Dana Aghabi
PhD student
Dana initially joined the Harding Lab as a research technician in January 2020 – August 2021. She triumphantly returned in June 2022 as a Wellcome-funded PhD student. Her work will focus on understanding iron transporters, both in the parasite and in host cells.
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Elena Hartmann
Research Technician
Elena has joined the group as a technician after completing a MSc. in Infection Biology, specialising in parasitology, at the University of Glasgow. She has now switched from studying Plasmodium to Toxoplasma and her work will focus on investigating how Toxoplasma regulates iron within the host.
Jack Hanna
Postdoctoral Researcher
Jack completed his undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at the University of Dundee and then stayed to complete an MRC funded PhD studying Cryptosporidium. Working in the labs of Dr Mattie Pawlowic and Dr Susan Wyllie, Jack established tools to help identify the targets of emerging Cryptosporidium drugs.
Jack joined the group in 2023 and is trying to using proteomic techniques to better understand which Toxoplasma proteins interact with iron and how the proteome changes in different iron conditions.
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Megan Sloan
Early Career Research Fellow
After gaining her BSc in Biological Sciences, from the University of Bath, Megan completed her DPhil in the labs of Prof. Petros Ligoxygakis and Prof. Keith Gull at the University of Oxford. Her project investigated the interactions between Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) and the trypanosomatid parasite Herpetomonas muscarum. After sequencing the parasite genome, Megan used transcriptomics to identify genes from both host and parasite which were critical to the outcome of infection.
Megan joined the Harding group as a postdoc in January 2020. She is currently interested in how Toxoplasma gondii acquires iron from its host, and how gene expression in the parasite changes in response to local iron concentration
Clare Harding
Clare completed her PhD in microbiology at Imperial College London before moving to the University of Glasgow as a postdoc in the lab of Markus Messiner. Here she began work on the parasite cytoskeleton, specifically the protein-rivets that join disparate elements of the cell together. After two years and gaining a Sir Henry Wellcome fellowship, she moved to the Whitehead Institute at MIT under the guidance of Sebastian Lourido. While there, Clare learned a number of valuable technical skills and was able to indulge her love of microscopy.
In 2019 Clare was awarded a Sir Henry Dale fellowship to allow her to move back to the University of Glasgow, and the Wellcome center, to start her own group, focusing on the parasite’s use of iron.
Previous Lab Members
Grace Gill
Current PhD student in the lab of Richard McCulloch
After a year as a technician in the Harding lab, Grace moved down the hall to start a PhD with Richard McCulloch in August 2022. We will miss her, but at least she is not moving far!
Cecilia Gallego Rubio
Finishing her BSc at Imperial College London
Cecilia moved back to London to finish her degree after completing her year in industry. She had a very successful project and we wish her well for the future.
Older Lab Pictures
Harding Lab 