Niakan lab

Ana Elisa Ribeiro Orsi

PhD Student

Ana was born in Brazil, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of São Paulo. During her undergraduate studies, she was the recipient of the Sanger Prize and had the opportunity to carry out a research internship in Sarah Teichmann’s lab, where she analysed single-cell RNA sequencing datasets of the human lung. She then obtained a master’s degree working at Lygia Pereira’s lab at the University of São Paulo, with a research internship in Jun Wu’s lab at UT Southwestern. In her thesis she investigate in vitro models for the study of human X chromosome inactivation, including naïve pluripotent stem cells and blastoids. Her newly found passion for early development led her to join the Niakan and Boroviak labs in 2023 for her PhD studies. Ana is funded by a Loke CTR studentship and will be investigating the molecular mechanisms of hypoblast specification.

Dr. Ahmed Abdelbaki Abdelaal

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ahmed is originally from Egypt where he obtained his bachelor’s degree from Zagazig University. Ahmed went on to obtain a master’s degree from Georgia State University in the United States. Ahmed obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge where he worked with Catherine Lindon on cell cycle regulation. His research in the Niakan lab focuses on uncovering the mechanisms that control cell fate decisions in early human embryo development.

Publications

Ahmed Abdelbaki, McCarthy A, Karsa A, Muresan L, Elder K, Papathanasiou A, Snell P, Christie L, Wilding M, Steventon BJ, Niakan KK. Live imaging of human embryos reveals mitotic errors and lineage specification prior to implantation. (2025). Accepted at Nature Biotechnology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.26.614906.

Balestrini PA*, Ahmed Abdelbaki *, McCarthy A, Devito L, Senner CE, Chen AE, Munusamy P, Blakeley P, Elder K, Snell P, Christie L, Serhal P, Odia RA, Sangrithi M, Niakan KK, Fogarty NME. Transcription factor-based transdifferentiation of human embryonic to trophoblast stem cells. Development. 2024;151(17). doi: 10.1242/dev.202778. (*Co-first)

Ahmed Abdelbaki, Ascanelli C, Okoye CN, Akman HB, Janson G, Min M, Marcozzi C, Hagting A, Grant R, De Luca M, Asteriti IA, Guarguaglini G, Paiardini A, Lindon C. Revisiting degron motifs in human AURKA required for its targeting by APC/CFZR1. Life Sci Alliance. 2022 Nov 30;6(2). doi: 10.26508/lsa.202201372. Print 2023 Feb. 

Ahmed Abdelbaki. First-person interview. Journal of Cell Science. 2020;133: jcs249649. doi: 10.1242/jcs.249649. Published 22 June 2020. 

Featured for interview to discuss our findings Rhys Grant, Ahmed Abdelbaki, Alessia Bertoldi, Maria P. Gavilan, Jörg Mansfeld, David M. Glover, Catherine Lindon. Constitutive regulation of mitochondrial morphology by Aurora A kinase depends on a predicted cryptic targeting sequence at the N-terminus. OPEN BIOLOGY. Published 13 June 2018. DOI: 10.1098/rsob.170272

Dr. Desislava Staneva

Postdoctoral Fellow

Desi, originally from Bulgaria, completed her BSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh. She remained in Edinburgh for her PhD during which she studied the mechanisms of gene regulation in the sleeping sickness-causing parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Desi joined the Niakan lab as a postdoc in 2022 to study the role of epigenetic modification and transcription factors in early mammalian development.

Publications

Simon CS, McCarthy A, Woods L, Staneva D, Huang Q, Linneberg-Agerholm M, Faulkner A, Papathanasiou A, Elder K, Snell P, Christie L, Garcia P, Shaikly V, Taranissi M, Choudhary M, Herbert M, Brickman JM, Niakan KK (2024) Suppression of ERK signalling promotes pluripotent epiblast in the human blastocyst. bioRxiv 2024.02.01.578414. doi: 10.1101/2024.02.01.578414.

Staneva DP, Bresson S, Auchynnikava T, Spanos C, Rappsilber J, Jeyaprakash AA, Tollervey D, Matthews KR and Allshire RC (2022) The SPARC complex defines RNAPII promoters in Trypanosoma brucei. eLife 11: e83135.

