecr.committee-wd@groups.imperial.ac.uk

About us

The Early Careers Researchers Club (ECR Club) is a forum for Early Career Researchers - PhD students, research technicians, Post Docs and clinical and academic fellows - from the Department of Infectious Disease that will allow us the opportunity to hear from and engage with speakers on a range of topics pertinent to our scientific careers, mental health and wellbeing as well as different facets of science, and network over food and drinks! 

Speakers will be invited to discourse on topics including: 'patient and public engagement in clinical research', 'fostering successful collaborations' and 'tips for a stress-free career break', among others. Some meetings will take the form of a 'Chalkboard Talk' where speakers present their research on a whiteboard and open up discussion on the scientific rationale, future direction and translational scope of their work. Meetings will also provide an insight into the range of career options available to ECRs working in medical research and offer the opportunity to hear first-hand the experiences of people on different career paths. The subject matter is deliberately chosen to be diverse and provoke thought and discussion that is distinct from more scientifically focused departmental seminars.  

Attendees are encouraged to network following the session. A major aim of the club is to bridge the gap between clinicians and non-clinicians with the department. Fostering collaboration at the early stages of our careers will lead to greater appreciation and understanding of each other’s work, culminating in better outcomes for patients with infectious diseases in the future.

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Upcoming events

More events coming soon!

We usually host an event once a month in the DoID social room.

To attend our events, message doid.ecr.committee-WD@groups.imperial.ac.uk.

Meet the Committee

  • Christine Hilcenko

    Personal details

    Christine Hilcenko Research Associate – ECR Club Committee Chair

    Biography

    I am a dynamic and enthusiastic structural biologist with over two decades of experience in X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and biophysical characterization of biomolecules. My research has spanned fundamental studies of ribosome biogenesis and acute leukaemia pathogenesis to applied drug discovery and assay development. Since March 2025, I have been working in Prof. Goedele N. Maertens’ lab on the structural and functional characterization of the interactions between human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) proteins and the host. I bring a unique blend of academic rigor and entrepreneurial spirit, having co-founded two biotech companies and contributed to preclinical candidate development. My collaborative nature, leadership experience, and commitment to mentoring make me a valuable contributor to multidisciplinary research environments. I am passionate about translating structural insights into therapeutic advances and fostering scientific innovation.

  • Jorin Riexinger

    Personal details

    Jorin Riexinger Research Associate – ECR Club Fundraising Committee

    Biography

    I joined the BioPattern Lab of Dr Ravinash Krishna Kumar at the Department of Infectious Disease in 2025. Previously, I completed my PhD at the University of Oxford, focusing on how 3D-printed synthetic tissues may communicate with bacteria. I have an engineering and neuroscience background. Besides work, I enjoy staying active, preferably outdoors.

  • Carlota Miranda-Solé

    Personal details

    Carlota Miranda-Solé Research Associate – ECR Club Speakers Committee

    Biography

    I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Margarita Dominguez-Villar group, where I focus on characterising immune-metabolic changes associated with oral insulin treatment and T1D onset, as part of the POInT clinical trial. I hold a PhD in Immunology by University College London, a MSc in Pharmacology, and a BSc in Biotechnology. During my PhD I studied the impact of long-term paHIV infection in adolescents/young adults, finding associations with accelerated immune ageing (via telomere biology), high immune activation/proliferation, and increased thymic activity. Outside of the lab I love soaking up the sun, doing outdoor sports, dancing, travel and photography.

  • Stephanie Ascough

    Personal details

    Stephanie Ascough Research Associate – ECR Club Treasurer

    Biography

    I’m a Research Associate in the Adult Infectious Disease Section, based at the Hammersmith Hospital Campus, working in Prof Chiu’s lab on human clinical trials. This research involves both early phase vaccine trials, as well as Controlled Human Infection Models (CHIMs) of respiratory viral infections, where we infect healthy volunteers with viruses such as Influenza, COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). I have a particular interest in the aging immune system and use clinical samples from experimentally infected older volunteers to investigate the changes in innate, humoral and cell-mediated immunity that occur as we age.

