Julia Cordero
Group Leader
Julia Cordero was born and raised in Argentina. After completing her University studies in her home country, Julia moved to the USA to her PhD studies in the laboratory of Ross Cagan at Washington University in St Louis where she studied developmental tissue patterning in Drosophila. In 2009, Julia moved to Owen Sansom’s group at the CRUK Beatson Institute in Glasgow for her postdoctoral work, funded by Marie-Curie and EMBO long-term fellowships. During her post-doc Julia discovered novel mechanisms driving intestinal regeneration and cancer using both flies and mice. Julia started her independent research group towards the end of 2014 at the Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, funded by a Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship from the Royal Society, a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society and, most recently, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. Julia is Professor of Systemic Signaling Biology at the University of Glasgow and Honorary Group Leader at the CRUK Beatson Institute. Julia’s laboratory combines Drosophila and mouse model systems to study local and whole-body functions of the intestine in health and disease. Outside of the lab, Julia enjoys travelling, physical exercise and, most of all, spending time with her family.
Nourhene Ammar
Research Assistant
Nourhene was Born and raised in Tunisia, where she developed an early fascination for the complexity of living systems. Driven by a strong passion for life sciences, she pursued a Bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology before moving to Toulouse, France, to continue her scientific journey. It was during her Master’s studies that she discovered her enthusiasm for tissue regeneration, and more specifically for the mechanisms underlying muscle regeneration.
Supported by funding from AFM-Téléthon in 2021, she pursued my PhD in Rennes in the lab of Hadi Boukhatmi at the Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes. There, she deciphered a network of intercellular communication mechanisms activated in response to muscle damage using Drosophila as a model system. During this time, intercellular communication became Nourhene’s main scientific focus, and her interests gradually shifted from “muscle strength” to “gut feelings”, as she became increasingly curious about intestinal biology and ready to “digest” new challenges.
Keen to explore this new direction and deepen her understanding of cellular communication and tissue homeostasis, Nourhene will join the Cordero Lab in May 2026, where she hopes to further investigate how cell-cell interactions shape tissue adaptation in health and disease.
Before starting this new chapter, Nourhene is happily taking time to enjoy one of her other passions - baking and creating delicious food.
Utkarsh Bhore
PhD Student
Hailing from India, Utkarsh's lifelong curiosity centres around how signals mould organisms' choices and adaptations. His research journey kicked off with an internship investigating the interplay of dispersal, nutritional availability, and environmental cues on survival strategies. Diving deeper into this field, he realised that environmental signals control whole-body homeostasis through various signalling pathway. His master's thesis at IISER Berhampur focused on the role of miRNA let-7 in ovarian development, using Drosophila as a model. His research extended to exploring miRNA let-7's role in Wilms tumour using cell lines, guided by mentors Dr. R Selvi Bharathavikru and Dr. Bodhisatta Nandy. Utkarsh is grateful to have received a studentship from Cancer Research UK, allowing him to delve into the intricacies of the gut-brain axis and its disruptions in intestinal cancer. He hopes that his dedication and passion will contribute to the collective knowledge of how environmental and systemic cues influence organismal adaptations. Between research endeavours, he eagerly looks forward to exploring the Scottish Highlands, inspired by the magic of Harry Potter and the adventures of Doctor Who.
Cai Johnson
PhD Student
Born in North Wales, Cai grew up in a small village on the side of the Mawddach estuary. He moved to Lancaster in 2019 to complete a BSc in Biochemistry with Genetics, where he completed a dissertation project investigating DNA replication initiation and kinase inhibition in various cancer types. Following obtaining his undergraduate degree, he studied for an MSc in Cancer Research and Precision Oncology at the University of Glasgow, where he completed a project exploring the anti-cancer properties of γδ T-Cells in colorectal cancer. Captivated by colorectal cancer research with a keen interest in intestinal stem cell regulation, Cai joins the Lab in October 2023 for his PhD in collaboration with Professor Massimo Vassalli and Dr. Andrei Shvarts at the School of Engineering. During his PhD, Cai he will take a multidisciplinary approach, integrating biophysical, computational mechanics and genetic experiments to investigate intestinal/microenvironment interactions during intestinal regeneration and cancer. Cai enjoys doing anything sports-related in his spare time, especially football and running.
Emer King
Research Assistant
Emer, born and raised in Moone, Ireland, has always enjoyed asking questions. Never quite satisfied with answers she could find in textbooks, Emer pursued this curiosity to the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin where she completed her undergraduate in 2020. It was during a final year project on quiescence in stem and cancer stem cells that Emer first became fascinated by these complex cells. Seeking to understand the mechanisms that regulate them, she began her PhD in the Korzelius lab at the University of Kent, where she completed her thesis on the topic of transcriptional regulation of intestinal stem cells in Drosophila. With her insatiable need for even deeper understanding of the fly intestine and its systemic impacts on organismal health and wellbeing, Emer is excited to join the Cordero lab in January 2026. Emer joins the lab to delve deeper into the impact of colorectal cancer on the gut-brain axis. She hopes to apply her knowledge of signalling pathways and the intestine, to ask more questions and (hopefully!) find more answers. While not in the lab Emer can be found feeding her hungry cats, knitting socks or being overly-competitive at a pub quiz.
