Celebrating Student Achievements and Engagement
SoCoBio DTP PhD students are not only advancing cutting-edge research but also making a significant impact beyond the lab. This page showcases their publications, outreach activities, and awards and grants, reflecting their commitment to sharing science with diverse audiences, contributing to community engagement, and achieving excellence in their fields. From inspiring young learners through school visits and science festivals to securing competitive funding and earning recognition for outstanding research, these accomplishments highlight the breadth of talent and dedication within our DTP community.
Publications
Sutton L, Humphreys M, Highmore C, Wilks S, Keevil CW. Mature Listeria monocytogenes Biofilms Exhibit Reduced Susceptibility to Sanitizers – Relevance to the (Leafy Green) Fresh Food Supply Chain. J Food Prot. 2025 Dec 10;88(12):100652. doi: 10.1016/j.jfp.2025.100652.
White LJ, Streather B, Sutton JM, Rankin J, Baker J, Bennett C, Wilson HB, Hind CK, Hiscock JR. Dicarboxylate and dicarboxylic acid appended supramolecular self-associating amphiphiles as antimicrobial agents against high priority bacterial pathogens. Org Biomol Chem. 2025 Dec 10;23(48):10913-10921. doi: 10.1039/d5ob01615k.
Juodeikis R, Ulrich R, Clarke C, Banasik M, Deery E, Saalbach G, Kräutler B, Carding SR, Geeves MA, Pickersgill RW, Warren MJ. Extracellular vesicle-linked vitamin B12 acquisition via novel binding proteins in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Biochem J. 2025 Dec 5;482(23):1793-1812. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20253340.
Lawrence R, Athar M, Uddin MR, Adams C, Sousa JS, Durrant O, Lellman S, Sutton L, Keevil CW, Patel N, Prosser CE, McMillan D, Zgurskaya HI, Vargiu AV, Ahdash Z, Reading E. Molecular basis for multidrug efflux by an anaerobic-associated RND transporter. Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 3;16(1):10601. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65565-7.
Sevenoaks T, Yeomans M. Does habitual caffeine consumption moderate the association between a high fat and sugar diet and self-reported and episodic memory impairment in humans? Physiol Behav. 2025 Dec 1;302:115078. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.115078.
Rothschild-Rodriguez D, Lambon KS, Kushwaha SK, Garushyants SK, Ertelt M, Latka A, Costa AR, Mantzouratou A, King C, Boeckaerts D, Sheridan E, Koonin EV, Merrick F, Drobniewski F, De Angelis I, Saeed K, Martin M, Sutton JM, Wand ME, Andrew M, Hedges M, Brouns SJJ, Haas PJ, Lawson ST, Fordham SME, Lee YJ, Wu Y, Briers Y, Braun P, Weigele PR, Nobrega FL. KlebPhaCol: a community-driven resource for Klebsiella research identified a novel phage family. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025 Nov 13;53(21):gkaf1122. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaf1122.
White LJ, Streather B, Sutton JM, Rankin J, Baker J, Bennett C, Wilson HB, Hind CK, Hiscock JR. Dicarboxylate and dicarboxylic acid appended supramolecular self-associating amphiphiles as antimicrobial agents against high priority bacterial pathogens. Org Biomol Chem. 2025 Nov 25. doi: 10.1039/d5ob01615k.
Linda M. Guantai, Clementine E. Bavinton, Juwairiyah B. Shazzad, Sumeet Mahajan, Sam Thompson, and Fatima C. Pereira. Taxonomic and mechanistic insights into gut microbiota bioaccumulation of entacapone via bioorthogonal drug labelling. Manuscript submitted to Microbiome Research Reports. DOI:10.20517/mrr.2025.73
Aubrey LD, Lutter L, Fennell K, Purton TJ, Ward NL, Serpell LC, Xue WF. Structural reconstruction of individual filaments in Aβ42 fibril populations assembled in vitro reveal rare species that resemble ex vivo amyloid polymorphs from human brains. Commun Chem. 2025 Nov 19;8(1):358. doi: 10.1038/s42004-025-01741-6.
Pienaar CK, Towler BP, Newbury SF. The impact of ribosome association on lncRNA stability: a new layer of post-transcriptional control? Biochem Soc Trans. 2025 Oct 29;53(5):1195-1206. doi: 10.1042/BST20253024.
