skip to content

Department of Pharmacology

 

 

Group Leader

Graham Ladds PhD FBPhS

Professor in Receptor Pharmacology and fellow of St John’s college. Fellow of the British Pharmacological society

Email: grl30@cam.ac.uk

Twitter: @GpcrL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Dr Peace Atakpa


Peace was awarded a BSc in Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool before joining the group. Her PhD focussed on Ca2+ handling by lysosomes, with particular interests in the interactions between the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes. Peace now holds a junior research fellowship with Emmanuel College and continues to study the dynamics of organellar Ca2+ handling. Email: pa376@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Matthew Harris

Matt completed his BBSRC funded PhD in 2019. His work focused on investigating the role that receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs) and small molecules play in modulating gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor (GIPR) signalling. Matt is now a junior research fellow of St Edmund’s College, and his post-doctoral research continues to explore the effects of RAMPs on GPCR function.

Email: mh702@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

Dr David Prole


David studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge before exploring the structure and function of K

+ channels during his PhD with Neil Marrion at the University of Bristol and HCN pacemaker channels during postdoctoral research with Gary Yellen at Harvard Medical School. After moving back to the University of Cambridge in 2006 to work with Colin Taylor, he held a Meres Research Associateship from St John's College from 2007-2011 and his research has been supported by Wellcome and the BBSRC. David currently applies optical imaging and molecular biology to examine the roles of ion channels, G protein-coupled receptors and the alternative proteome in human cell signalling.

Email: dp350@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

Dr Ana Rossi
Senior Research Associate and Fellow of Queens' College

After undergraduate studies in Argentina, Ana completed her PhD in 2007 and was appointed to a junior research fellowship at Queens' College. Ana has worked on various aspects of IP3 receptor behaviour, including the characterization of novel partial agonists, defining the structural determinants of ligand binding to IP3 receptors and unravelling the mechanisms underlaying quantal Ca2+ release: namely the ability of cells to evoke rapid Ca2+ signals that are graded with stimulus intensity. Ana’s current work focuses on understanding the role of Ca2+ signals in the invasion of glioma cells through patients’ brains and identifying druggable targets to stop invasion. Ana supervises Part IA Biology of Cells and is Director of Studies for Part II Pharmacology at Queens' College. Email: amr50@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Dewi Safitri

For her PhD she worked on modulation of cAMP through PDE inhibition and its therapeutic potential. Her current post-doctoral project is investigating glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) pharmacology and how it is influenced by RAMP association. The project is conducted with Takeda Pharmaceutical as the industrial partner.

Email: ds791@cam.ac.uk

Twitter: @dewi_safitri_88

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lab Manager

Dr Emily Taylor

Emily read biological sciences at the University of East Anglia and completed her PhD in plant pathology at Nottingham University. After postdoctoral work in Brazil, she held senior scientific posts in molecular plant pathology at the NIAB in Cambridge. Emily joined the department in 2002 as a lab manager. She has specific skills in molecular biology, immunomethods and high-throughput analyses of Ca2+ signalling. Her present research is concerned with the role of KRAP and its interactions with IP3R in intracellular Ca2+ and signalling in human cell lines. Email: ejat2@cam.ac.uk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graduate students

Jing

Jing is a PhD student funded by the Cambridge Trust and Newnham College Scholarship. Her work is investigating the role of IP3Rs and Ca2+ signals during mitosis. By applying microscopy and molecular biology methods, she focuses specifically on how IP3Rs and Ca2+ participate in spindle orientation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms Abigail Pearce

Abi is a BBSRC iCASE student at King’s College, in partnership with AstraZeneca. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge, before beginning her PhD in 2018. She looks at the signalling at the Glucagon subfamily of GPCRs, focusing on the Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R) and how its interactions with other proteins regulate insulin secretion.

Email: ap847@cam.ac.uk

Twitter: @abi_pearce96

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms Claudia Sisk

Claudia is a PhD student funded by Cambridge Trust and Gonville & Caius College. She completed her undergraduate degree in bioengineering at Clemson University before starting her PhD in 2022. Her research looks into profiling the activation pathways of P2Y receptors and their effects on inflammation and platelet aggregation.