Staneva DP*, Carloni R*, Auchynnikava T, Tong P, Rappsilber J, Jeyaprakash AA, Matthews KR and Allshire RC (2021) A systematic analysis of Trypanosoma brucei chromatin factors identifies novel protein interaction networks associated with sites of transcription initiation and termination. Genome Research 31: 2138-2154.

Bresson S, Tuck A, Staneva D and Tollervey D (2017) Nuclear RNA decay pathways aid rapid remodeling of gene expression in yeast. Molecular Cell 65: 787-800.e5.

Dr. Katarina Harasimov

EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow

Katarina is a cell biologist dedicated to uncovering the fundamental principles that shape early embryonic development in mammals. Her research is generously supported by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Publications

Harasimov, K., Gorry, R.L., Welp, L.M., Penir, S.M., Horokhovskyi, Y., Cheng, S., Takaoka, K., Stützer, A., Frombach, A.-S., Tavares, A.L.T., et al. (2024). The maintenance of oocytes in the mammalian ovary involves extreme protein longevity. Nature Cell Biology, 1–15. 

Harasimov, K., Uraji, J., Mönnich, E.U., Holubcová, Z., Elder, K., Blayney, M., and Schuh, M. (2023). Actin-driven chromosome clustering facilitates fast and complete chromosome capture in mammalian oocytes. Nature Cell Biology 25, 439–452. 

So, C., Menelaou, K., Uraji, J., Harasimov, K., Steyer, A.M., Seres, K.B., Bucevičius, J., Lukinavičius, G., Möbius, W., Sibold, C., et al. (2022). Mechanism of spindle pole organization and instability in human oocytes. Science 375, eabj3944. 

Cheng, S., Altmeppen, G., So, C., Welp, L.M., Penir, S., Ruhwedel, T., Menelaou, K., Harasimov, K., Stützer, A., Blayney, M., et al. (2022). Mammalian oocytes store mRNAs in a mitochondria-associated membraneless compartment. Science 378, eabq4835. 

Harasimov, K., and Schuh, M. (2018). Actin Disassembly: How to Contract without Motors? Curr Biol 28, R275–R277.

Josephine Blagrove

Cambridge Biosciences DTP PhD Student

The evolution of gene expression in the primitive endoderm, a transient early extra-embryonic tissue, and the structure it ultimately contributes to, the yolk sac, is largely uncharacterised. The yolk sac provides nutrition to the developing embryo before the placenta takes over. Furthermore, it is vital for organ patterning, haemopoiesis, and gut development in many vertebrates.

Jo’s research aims to characterise the development of primitive endoderm into the yolk sac across a broad range of vertebrate species using transcriptomics and functional genetics studies.

Publications

Lewin, T., Blagrove, J. and Holland, P. (2023). Rapid evolution of the embryonically expressed homeobox gene LEUTX within primates. Genome Biology and Evolution, 15(6), https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad097.

Wynn, J., Arcos, J., Austin, R., Blagrove, J., Bond, S., Carrasco, G., Delord, K., Fisher-Reeves, L., García, D., Gillies, N., Guilford, T., Hawkins, I., Jaggers, P., Kirk, C., Louzao, M., Maurice, L., McMinn, M., Micol, T., Morford, J., Morgan, G., Moss, J., Riera, E., Rodriguez, A., Siddiqi-Davies, K., Weimerskirch, H., Wynn, R., Padget, O. (2024). Climate change drives migratory range shift via individual plasticity in shearwaters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(6). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2312438121.

Prof. Kathy Niakan

Kathy Niakan is Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professor of the Physiology of Reproduction and Director of the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research. She is also Co-Chair of the Cambridge Reproduction Interdisciplinary Research Centre. Kathy is an Honorary Group Leader at the Babraham Institute and Affiliate Member of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.

Kathy obtained a B.Sc. in Cell and Molecular Biology and a B.A. in English Literature from University of Washington. She obtained her PhD at University of California, Los Angeles, supported by a National Institutes of Health Pre-doctoral Training Grant, Paul D. Boyer Fellowship and a Chancellor’s Dissertation Year Fellowship. She undertook postdoctoral training at Harvard University where she developed an interest in early human development. She was a Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research Next Generation Research Fellow at University of Cambridge.

