Principal Investigator
Yu Ye
Principal InvestigatorLecturer in Dementia Research
at Imperial College London
MRC-LMB, University of Cambridge, Ph.D
Imperial College London, BSc Biochemistry/Biotechnology Profile: UK DRI - Imperial College London - Researcher Interview
Email: yu.ye1@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I grew up in a Nordic university town and completed a bilingual International Baccalaureate at the local Cathedral School. After undergraduate studies at Imperial, I continued with a PhD at St John's College, University of Cambridge. My training in David Komander's lab at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology combined structural biology with biophysical techniques to study molecular details underlying regulation of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Following this, I was fortunate to secure funding first through a Henslow Junior Research Fellowship and then a Sir Henry Wellcome Research Fellowship to study the UPS and protein aggregation with super-resolution imaging techniques. Working between David Klenerman's group at Cambridge and Daniel Finley's group at Harvard, my research focused on exploiting the UPS system to remove protein aggregates. During this time, I also served as a Fellow and later also Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at the beautiful Selwyn College, Cambridge, where I still hold many fond memories.
My group at the UK DRI at Imperial College London continues to study the interplay between UPS, protein aggregation, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.
Research staff
Georgie Lines
Research Associate in Cellular NeuroscienceUniversity College London, PhD
King's College London, BSc
Email: g.lines@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I completed my PhD in Neuroscience with Professor Selinar Wray, where I studied protein degradation systems in IPSC-neurons of tauopathies. My experience with the proteasome system during this time was fortified with a short interlude in the Hochstrasser lab at Yale. In the Ye lab, I will focus my research on protein aggregates and crosstalks in cellular degradation mechanisms that protect against proteotoxicity.
Michael Morten
Research Associate in BiophysicsUniversity of St Andrews, PhD Biology
University of Oxford, MChem
Email: m.morten@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I currently work on developing novel techniques to image aggregates in cells and tissues. I have previously used single-molecule TIRF and confocal microscopes in my PhD research (University of St Andrews) and postdoc projects (University of Glasgow and NYU School of Medicine), and I am now in the process of building a new light sheet microscope here in the Ye Group at the UK DRI at Imperial.
Hailey Gu
Research Technician in Computational BiologyImperial College London, MSc Machine Learning
University of California, Berkeley, BA Biology
Email: junting.gu22@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I was a MSc student studying Healthy Data Analytics at Imperial College London and joined the lab for my research project. My current research continues to focuse on characterising the distinct aggregate species found in different neurodegenerative disorders through quantitative image analysis approaches.
PhD candidates
Liina Sirvio
PhD StudentImperial College London, MRes Molecular and Cellular Biosciences.
King's College London, BSc Biochemistry Profile: Imperial College London
Email: l.sirvio18@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I am a PhD student at the UK Dementia Research Institute investigating the role of post-translational modifications of amyloid proteins in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed my BSc in Biochemistry at KCL, MRes at Imperial College London, and worked as a research technician in the Ultanir Lab at The Francis Crick Institute.
Matilda Burridge
PhD StudentImperial College London, BSc Biochemistry with French Profile: Imperial College London
Email: matilda.burridge18@imperial.ac.uk
Bio:Matilda, or Mattie, is funded by the prestigous President's PhD Scholarship, awarded whilst she was finishing her BSc degree. Mattie's project in the lab is to study the role of immunoprotasomes in tauopathies. Prior to starting her PhD, Mattie did research in the Ye lab as a UROP student to develop cell lines for protein aggregation assays.
Project students
Lee Ann Madissoon
Project StudentImperial College London, BSc Medical Biosciences 2024
Email: lee.madissoon21@imperial.ac.uk
Bio: I am a project student now in the final year of the BMB course. My research in the lab will characterise pathological aggregates from different dementia types and profile their protein composition and toxicity.
