The first Peterhouse Biology Symposium took place in March 2020. This very special event provides the opportunity for Peterhouse biologists to hear about the research carried out by undergraduates, graduates, Research Associates and Fellows. The 10 minute-long presentations provide a brief account of the research, facilitating contact between interested people, followed by longer informal discussion. Presentations have covered conservation biology, species and genome evolution, synthetic embryos, lake ecology, 3D genome architecture, learning, microbial activity, viral infections, development, protein function, among many others.

Past comments:

"Thank you again for organising such an excellent day on Saturday. It's always very nice to see what the breadth of biologists have been up to at Peterhouse and it is an impressive diversity but communicated in an accessible and engaging way."

"Thanks once again for organising the symposium - it was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the high-quality work done by other biologists at Peterhouse, as well as a great platform to exchange ideas!"

Abstracts of the presentation are available by clicking on the years below:

2025 abstracts

  • Justin Gerlach (Fellow) - Reversing habitat degradation with giant tortoises or playing with nature?: 'Rewilding' in Madagascar
  • Charlotte Wright (PhD) - Out of the blue: bursts of chromosome diversity in the blue butterflies
  • James McCulloch (PhD) - Reconstructing the ancestral genomes of sedges
  • Dylan Flicker (MPhil) - What the cat dragged in: are bovid fauna lists a good proxy for Plio-Pleistocene hominin ecologies?
  • Harry Howard (II Zoology) - Comparison of Moorean invertebrates based on presence of the little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata
  • Wes Robertson (Research Associate) - Genome design and synthesis for non-model bacteria of the gut microbiome
  • Margaret Johncock (III Biochemistry) - Histon B45: Function through disorder
  • Andrzej Wolniewicz (Research Associate) - Unearthing the dragon: new insights into the early evolution of reptiles from southern China
  • Dan Nash (PhD) - A virus in the brain: using proteomics to explore host-pathogen interactions of HSV-1 in human neurones
  • Dhruval Soni (II Pathology) - Exploring the interface between La Cross virus glycoproteins and Notch signalling
  • Reem Alhassan (II Plants) - Novel analysis of cell-to-cell communication
  • Flo Buckley (II Pathology) - Characterisation of the receptor usage and host range of an alphacoronavirus with human-tropic potential
  • Alex Tsompanidis (Honorary Research Associate) - The role of the placenta in neurodevelopment
  • Alia dos Santos (Research Associate) - Integrative in situ structural biology studies reveal changes in nuclear architecture during human spermatogenesis
  • Hugo Fleming (Research Associate) - Metabolism and the mind: investigating the link between glucose control and reinforcement learning in humans

    • 2024 abstracts

  • Fani Memi (Research Associate) – Mapping the brain tumour microenvironments using spatial transcriptomics
  • Clara Dunbavin (II BBS) – Does folic acid over-supplementation during pregnancy affect fetal development?
  • Emily Naden (III Biochemistry) – Unlocking hidden potential: Inhibitors turned activators in drug discovery
  • Konstanze Schichl (PhD) – Identifying changes in viral gene expression and biomarkers in the context of HPV-associated pathology
  • Graham Christie (Fellow) – Rude awakenings: bacterial spores and how they germinate
  • Justin Gerlach (Fellow) – Are we nearly there yet? The burden of proof in saving species from extinction
  • Hayoung Choi (II Genetics) – Studying twists and turns of chromatin in silico - nucleosomes and reversomes
  • Danai Kontou (PhD) – Tales from the deep: timeline of a predator invasion & its impact in freshwater lakes
  • Catherine Whittle (PhD) – Making decisions on the fly: integration of innate and learned information in Drosophila neural circuits
  • Alia dos Santos (Research Associate) – Frozen in time: a sperm’s tale