Kathy started her laboratory in 2013 with a focus on mechanisms regulating early human development at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and subsequently the Francis Crick Institute. Kathy’s research, policy advocacy, mentorship and engagement have been recognised, for example with the award of the Genetics Society Mary Lyon Medal, election to EMBO membership, International Society for Stem Cell Research Public Service Award, Cambridge University Excellence in Research Culture, Blavatnik Award in Life Sciences Finalist and the London Science Museum retaining our research licence in their permanent collection.

Dr. Oliver Bower

Postdoctoral Fellow

Oliver completed his BSc in Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield in 2019, with a final year dissertation researching the effectiveness of genetic approaches like CRISPR/Cas9 to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Following this, he worked as a research assistant at the Sheffield Centre for Stem Cell Biology. His projects in this role involved studying recurrent genetic mutations that arise in embryonic stem cell cultures, as well as a project with Horizon Europe to develop an organ-on-a-chip model for studying the enteric nervous system’s impact on Parkinson’s disease. In 2020 Oliver started his PhD in the Niakan Lab, investigating the role of key transcription factors in early development using novel genetic approaches.

Publications

Bower OJ, McCarthy A, Lea RA, Alanis-Lobato G, Zohren J, Gerri C, Turner JMA, Niakan KK. Generating CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Null Mutations and Screening Targeting Efficiency in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Curr Protoc. 2021 Aug;1(8):e232. doi: 10.1002/cpz1.232. PMID: 34432381.

Halliwell JA, Frith TJR, Laing O, Price CJ, Bower OJ, Stavish D, Gokhale PJ, Hewitt Z, El-Khamisy SF, Barbaric I, Andrews PW. Nucleosides Rescue Replication-Mediated Genome Instability of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Stem Cell Reports. 2020 Jun 9;14(6):1009-1017. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.04.004. Epub 2020 May 14. PMID: 32413278; PMCID: PMC7355123. 

Dr. Riley McMahon

Postdoctoral Fellow

Riley completed his PhD at the University of Sydney, investigating gene regulatory networks in embryonic head development. Riley joined the Niakan Lab as a postdoc, his project focusses on the genetic determinants of yolk-sac progenitor development in pre-implantation mammalian embryos.

Publications

Brumm, S., McCarthy, A., Gerri, C., Fallesen, T., Wood, L., McMahon, R.,…. Kathy K Niakan (2024) Initiation and maintenance of the human pre-implantation epiblast is independent of NODAL signalling, Developmental Cell, 15:S1534-5807(24)00639-7, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39561779/

McMahon, R., Masamsetti, V. P., & Tam, P. P. (2023). Phenotypic Analysis of Early Neurogenesis in a Mouse Chimeric Embryo and Stem Cell-Based Neuruloid Model. In Neurobiology: Methods and Protocols (pp. 165-177). New York, NY: Springer US.

McMahon, R., Sibbritt, T., Aryamanesh, N., Masamsetti, V. P., & Tam, P. P. (2022). Loss of Foxd4 Impacts Neurulation and Cranial Neural Crest Specification During Early Head Development. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 9, 777652-777652. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35178396/

McMahon, R., Sibbritt, T., Salehin, N., Osteil, P., & Tam, P. P. (2019). Mechanistic insights from the LHX1‐driven molecular network in building the embryonic head. Development, growth & differentiation, 61(5), 327-336 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31111476/

Esther Rosales Sanchez

Lab Manager

niakan-lab-manager(at)pdn.cam.ac.uk

Esther ensures smooth lab operations by organizing the lab, managing inventory, liaising with various support teams, making sure we are compliant and up to date with our health and safety policies and coordinating the procurement of consumables and equipment. She is also the primary point of contact for onboarding new team members, ensuring they feel welcomed and supported as they transition into the lab environment. Finally, she likes organizing social events that contribute to a positive workplace culture.

Her approach combines efficiency, attention to detail, and a commitment to creating a well-organized, inclusive, and dynamic lab environment that supports both scientific discovery and team cohesion.