Email: cms226@cam.ac.uk
Twitter: @cleerdia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Holly Smith

Holly is a graduate student at Darwin College, supported by a BBSRC iCASE award. Holly completed her BSc in Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield, and joined the Taylor lab in 2018 for her PhD. She is working on understanding the generation and termination of local Ca2+ signals evoked by IP3 receptors using high-resolution fluorescence microscopy, in partnership with Cairn Research.
Email: has54@cam.ac.uk
Twitter: @HollyASmith_488

 

 

 

 

Ms Anna Suchankova

Anna is a PhD student funded by the Cambridge Trust. She completed her undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, starting her PhD in 2019. She looks at allosteric modulators of GPCR signalling, focusing on the gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor (GIPR), as well as the adenosine family of receptors.

Email: as2268@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Matthew Rosa

Matt is a PhD student funded by AstraZeneca. He completed his Undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Aberdeen, before starting his PhD in 2020. He looks at the family 1 taste receptors, specifically those contributing to ‘sweet’ chemosensing, and how these can be tuned in order to develop a glucose biosensor.

Email: mr857@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Theo Redfern-Nichols

Theo is a BBSRC iCASE PhD student at Wolfson College, in partnership with AstraZeneca. He completed his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge before beginning his PhD in 2020. He is interested in GPCR bias signalling. Specifically, Theo is investigating the Calcitonin Receptor-like Receptor (CLR) and its interactions with receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs).

Email: tr428@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adelina Ivanova

Adelina joined the Taylor lab in 2020 as a graduate student, exploring the role of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphare in the regulation of Ca2+ signals evoked by IP3 receptors. She is a member of Wolfson College and her PhD is supported by a Cambridge European, Department of Pharmacology & Wolfson Medical Research Scholarship. Prior to her PhD studies, Adelina completed an integrated MChem in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh with an Industrial Placement at AstraZeneca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Edward Wills

Ned is a PhD student funded through the EPSRC Sensor CDT by AstraZeneca. After completing his MSci in Neuroscience at University College London, he studied an MRes in Sensor Technologies here at Cambridge before beginning his PhD in 2021. Ned aims to develop novel molecular biosensors for intracellular GPCR signalling pathways, with a focus on high throughput drug screening.

Email: ehw34@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms Xianglin (Rosalind) Huang

Rosalind developed great interest in receptor pharmacology during her undergraduate in Pharmacology and Systems Biology in Natural sciences at University of Cambridge. She is funded by CSC Cambridge International Scholarship and starts her PhD in 2021. Her project is to understand the interactions and mechanisms of regulation between GPCRs, ligands and G proteins/β-arrestin/RAMPs by employing both computational and pharmacological approaches.

Email: xh290@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Abdelhamid Yousef

After undergraduate studies in pharmacy in Egypt, a Master’s degree from the University of Skövde, and a short visit as an ERASMUS student to this lab, Yousef began his PhD studies in early 2019. He is working on the mobility of IP3 receptors. His studies are supported by a Cambridge International Scholarship. ay322@cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Lab alumni

Post-2010

Dr Liliya Kopanitsa, former post-doctoral visitor

Mr Tim Noel, former MPhil student, applying for PhD places

Ms Sabrina Carvalho, former PhD student, currently a Research Scientist at AstraZeneca

Dr Kerry Barkan, former post-doc and PhD student, currently a Research Scientist at Sosei Heptares

Dr Ashley Clark, former PhD student

Dr Ho Yan Yeung, former PhD student, currently a post-doc at Copenhagen University

Mr Hitoshi Yamauchi, former MPhil student

Dr Ian Winfield, former post-doc and PhD student, currently Team Leader at Domainex

Dr Alex Esparza-Franco, former PhD student, currently Scientific Officer at Micropathology Ltd

Dr Cathryn Weston, post-doc and PhD student, currently Career Development Fellow for Asthma UK, University of Leicester

Dr Catherine Richardson, former PhD student, currently Associate Consultant, Healthcare

Dr Anthony Knight, former PhD student, left Science to become an accountant

 

Pre-2010

Ms Jannette Bennett

Dr Wayne Croft

Dr Antonio Lock

Dr Louise Godfrey

Dr Benjamin Smith

Dr Claire Hill

Dr Rachel Forfar