Steczina S, Mohran S, Childers MC, McMillen TS, Naim A, Pilagov M, Dente M, Kooiker KB, Mandrycky C, Tawde K, Hesson J, Zhao J, Mathieu J, Pioner JM, Geeves MA, Ma W, Moussavi-Harami F, Kad NM, Regnier M. Molecular mechanisms of altered contraction with the β-myosin R403Q mutation in porcine ventricular muscle and a human stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte model. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2025 Oct 28:S0022-2828(25)00192-0. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2025.10.008.
Pilagov M, Naim A, Campbell KS, Kampourakis T, Geeves MA, Kad NM. Direct measurement of mavacamten and deoxyATP perturbation of the SRX/DRX ratio in porcine cardiac myofibrils using a simple, accessible and multiplexed approach. J Muscle Res Cell Motil. 2025 Oct 22. doi: 10.1007/s10974-025-09712-z.
Akdur-Öztürk E, Al-Adilee YMS, Edwards W, Gentekaki E, Tsaousis AD, Dogruman-Al F. Blastocystis across humans, animals and the environment in rural Türkiye, and relationships with the human intestinal microbiome. Front Microbiol. 2025 Oct 20;16:1665966. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1665966.
Juodeikis R, Ulrich R, Clarke C, Banasik M, Deery E, Saalbach G, Kräutler B, Carding SR, Geeves MA, Pickersgill R, Warren MJ. Extracellular Vesicle-Linked Vitamin B12 Acquisition via Novel Binding Proteins in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Biochem J. 2025 Oct 10:BCJ20253340. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20253340.
Nvenankeng HA, Goodchild J, Harlow P, O’Connor V, Holden-Dye L. Optimizing a C. elegans whole organism screen biased for chemicals that target the nematode clade specific receptor EAT-2. MicroPubl Biol. 2025 Oct 8;2025:10.17912/micropub.biology.001814. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001814.
Lovegrove A, Bray S, Inglis G, Wilding M, Hambach B, Hauton C. Pacific oysters (Magallana gigas, Thunberg 1793) preferentially consume Isochrysis galbana, increasing biomass and upregulating biomineralisation gene nacrein. Aquac Int. 2025;33(6):579. doi: 10.1007/s10499-025-02161-y.
Outreach Activities 2024/25
Science Festivals & Public Events
Bioblitz, University of Kent – June 2025
Brilliant Brains – October 2024 & June 2025
BritHop – Showcase of British Hops & Beer – May 2025
Cafe Scientifique – October 2024
Discovery Planet, Kent – December 2024
Fruit Focus – July 2025
Gift of Sight Vision ‘Beating Blindness’ Lecture – May 2025
Groundswell Agricultural Festival – July 2025
New Forest Show – July 25
Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition – August 2025
Southampton Pride – August 2025
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival – March 2025
Winchester Science Centre, School of Biological Sciences Outreach Festival – March 2025
School & Youth Outreach
Girls in STEM Conference – January 2025
I’m a Scientist – ongoing
Peter Symonds College – Neuroscience Talk – February 2025
Sholing Valleys Study Centre – Naturewatch Session – July 2025
Simon Langton Girls’ School – May 2025
Southampton Beans Project / 100 Schools Project – ongoing
Sussex Bay Sixth Form Outreach – November 2024
Westminster City School, BHASVIC, Eastbourne College
Public Engagement & Citizen Science
Buzz Club Research Webinar Series – March 2025
Pint of Science, Southampton – May 2025
Soapbox Science, Sussex – May 2025
Specialist Conferences & Summer Schools
International Colour Vision Society (ICVS) Summer School – August 2025
Study and See Conference, University of Sussex – January 2025
Awards and Grants 2024/25
Grants
- (November 2024) Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) travel grant, grant awarded: 650GBP
- (November 2024) Biochemical Society, Travel grant awarded: 208GBP to attend a conference
- (December 2024) Royal Entomological Society (RES), Small Project Grant awarded 3,000GBP
- (March 2025) Microbiology Society Events Grant, supported attendance at Biofilms 11, awarded 200GBP
- (April 2025) HDH, awarded 9,000GBP to purchase a new microscope
- (April 2025) British Soil Association, Brian Chambers Soil Fund, awarded 459GBP
- (April 2025) Genewiz (Azenta), Fast Grants March 2025 Pioneer Award, awarded 2,000GBP
- (May 2025) Travel Grant Award, The Gerald Kerkut Charitable Trust (UK), awarded 2,500GBP
- (May 2025) Travel Grant Award, The Gift of Sight Appeal (UK), awarded 400GBP
- (May 2025) Travel Grant Award, Clinical and Experimental Sciences Travel Award (UK), 400GBP
- (May 2025) UKRI, Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs), awarded 8,457GBP
- (June 2025) SOBS Postgrad Conference Attendance Fund, supported attendance at Biofilms 11, awarded 100GBP
