People

Prof Eva Petermann, Group Leader

I trained as a biochemist at the Martin Luther University in Halle, Germany and have ever since been interested in how DNA is replicated and repaired.  I undertook my PhD in DNA repair in the lab of Dr Shiao Li Oei in Berlin before moving on to postdoctoral research on replication stress in the labs of Professor Keith W. Caldecott at the University of Sussex, and Professor Thomas Helleday, then at the University of Oxford. I started my own group in Birmingham in 2010. In my spare time I do Park Run and volunteer for the Ramblers.

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University of Birmingham staff profile

Dr Akhil Bowry, Postdoctoral Researcher

Akhil studied BSc (Hons) Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. He joined our lab in 2015 as a PhD student and completed his PhD in 2019.  Funding: CRUK

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Abirami Kannan, MSc by Research student

Abirami completed her Bachelor of Technology and Bioengineering at SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India. Her degree included an undergraduate research project on glioblastoma at the University of Wolverhampton. Abi joined our lab in June 2023.

Dr Richard Kelly, Postdoctoral Researcher

Richard's scientific background is in stem cells, transcription and epigenetics, as well as DNA replication. He completed his PhD at the University of Nottingham, followed by postdoctoral research at Monash University (Australia) and the University of Leicester. He joined the lab in 2019 as a senior postdoc. Funding: CRUK

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Dr Christy Varghese, Postdoctoral Researcher

Christy is an expert in the biology of human papillomavirus (HPV). She completed her PhD at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg before moving to Birmingham for a postdoc with Jo Parish. Christy joined our lab in 2022 to continue on a project that is jointly supervised by Jo Parish, investigating HPV-induced replication stress and genomic instability. Funding: MRC

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Rosanna Wilkins, PhD student

Rosie has a Bachelor in Biomedical Science from the University of Birmingham. She started her PhD in October 2020. Funding: CRUK

Khadija Sabat, PhD student 

Khadija is doing a PhD with Shaun Cowley at the University of Leicester, and is performing part of her research in our lab. She started her PhD in 2021. Funding: MRC IMPACT

Former members

Dr Rebecca M. Jones, Postoctoral Researcher

Dr Panagiotis Kotsantis, Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr Ann Liza Piberger, Postdoctoral Researcher

Islam Afzal, Research Technician

Siobhan Plass, MRes student

Hei Mui (Claire) Tang, MRes student

Zenon Heggs, MSci student

Sophie Riddell, MSci student 

Siobhan Murphy-Hollies, MSci student 

Ishbir Narotra, MSci student 

Zeinab Majid, Intercalating BMedSci student

Jaruwan Satjanadumrong, Visiting Research Student

Kristina Hrasnova, Erasmus+ student