Position & Affiliation:
Reader, Department of Zoology
www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/departments/neural-network

Research Interests:

We are interested in how neuronal networks, particularly motor networks, assemble and mature. Working with Drosophila, we developed genetic tools and imaging approaches to study the development of synapses, dendrites and neuromuscular junctions. We discovered that neurons use reactive oxygen species as a metabolic readout for activity and homeostatic adjustment. This likely has implications for ageing and neurodegenerative conditions commonly associated with oxidative stress.

Suggested Projects: We currently have projects on the development of neuroblast lineages in the embryo, the specification of neurotransmitter cell types, synapse formation and reactive oxygen species as second messengers regulating synaptic terminal growth.

We are working with TReND in Africa: http://trendinafrica.org

Publications:
Couton, L. et al. Development of connectivity in a motoneuronal network in Drosophila larvae. Curr Biol 25, 568–576 (2015)

Zwart, M. F., Randlett, O., Evers, J. F. & Landgraf, M. Dendritic growth gated by a steroid hormone receptor underlies increases in activity in the developing Drosophila locomotor system. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (2013). doi:10.1073/pnas.1311711110

Tripodi, M., Evers, J. F., Mauss, A., Bate, M. & Landgraf, M. Structural homeostasis: compensatory adjustments of dendritic arbor geometry in response to variations of synaptic input. PLoS Biol 6, e260 (2008)

Position & Affiliation:
Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Professor of the Deep History & Archaeology of Africa, Department of Archaeology
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/staff/prof-paul-lane

Research Interests:

Historical ecology of East African pastoralism Maritime heritage and sustainable development Archaeology of slave-based economies Transitions to food production in eastern and southern Africa Community heritage and digital reaptriation

Publications:
Boles, O.J.C., Shoemaker, A., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Petek, N., Ekblom, A. and Lane, P.J. 2019 Overgrazing and the historical ecology of pastoralism: heterogeneity in past landscape transformation. Human Ecology 47(3): 419-434; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-0072-9

Straight, B, Lane, P.J., Hilton, C., Letua, M. 2015 ‘It was maendeleo that removed them’: disturbing burials and reciprocal knowledge production in a context of collaborative archaeology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 21: 391-418. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12212

Petek, N. and Lane, P.J. Ethnogenesis and surplus food production: communitas and identity building among nineteenth and early twentieth century Ilchamus, Lake Baringo, Kenya. World Archaeology 49(1): 40-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1259583

Position & Affiliation:
Professor of Geography, Department of Geography
www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/lane

Research Interests:

I use volcanic ash layers to study the rates and timing of past climatic, environmental, archaeological and volcanic phenomena. A side product of my research is compiling records of undocumented past volcanic eruptions and I'm keen to make this data useful.

Publications:
Age of the oldest Homo sapiens from eastern Africa [2022] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8

History of scoria‐cone eruptions on the eastern shoulder of the Kenya–Tanzania Rift revealed in the 250‐ka sediment record of Lake Chala near Mount Kilimanjaro [2020] https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3140

A cryptotephra record from the Lake Victoria sediment core record of Holocene palaeoenvironmental change [2018] https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683618798163

Position & Affiliation:
Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences
www.esc.cam.ac.uk/directory/peter-leggo

Research Interests:

Research Interest: Using an organo-zeolitic fertilizer (bio-fertilizer) for the production of biofuel and or food crops on contaminated and marginal land.

Current African link: Together with Dr Simon R. Passey (a geologist with CASP - a geological organisation which is affiliated with the Department of Earth Sciences), and Dr Dereje Ayalew (of the Faculty of Science at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), their research work has supplied rocks from the North West Highlands of Ethiopia. These rocks contain minerals which are used together with organic waste to make a very effective plant fertilizer. Dr Ayalew has a background in Ethiopian geology, and intends to develop the use of the biological further with the help of the local farming community.

Publications:
Leggo, P.J. The Efficacy of the Organo-Zeolitic Biofertilizer. Agrotechnology, 2015, 4:1

Leggo, P.J. 2014. The organo-zeolitic-soil system: a comprehensive fertilizer. Proc, International Natural Zeolite Assoc, Belgrade , Serbia, 8 – 13 June 2014.

Leggo, P.J. 2013. Enhancing the growth of plants on coal waste using a biological fertilizer. International Journal of Environment and Resource. 2,(3), 59-66.

Position & Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography
www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/lemanski

Research Interests:

My research explores everyday urban inequality in the global South, primarily through the lens of infrastructure (housing, land and services), urban governance and citizenship. My primary field-site is South Africa. My recent/ongoing projects explore: why low-income households in India and South Africa are reticent to adopt new energy technologies; the implications of elite stakeholders shifting to off-grid infrastructure (water, energy) in South Africa and Ghana; and the ways in which infrastructure and citizenship are connected for both citizens and the state.

Publications:
Lemanski, C., 2019. Citizenship and Infrastructure Practices and Identities of Citizens and the State, Routledge Studies in Urbanism and the City

Infrastructural citizenship: The everyday citizenships of adapting and/or destroying public infrastructure in Cape Town, South Africa Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tran.12370

Lemanski, C., 2014. Hybrid gentrification in South Africa: Theorising across southern and northern cities. Urban Studies, v. 51, p.2943-2960. doi:10.1177/0042098013515030

Position & Affiliation:
Professor of Infectious Diseases, Dept of Medicine
www.infectiousdisease.cam.ac.uk/directory/amll1@ca…

Research Interests:

We study the molecular biology of retrovirus (HIV) and rotavirus infection. We are interested in virus assembly and how the virus uses cell machinery to help this process. We are seeking novel inhibitors of virus assembly involving RNA binding ligands. We also study gene delivery using lentiviral vectors.