- (August 2025) Association of Applied Biologists Travel Grant, Association of Applied Biologist
- Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) travel grant awarded 1,000GBP
- Conference fee waiver – Gordon Research Conferences, 2025
- Kent Cancer Trust – 5,000GBP for consumables for my PhD project
- Pump Priming grant
- Travel grant awarded by Society for Reproduction and Fertility
Awards
- (November 2024) 3rd Best Poster Presentation Award, 1st Young Researchers Conference – School of Engineering, University of Southampton, awarded 20GBP Amazon gift card
- (December 2024) Association of Applied Biologists, “Brian Kerry Award” for best platform early career presenter
- (December 2024) University of Kent, Knowles Prize for Biotechnology and Environmental Sustainability
- (January 2025) Oxford Cryosystems, Runner-up poster prize – CCP4 Study Weekend, awarded brand merchandise + 50GBP gift card
- (February 2025) School of Biosciences, University of Kent – School of Natural Science Impact Competition, awarded 5,000GBP
- (June 2025) Faculty of Medicine, Highly Commended award for presentation at conference
- (June 2025) Doctoral College Award, Special Commendation, awarded 100GBP
- (June 2025) University of Portsmouth Institute of Life Sciences and Healthcare launch event, Frontier Biomolecular Science poster prize
- (June 2025) Institute of Life Science and Healthcare, University of Portsmouth – Best Poster Presentation under the theme Advanced Therapeutics and Delivery
- (July 2025) Dean’s Award, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (FEPS), awarded 50GBP
- (July 2025) IWA, Best Poster. Poster to be published in major UK water research magazine (Institute of Water)
- (July 2025) University of Portsmouth Festival of Doctoral Research, Visualise Your Thesis – 2nd prize
- (August 2025) Runner-up for outstanding research and excellence in scientific communication (Posters category), 22nd International Conference on Oxygen Binding and Sensing Proteins (O2BiP)
- Best 3-minute thesis, University of Kent
- Howard Eggins Early Career Mycologist Award, British Mycological Society
- People’s Choice Award for Three Minute Thesis Competition (University of Sussex final), awarded 250GBP towards research
- Recipient of the Doctoral College Research Award 2025 for Best PGR in School
Conferences Attended by Our PhD Students (2024/25 Academic Year)
Engaging with the wider research community is a vital part of doctoral training. Throughout the 2024/25 academic year, our PhD students have actively participated in national and international conferences, sharing their research, building collaborations, and gaining valuable insights from leading experts in their fields. Below is a list of the conferences attended, showcasing the breadth of disciplines and the commitment of our students to advancing knowledge and fostering innovation.
2024 cohort – Year 1
Circuits of life, Bristol, UK (September 2025) Flash talk “De Novo design of protein binders for synthetic dyes”
RosettaCon Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark (November 2024) Poster “De Novo design of protein binders for synthetic dyes”
Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB), Barcelona, Spain (August 2025) Poster “Comparative Genomics of Araneoidea Spiders reveal insights into their 90-million-year evolutionary history”
Haleon PhD Symposium 2025 (industry co-funder), Weybridge, UK (January 2025) Presentation “Investigation into Factors affecting Biofilm Formation on Natural and Synthetic Dental Materials”
2023 cohort – Year 2
UK C. elegans Meeting, Durham (April 2025) – presentation “Investigating how SKN-1B-mediated neuronal signalling controls appetite behaviours”
Viruses of Microbes (VoM) UK, Newcastle, UK (January 2025) – presentation “Method development for RNA phage detection”
CCP4 Study Weekend, Nottingham, UK (January 2025) presentation “Ground up design of metallocorrin enzymes”
European RosettaCon, Copenhagen, Denmark (November 2024) presentation “De novo design of metallocorrin enzyme”
AFMBioMed 2025 Barcelona at University of Barcelona (April 2025) Poster “Integrating Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Simulation Atomic Force Microscopy for Quantitative Analysis of Helical Filament Structures”
Synthetic Biology UK 2024 at the Wellcome Genome Centre in (November 2024) poster “Fundamental and synthetic biology applications of individual Helical filament structural analysis by three-dimensional contact point reconstruction AFM”
Plastid Preview, University of Essex (September 2025) Talk and poster, “Does heme mediate chloroplast to nucleus retrograde signalling?”