  • Sebald Verkuijl

    Personal details

    Sebald Verkuijl Research Associate – ECR Club Website Committee

    Biography

    I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Windbichler lab (Department of Life Sciences), where I work on genetically engineered mosquitoes. My research focuses on developing and evaluating new genetic tools for the control of mosquito-borne diseases. I use both computational and transgenic methods.

  • Alex McCarthy

    Personal details

    Alex McCarthy Reader in Bacterial Infection Biology

    Biography

    I joined the Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London in January 2019 as a Lecturer. I previously completed a PhD at the University of Leeds (2005-2009), a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof Jodi Lindsay at St George's University of London, London studying the evolution and host-pathogen interactions of S. aureus from 2009-2013, a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof Peter Taylor at University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy, London studying the host-pathogen interactions of E. coli from 2013 to 2016. I was awarded an Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development by EU MSCA to join the laboratory of Prof Jos van Strijp at the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht in 2016 to study the role of inhibitory receptors on neutrophils. I am now a Reader in Bacterial Infection Biology, leading a group studying the role of inhibitory receptors in antibacterial immunity and as targets of bacterial virulence strategies.

  • Goedele N. Maertens

    Personal details

    Goedele N. Maertens Professor in Molecular Virology

    Biography

    Goedele received her BSc in Chemistry and MSc in Biochemistry from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL, Belgium). During her PhD in Biochemistry in the laboratories of Yves Engelborghs and Zeger Debyser at the KUL, she trained for two years in the Alan Engelman lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA). Following a 4-year postdoctoral fellowship in molecular oncology at Cancer Research UK (London, UK), in the lab of Gordon Peters, she joined the Cherepanov lab at Imperial College London for 18 months. In 2011, she joined the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London as a Lecturer. She is now a Reader in Molecular Virology in the Department of Infectious Disease and since 2020 the Deputy Head of Section of Virology. Her research interests include mechanisms of retroviral integration with a particular focus on deltaretroviruses such as human T-cell lymphotropic virus.

Past Events

2026
  • 10 June 2026: Sarah Gee (J A Kemp), Heather Coombe (ICL), Kat Sala (ICL) and Emma Cookson (The Lancet group), “Exploring career paths in academia and beyond”
  • 29 April 2026: Dr Julia Makinde and Dr Anna Ettorre (ManteisBio); Dr Michael Crone and Maxime Laurent (FullCircle Labs), “Micro Dragon’s Den”
  • 24 March 2026: Inês P. Perpétuo (ECR Institute), “Micro Pitch”
  • 11 February 2026: ECR Club committee, “Make your own cocktail/mocktail and meet the ECR Club”

 

2025
  • 23 October 2025: Dr Alex Cloherty (Oncode), "Targeted Science Communication: The Right Message for the Right Audience at the Right Time"
  • 25 September 2025: Prof David Kent (University of York), "Navigating Career Transitions in Academic Science"
  • 12 June 2025: Dr Illaria Dorigatti (ICL), "Infectious disease and climate change"
  • 29 May 2025: Dr Stephanie Hodeib and Dr Heather Hanna, "What it takes to teach in academia"
  • 1 May 2025: Dr Harry Horsley (UCL), "From bench to bedside: Developing a Computer Vision Framework to Diagnose UTIs"
  • 13 February 2025: Dr. Jesus Manzano, “Setting Up Your Startup”
  • 23 January 2025: Dr. Ines Perpetuo, Dr. Caroline Hargreaves, “ECRI”
2024
  • 4 December 2024: Dr. Michal Barski, “The Importance of Visualising Biotech Innovations”
  • 2 November 2024: Dr. John Tregoning, “Popular Science Writing”
  • 3 July 2024: Dr. Ana Barradas-Pires, “Healthcare Economics”
  • 23 May 2024: Dr. Carolina Rosadas, “Pathway to impact: how to use research to change policy”
  • 18 April 2024: Dr. Laura Martin-Sancho and Dr. Lucy Thorne, “Collaboration in the Pandemic Age”
  • 7 March 2024: Dr Thomas Peacock, “Effective Science Communication in a Room Full of Loud Voices”
  • 1 February 2024: Chalk Board Talk Dr. Claudia Efstathiou, “Markers of Long Covid”
2023
  • 2 Nov 2023: Chalk Board Talk Dr. Pat Kalemera, "HCV balances efficient entry and antibody escape by conformationally tuning its envelope protein"