People
Tiago C. Luis, PhD
Principal Investigator
Sir Henry Dale Fellow of the Wellcome Trust and The Royal Society
I graduated from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) in 2005 and since then my research has focused on the mechanisms regulating haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function and the extracellular signals these cells receive from their niche. During my PhD studies in the laboratory of Prof. Frank Staal and Prof. Jacques van Dongen at Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam (The Netherlands) I studied the role of the Wnt-signalling pathway in haematopoiesis. I demonstrated a stage/lineage-specific and dosage-dependent effect of Wnt-signalling throughout adult haematopoiesis. After obtaining my PhD in 2010 I joined the laboratory of Prof. Sten Eirik Jacobsen at the University of Oxford (UK) as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow, to investigate the cellular pathways of lineage commitment from HSCs. I characterized the first haematopoietic progenitors that migrate and colonize the foetal thymus, where they encounter a specific microenvironment eliciting further differentiation through the T-lymphocyte lineage. In 2014 I as awarded a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Fellowship to investigate the bone marrow niche of platelet-biased HSCs.
In 2018 I was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society to start my laboratory at Imperial College London. My research focuses on the molecular mechanisms by which the bone marrow niche regulates HSCs, in homeostasis and in the development of haematological malignancies.
Lab Members
Kexin Fan
Research Assistant
My name is Kexin Fan and I was born in China. For my undergraduate degree, I studied biology in the college of William and Mary in the United States. I did my MSc in the Luis Lab and stayed as a Research Assistant to continue working on the haematopoietic stem cell niche.
Mark Pailing
Master Student - MRes Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Program
My name is Mark Pailing, I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of Southampton. I am currently studying MRes Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. I am currently working in the Luis lab studying the role of HSC niche in leukaemia development.
Hana Dowidar
Student - BSc Medical Bioscience
My name is Hana Dowidar, I’m from Egypt, and I am a Medical Biosciences undergraduate student at Imperial. I am currently working in the Luis lab during my final year placement. Here in the lab, I am studying the role of the haematopoietic stem cell niche in the development of leukaemia.
Join the lab
We invite applications for a Research Assistant to join the Lab and work on an exciting project aiming to investigate the dynamics of the interaction between haematopoietic stem cells and the bone marrow niche in normal and malignant haematopoiesis.
Job reference: NAT00635
Closing date: 16 February 2020