Groundswell Regenerative Farming Conference, Lannock Farm, Hertfordshire, UK (July 2025) – presentation “How microbiome data can help farmers make on-farm decisions”
Advances in Nematology 2025, London, UK (December 2024) – presentation”Understanding the C. elegans intestine in the context of developing novel anti-parasitic therapeutics”
Syngenta internal Conference, Jealott’s Hill, UK (September 2024) – presentation “To stop the proton wave in the intestine – a chemical route for mitigation of parasitic nematodes utilising Vacuolar Proton Pump-ATPase”
UK C. elegans Meeting 2025, Durham, UK (April 2025) – presentation “To stop the proton wave in the intestine – a chemical route for mitigation of parasitic nematodes utilising Vacuolar Proton Pump-ATPase”
Tetrapyrrole discussion group (TPDG), Humboldt university, Berlin, Germany (September 2025)- presentation “Synthetic biology approaches to construct metal analogues of vitamin B12 to act as PET imaging agents and in healthcare”
British Ecological Society annual meeting, Liverpool, UK, (December 2024) – Poster “The factors affecting pollinator abundance and diversity in urban agriculture.”
Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecology (SCAPE), Hardanger, Norway (October 2024) Flash Talk “The factors affecting pollinator diversity and abundance on crops in urban food growing spaces.”
35th European Congress of Arachnology, Zadar, Croatia (September 2025) Poster “Group-living tropical tent web spider Cyrtophora citricola (Araneae: Araneidae) as a biological control agent.”
Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecology, Ullensvang, Norway (October 2024) presentation “The Effect of Temperature on Floral And Nectar Trait Plasticity of a Common Crop”
2022 cohort – Year 3
Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), Birmingham, UK (February 2025), Presentation, “Unveiling the role of APOE in microglial development.”
22nd International Conference on Oxygen Binding and Sensing Proteins (O2BiP) Colchester, University of Essex, UK (August 2025) Poster ‘Drug Repurposing to Target Mycobacterial Cytochrome bd‘
Annual meeting of UK protistology labs at the natural history museum, audience was exclusively academic and academic adjacent (citizen scientists) Presentation“Reviving the earth, how eco-friendly farming benefits microscopic life and our environment”
World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) 2025, Oslo, Norway (June 2025) Poster, “Good Vibrations: Using Molecular Dynamics and Raman Spectroscopy to Shed Light on the Aggregation Mechanism of Tau in Alzhemier’s Disease”
Tau Global Conference, London, UK (April 2025) Presentation “Good Vibrations: Using Molecular Dynamics and Raman Spectroscopy to Shed Light on the Aggregation Mechanism of Tau in Alzhemier’s Disease”
Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2025 Toronto, Canada (July 2025) Poster, “Good Vibrations: Using Molecular Dynamics and Raman Spectroscopy to Shed Light on the Aggregation Mechanism of Tau in Alzhemier’s Disease”
Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, USA (May 2025) Presentation “CyPOS; a novel pH-sensitive conjugate for investigation of lysosomal physiology in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells”
British Mycological Society (July 2024) – Presentation “Rhamnolipids, antifungals for mucormycosis?”
Plant Biology Education: Creating a Vision for the Future, Lancaster, UK (January 2025) Presentation “Teaching the future to feed the future: An overview of undergraduate courses that teach AgriFood related disciplines”
Recollection, Familiarity and Novelty Conference, Liège, Belgium (April 2025) Poster “Lancelotte, F., Morcom, A. Effects of semantic control and selection on episodic memory encoding.”
Biologists @ 100, Liverpool, UK (March 2025) – Presentation “Investigating the role of molecular motors in neuronal connectivity”
British Association of Lung Research (BALR2025), Cardiff, UK. (September 2025) Presentation “Factor inhibiting HIF in lung epithelium modulates epithelial–mesenchymal transition and fibroblast proliferation via cellular crosstalk.”