    • 2023 abstracts

  • Justin Gerlach (Fellow) - New but gone already - Madagascar's dry forest snails
  • Danai Kontou (PhD) - Tales from the deep: tracking the evolution of aquatic food webs in a changing world
  • Emily Naden (II Biochemistry) - Staying alert: investigating impaired hypoglycaemia awareness
  • Wes Robertson (Research Associate) - Turning cells into living factories of the future
  • Sarah Bull (II Zoology) - Rewilding in a changing world: Improving breeding in a population of rewilded Giant Tortoises
  • Fani Memi (Research Associate) - Mapping the tissue architecture of Glioblastoma Multiforme using Spatial Transcriptomics
  • Anirudh Krishnakumar (II BBS) - Tissue engineering approaches in cardiovascular applications and the role of proteomics
  • Charlotte Wright (PhD) - Winging it: understanding genome instability in Polyommatus
  • Mia Messenger & Georgia Miller (II Zoology) - Predatory Giant Tortoises
  • Georgia Miller (II Zoology) - Protein arginine methylation in cell proliferation and DNA replication
  • Sebastian Ljung (II Physics) - Exploring the regulation of domesticated transposons by KRAB zinc finger proteins in humans
  • Chandan Sekhon (II BBS) - How does spaceflight affect adult neurogenesis
  • Will Orchard (PhD) - Correlation implies causation
  • Eleanor Sheekey (PhD) - Confused or in control? Tales of mutant-p53 and a PhD student

    • 2022 abstracts

  • Justin Gerlach (Fellow) - Ecology projects from rewilding to Darwin's beetles
  • Danai Kontou (PhD student) - Evolution in the wild: the predictability of adaptation to global change
  • Sabrina Guzen (II Plant Sciences) - Investigating the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation on barley
  • Wes Robertson (Research Associate) - Sense codon reassignment in a recorded bacterium enables viral resistance and encodes polymer synthesis
  • Louis Fisher (II Zoology) - Ecophenotypic response to microhabitat in freshwater mussels
  • Lloyd Fung (Research Fellow) - From choanoflagellate to choanocyte chamber: lessons learnt from the fluid dynamics of Choanoeca flexa
  • Juliana Nacita (II Biochemistry) - Engineering novel polysaccharides: investigating GT61s in vitro
  • Hana Godfrey (II BBS) - A mouthful of calcium signalling: a plant's response to herbivory
  • Sebastian Ljung (1B) - Applying RNA velocity to human embryonic genome activation
  • Graham Christie (Fellow) - Bugs delivering drugs (delivering bugs)
  • Charlotte Wright (PhD student) - Painted ladies and painted chromosomes: Merian element evolution in the Lepidoptera
  • Jaruwatana (Sodai) Lotharukpong (MPhil student) - Extensive genic innovations at the origin of modern cephalochordates
  • Fani Memi (Research Associate) - Using high throughput spatial genomics to construct cellular atlases of the human brain in development and disease
  • Jen Lim (II Pathology) - A hybridisation-based method for lymphocyte immunoreceptor profiling and lymphoma diagnosis
  • Eleanor Sheekey (PhD student) - Senescence, cancer and p53

    • 2020 abstracts

  • Justin Gerlach (Bye-Fellow) - Resurrecting species and projects
  • Chris Chan Jin Jie (II Physiology, Development & Neuroscience) - How useful are synthetic embryos in the study of early mouse development?
  • Sam Woodman (PhD student) - Chewing through biogeochemical cycles: insect outbreaks boost nitrogen and offset rising carbon concentrations in northern lake waters
  • Talia Smithers (II Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour) - The neural, cellular and molecular basis of interoception in the rat
  • Wes Robertson (Research Associate) - Total synthesis of a recoded E. coli genome
  • Rhea Mittal (II Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour) - The effect of stress on sensory associative learning and its interplay with anxiety and autistic traits
  • Johanna Winder (II Plant Sciences) - Understanding drivers and consequences of microbial community change during permafrost thaw
  • Fani Memi (Research Associate) - MYC versus ASCL1 in Neuroblastoma: a battle for control
  • Tjasa Zaletel (II Pathology) - An investigation into putative host factors required for BK Polyomavirus infection
  • Zhu Xuan Zhong (II Pathology) - Role of BMPR2 in the maintenance of human Cytomegalovirus latency
  • Charlotte Wright (MPhil student) - Uncovering the genetic basis of wing colour patterning in Heliconius butterflies
  • Leo Kiss (PhD student) - Molecular matchmaking
  • Ivan Phanada (II Zoology) - Chromatin remodelling during human DNA replication - the role of PRMT1 methyltransferase
  • Xianglin Huang (II Pharmacology) - Protein modulators of GABA receptors
  • Will Orchard (MPhil student) - What's different in the 3D genome? (differential analysis of Capture Hi-C data)
  • Eleanor Sheekey (PhD student) - Playing with p53; the most mutated protein in cancer
  • Alice Bittleston (PhD student) - Symmetry breaking of the cytoskeleton during asymmetric cell division

    • Contact

    Justin Gerlach by e-mail