Current Members
Professor Randall Johnson
Principal Investigator
I received a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Swedish Language and Literature concurrently in 1983 from the University of Washington, in Seattle. Having resolved to choose science over literature, I worked for a couple of years as a research technician for Dr. Don Pious at the UW, on a project concerned with the genetics of the human major histocompatibility complex. I then went to Harvard to do my doctoral work with Prof. Bruce Spiegelman, where we were involved in the early days of gene targeting in embryonic stem cells; and I knocked out the c-fos and c-jun proto-oncogenes, amongst others, while receiving a Ph.D. in Genetics. I did my post-doctoral work as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow with Prof. Doug Hanahan when he was at UC San Francisco, working on the role of angiogenesis in transgenic tumor models. I began my career as a group leader in the Dept. of Biology at the University of California, San Diego. There, our lab began our study of hypoxia and its effects on tumorigenesis and physiology, continuing to use knockout and other genetic models. In 2011, I came to Cambridge and the Dept. of PDN as a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. In 2012 I became an associated member of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology of the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2015 I became a member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute. In 2018 I renewed my Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship.
Laura Barbieri
PhD Student (Stockholm based)
I am a PhD student from Italy. I obtained my Master´s degree in Medical Biotechnologies from the University of Padova, in Italy, in 2017. I was then awarded a scholarship from the same University to pursue my doctoral studies, and in 2018 I joined Johnson´s lab to work on hypoxia-related mechanisms of immune cell function, as part of my PhD. My project is focused on T cell metabolism in the context of hypoxia, for example in cancer or during intense exercise, and my overall goal is to find mechanisms to improve T cell-based immunotherapies.
David Bargiela
Wellcome Trust PhD Fellow (Cambridge based)
Dr David Bargiela is a Wellcome Trust PhD Fellow working in the field of cancer immunotherapy. David completed medical training at Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins Hospital, USA, followed by postgraduate work in Newcastle and as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University. His research interest are in the role of metabolism in determining cell fate and its application in the development of immunotherapy.
Pedro Cunha
PhD Student (Cambridge based)
I am a PhD student from Portugal. My academic background in Biochemistry and Cellular Biology was obtained in the University of Coimbra. As part of my Master’s research project I evaluated the potential use of miRNA modulation for targeted therapies to treat cancer. In 2017, I was awarded a FCT studentship to join the Johnson group in 2017. My PhD project aims at understanding the role of nitric oxide in T cell function. I am also interested in how HIF signalling can modulate T cell differentiation and fate.
Dr Iosifina Foskolou
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Cambridge based)
Dr Iosifina Foskolou is a Patrick Sissons Evelyn Trust Research Fellow (Darwin College, Cambridge) who works in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Iosifina completed her DPhil in Oncology at the University of Oxford. Iosifina’s research interests focus on Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy and investigates how hypoxia-inducible metabolites could improve immunotherapy. Iosifina is also affiliated with the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) as a Jonas Söderquists scholar for immunology research.
Milos Gojkovic
PhD Student (Stockholm based)
My current work consists of studying the hypoxic response and signaling in myeloid cells in context of pulmonary physiology and cancer. I find these subjects interesting, as there are always new perspective and angles to explore and challenging puzzles to solve. Outside the lab I enjoy hiking, nature, art and travel. Understanding of things from different perspectives is always exciting.
Sandra Pietsch
Lab Manager (Cambridge based)
I started my career in academia in 2007 as a Laboratory Technician in the field of Neuropsychiatric Research working in the lab of Dr Sabine Bahn at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. In 2011 I decided to challenge myself with a research project in Neurodegeneration funded by CHDI in the lab of Prof Jenny Morton at the Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience. I have been in my role as Lab Manager for Prof Randall Johnson since 2017.
Dr Pedro Velica
Post-doctoral Fellow (Stockholm based)
I am a not-so-early career researcher studying how metabolism and oxygen-sensing can be engineered to increase the anti-tumor function of cytotoxic T cells. I also study how hypoxia signaling impacts myeloid cells in the context of checkpoint blockade immunotherapy. I trained as a biologist at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and received my Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2010. I learned the obscure art of T-cell engineering as a post-doctoral scientist at University College London before joining the Scandinavian-side of the Johnson Lab in 2015. At night I disrobe from my lab coat and become a science cartoonist which I publish under the name of Pedromics.