Jessica Perochon
Research Associate
Always passionate about Life science, Jess followed her undergraduate education in her natal Paris with a PhD at the University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), also in France. During her PhD, she worked with Drosophila as a model organism to study the consequences of chronic Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress at the molecular and tissue level. After her PhD, Jess realised she loved flies and whisky too much and then decided to move to Scotland for a post-doc in our lab at the end of 2015. Jessica’s project involves inter-organ communication programs and their impact on intestinal homeostasis. More precisely, she studies the communication between intestinal stem cells and the gut associated, vasculature-like tracheal system.
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Jade Philips
PHD Student
Jade did her BSc and MRes at Imperial College London where she studied the impact of respiratory infections on lung cancer progression in the lab of Dr Cecilia Johansson. It is during this time that Jade became interested in tumour-microenvironment interactions and decided this was something she wanted to study further. She started her PhD in the Cordero lab in October 2021 after being awarded a studentship from CRUK to study inter-organ communication between the intestine and it’s associated vasculature in health and disease. Jade is interested in understanding how the mechanics of the intestinal epithelium change during damage or tumorigenesis and how this affects angiogenesis.
Yuanliangzi Tian
Research Assistant
Tian was born and raised in China. She did her undergraduate studies in Animal Science at Sichuan Agricultural University, where she studied the intestinal bacteria adaptation to the bamboo diet of the Giant Panda. This lab experience inspired her interests in biological research and drove her to do a Master’s degree. Since then, she started to work on Drosophila with a main focus on the function of vacuolar ATPases in the maintenance of adult intestinal homeostasis. Beyond that, she also did some work on the screening of anti-ageing agents using Drosophila as a model system. In 2020, Tian got her Master’s degree in Genetics and was awarded a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council to join our lab as a PhD student. Because of the pandemic, Tian arrived to the lab in March 2021, which was six-month later than expected. However, she is now here, and we are all very excited to have her with us to continue her research with amazing fly intestine and the metabolic adaptations it undergoes during regeneration.
Yachuan Yu
Principal Lab Manager ​
Yachuan was born in China where he trained as a Chemist. After that, he moved to the UK, to do a PhD and postdoc at the University of Swansea, studying genome stability and DNA repair with Prof. Raymond Waters. He then did a second postdoc on spermatogenesis in Drosophila under the direction of Prof. Helen White-Cooper. In 2013, Yachuan joined Marcos Vidal’s group at the CRUK Beatson Institute as a Scientific Officer/Lab manager and, since 2016, he has become a central member of our laboratory. He is not only responsible for the everyday management of the lab and overall technical assistance but also for the development and troubleshooting of new techniques. Yachuan’s contribution over the years has been essential to allow Julia to create a friendly and competitive research environment as well as to keep her sanity (to a certain extent…).
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Alumni
05/2015- 05/2016- Rasa Elmentaite. Undergraduate student.
Currently: Co-Funder and Head of Genomics and Data Science at Ensocell Therapeutics.
2014 – 2018- Lynsey Carroll. PhD Student. University of Glasgow.
Currently: Clinical and Regulatory Consultant at MDC Associates Inc.
2016 – 2021- Jean Philippe Parvy. Post-doctoral Fellow.
Currently: Research Associate at the Centre for Virus Research, University of Glasgow.
2015 – 2017- Christin Bauer. PhD Student. Beatson CRUK
Currently: Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca, UK.
2014 – 2018- Alessandro Scopelliti. Post-Doctoral Fellow. Beatson CRUK.
Currently: Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
05/2021- 03/2022- Andre Carvalho. Research Assistant.
Currently: PhD Student at i3S, Porto, Portugal. ​
2015 – 2017- Joseph Hodgson. PhD Student. Beatson CRUK.
Currently: Associate Scientific Director at Adelphi Communications
05/2018- 08/2018- Alina Kurjan. Undergraduate student.
Currently: Computational Biologist at Entelo Bio
2018-2023- André Medina- PhD student
Currently: Post-doctoral Researcher. Charite Berlin.
2014 – 2018- Máté Naszai. PhD Student.
Currently: Medical Doctor, NHS England.
05/2018- 08/2018- Bruno Beernaert Dominguez. Undergraduate student.
Currently: Post-doctoral researcher. University of Oxford.
09/2023- 06/2024- Carolin Schwab. Erasmus student.
Currently: Student at Tuebingen University.
2/2020-3/2024-Sofia Polcownuk-Research Associate Post-doc
Currently: Laboratory Manager, University of Glasgow.
2/2024- 2/2026-Jack Holcombe- Postdoctoral Fellow
Currently: Healthcare Scientist Practicioner at NHS Greater Glasgow
03/2023-08/2025 Parvathy Ramesh-Post-Doc-Research Associate
Currently: Scientist at Thermofisher Scientific
01/2019- 12/2025- Karen Bellec - Postdoctoral Fellow
Currently: Manufacturing Biotechnologist at RoslinCT