British Food and Drinking Group (BFDG), Bristol, UK (April 2025) Presentation “How Diet and Caffeine Relate to Memory Function”
European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (EBPS), Almeria, Spain (September 2025) Presentation “The effect of caffeine consumption and acute withdrawal on mood, cognition, and resting-state brain activity”
South Coast RNA UK meeting 2025, King’s College London (January 2025) Presentation”Identifying microRNA-mRNA networks involved in carboplatin resistance in lung and ovarian cancer”
SIG Phytochemicals in Health conference University of Exeter, UK, (September 2025) Poster and flash talk “Understanding the Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Properties of Natural Plant Extracts in the Context of Upper Respiratory Tract Diseases and Health”
The Society of Electron Microscope Technology (SEMT) annual One Day Meeting, for the Royal Microscopy Society, at The Natural History Museum in London, UK, (December 2024) Presentation “Using SEM and TEM to Visualise the External and Intracellular Morphological Changes to Respiratory Pathogens following Herbal Tea Exposure”
Engrams and Ensembles in Learning and Memory 2025 conference in Dublin, Ireland (May 2025). Selected Speaker presentation “Sex differences in the behavioural roles of cue-reactive orbitofrontal cortex ensembles”
2021 cohort – year 4
London worm club meeting (April 2025) Presentation“EAT-2, a novel drug target for the mitigation of parasitic nematode infections”, Academic audience, UCL
Applied Microbiology Minoritised Life Scientists Future Forum, Birmingham, UK (April 2025) Presentation “Which one smells better?: Varietal preference of Meadow Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius) on commercially grown lavender in the UK.”
Pharmacology 2024, Harrogate, UK (December 2024) – Presentation “Design and biochemical evaluation of novel small molecule inhibitors of Tyro3 receptor tyrosine kinase”
Kelp Summit, Brighton, UK (2025) Presentation”Biodiversity Beyond the Byelaw”
Seascape Symposium II (2025) Presentation “Designing with Communities, Not for Them: A Transformative Vision for the Sussex Coast”
Spinal Research Network Meeting, London (September 2025) Presentation “Promoting integrin-mediated neurite outgrowth through myosin-X”
Cambridge Ion channel Forum, Poster “Triheteromeric NMDA receptors as Drug targets in Human Neurons?”
Dutch Neuroscience meeting, Poster “The GluN2A contribution to persistent activity in the prefrontal cortex”
UK C. elegans Meeting, Durham, UK (April 2025) – Presentation “Understanding sexual dimorphism in appetite and mating behaviours”
Gordon Research Conference on Chloroplast Biotechnology, Lucca, Italy (April 2025) Presentation “Manipulation of Chloroplast Density to Enhance Photosynthesis and Nutritional Value of Tomato”
Plastid Preview 2025, University of Essex (September 2025) Presentation “Manipulation of Chloroplast Development to Enhance Photosynthesis and Nutritional Value of Tomato”
Klebsiella symposium at Institute Pasteur, Paris, France (November 2024) Presentation “KlebPhaCol: A community-driven resource for Klebsiella research identified a novel gut phage family“
Viruses of Microbes UK at Northumbria, UK (January 2025) Presentation “KlebPhaCol: A community-driven resource for Klebsiella research identified a novel gut phage family”
European Placenta Group (EPG), Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic (November 2024) Presentation “Endometrial gland-derived extracellular vesicles and their miRNA content”
Fertility 2025, Liverpool, UK (January 2025) Presentation “Endometrial gland-derived extracellular vesicles and their miRNA content”
27th Annual European Conference on Micro & Nanoscale Technologies for the Life Sciences, Montreux, Switzerland (November 2024), Accepted speaker “Droplet microfluidics for time-resolved serial crystallography”
CCP4 Study Weekend, Nottingham, UK (January 2025), Poster “Droplet microfluidics for uniform microcrystallisation and rapid mixing”
South West Structural Biology Consortium (SWSBC), Sussex, UK (July 2025), Accepted speaker “Droplet microfluidics for uniform microcrystallisation and rapid mixing”
NBIC summit, May 2025, invited talk “Control of Listeria monocytogenes biofilms in the fresh food supply chain”
Biofilms 11, Cardiff, UK (May 2025), Poster “Control of Listeria monocytogenes biofilms in the food supply chain”
American Chemical Society Fall 2025 Conference, Washington D.C, USA (August 2025) – Poster “Evaluation of thermostability and activity changes in a directed evolution pathway to design more thermodurable PET hydrolases”
Revolutions Plastic, Portsmouth, UK (April 2025) Presentation “Evaluation of thermostability and activity changes in a directed evolution pathway to design more thermodurable PET hydrolases”