Publications:
Moyo QM, Besser M, Lynn R Lever AML.
Persistence of imported Malaria into the UK: an epidemiological review of risk factors and at risk groups.
Clinical Infectious Diseases; 2019 69(7), 1156-1162


Gupta RK, Abdul-Jawad S, McCoy LE, Mok HP, Salgado DPM, Martinez-Picado J, Nijhuis M, Wensing AMJ, Lee H, Grant P, Nastouli E, Lambert J, Pace M, Salasc F, Monit C, Innes, Mui L, Waters L, Frater J, Lever AML, Edwards SG, Gabriel IH, Olavarria E.
HIV-1 remission following CCR5Δ32/Δ32 haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation
Nature 2019 Apr;568 (7751):244-248


Skittrall JP, Ingemarsdotter CK, Gog JR, Lever AML.
A scale-free analysis of the HIV-1 genome demonstrates multiple conserved regions of structural and functional importance.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2019 Sep 23;15(9)

Position & Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS)
www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/dr-kun-chin…

Research Interests:

Political economy, comparative politics, research methodology, China

Possible project topics: 
Comparative studies of development with China as a case

Current Links:
Institutional links in the Asia-Pacific

Publications:
“The Local Government in Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies of Fractured Bargaining Relations.” [with Shaofeng Chen] Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 42(4): 171–198, 2013.

“Contemplating Chinese Foreign Policy: Approaches to the Use of Historical Analysis.” [with Jean-Marc Blanchard] Special Issue: Chinese Foreign Policy: The Quest for Power, Security, and Status. Pacific Focus 28(2): 145–169, August 2013.

“Local Government Fiscal Imperative and Debt-Financing in China” [with He Yang and Tao Ran] in P. Arestis and M. Sawyer, ed., Fiscal and Debt Policies for the Future, International Papers in Political Economy Series. Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.

Position & Affiliation:
Group Leader, Babraham Institute
www.babraham.ac.uk/our-research/lymphocyte/michell…

Research Interests:

Germinal centres are sites within tissues such as the tonsils, spleen and lymph nodes where B cells proliferate and differentiate during a normal immune response to an infection. Because of the central role of the germinal centre in generating immunological memory, a potent germinal centre response is critical for a successful response to vaccination. Our research is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular biology that generates a potent germinal centre response, and using this information to inform vaccine design.

Publications:
(1) Carr EJ et al The cellular composition of the human immune system is shaped by age and cohabitation.
Nature Immunology 15 Feb 2016, 17(4):461-468 PMID: 26878114

(2) Aloulou M et al Follicular regulatory T cells can be specific for the immunizing antigen and derive from naive T cells. Nat Commun. 2016 Jan 28;7:10579. doi: 10.1038/ncomms10579. PMID: 26818004

(3) Vinuesa CG et al Follicular Helper T Cells.Annu Rev Immunol. 2016 May 20;34:335-68. doi: 10.1146/annurev-immunol-041015-055605. Epub 2016 Feb 22. PMID: 26907215

Position & Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
alexanderliu.weebly.com

Research Interests:

The evolution of animals, and the impact of animal evolution and behaviour on the geological record. Although I am interested in all areas of palaeontology, my specialist research focus is on the Ediacaran Period, around 635-539 million years ago.

Publications:
Boddy, C.E., Mitchell, E.G., Merdith, A. and Liu, A.G. (2022) Palaeolatitudinal distribution of the Ediacaran macrobiota. Journal of the Geological Society, 179 (1), jgs2021-030, doi: 10/1144/jgs2021-030

Davies, N.S., Shillito, A.P., Slater, B., Liu, A.G., and McMahon, W.J. (2020) Evolutionary synchrony of Earth’s biosphere and sedimentary-stratigraphic record. Earth-Science Reviews, 201, 102979 doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102979

Wood, R., Liu, A.G., Bowyer, F., Wilby, P.R., Dunn, F.S., Kenchington, C.G., Hoyal Cuthill, J.F., Mitchell, E.G. & Penny, A. (2019) Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3, 528–538. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0821-6

Position & Affiliation:
Senior Research Associate, Department of Psychology
www.globalfnirs.org/the-bright-project

Research Interests:

Understanding impact of poverty associated factors (such as undernutrition or enriched family caregiving), either detrimental or beneficial, on early child development. Harnessing neuroimaging, cognitive, demographic, health and biological data to investigate early life from pregnancy to five years of age in Sub-Saharan African contexts (specifically The Gambia).

Publications:
Milosavljevic, B., Vellekoop, P., Maris, H., Halliday, D., Drammeh, S., Sanyang, L., Darboe, M.K., Elwell, C.E., Moore, S.E. & Lloyd-Fox, S. (2019) Adaptation of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning for use among infants aged 5‐ to 24‐months in rural Gambia. Developmental Science. e12808. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12808

Lloyd-Fox, S., Begus, K., Halliday, D., Pirazzoli, L., Blasi, A., Papademetriou, M., Darboe, M.K., Prentice, A.M., Johnson, M.H., Moore, S.E., & Elwell, C.E. (2017) Cortical specialisation to social stimuli from the first days to the second year of life: A rural Gambian cohort. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 25, 92-104. doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2016.11.005

Katus L, Hayes N, McCann S, Mason, L., Blasi, A., Darboe, M.K., de Haan, M., Moore, S.E., Lloyd-Fox, S. & Elwell, C.E. (2019) Implementing neuroimaging and eye tracking methods to assess neurocognitive development of young infants in low- and middle-income countries. Gates Open Research, 3:1113. https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.12951.2