Deepa Bajantri
Scientific Officer:
Epigenetics and Cancer
Deepa Bajantri is the Scientific Officer in Professor Kristian Helin’s lab since September 2025. Deepa obtained her BSc degree from Karnatak University, Dharwad, India, majoring in Chemistry, Botany and Biotechnology. Driven by concepts of Molecular biology and Genetic engineering, she obtained an MSc degree in Biotechnology and earned a distinguished Gold Medal from Karnatak University, India. After briefly training on how EVs mediate AML Progression and Survival at St John’s Research Institute (SJRI), Bangalore, Deepa joined as Research Project Associate I at Prof Sarin’s lab, The Institute of Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), Bangalore, India. Her research focused on ‘Nucleolar localisation of Notch 4 intracellular domain and how that diversifies signalling outcomes activated by the receptor’. She further pursued her research studies at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and The Francis Crick Institute, UK. The project focused on ‘Unravelling the mechanism of NF-κB signalling mediated by its regulatory protein N4BP1 and the ubiquitin system in atomic detail’ using NMR Spectroscopy. Hobbies: Alongside research, Deepa gets personal satisfaction from being a communications strategist, deconstructing complex issues with a commanding record of over 100 competitive debate wins.
Dr Hinyuk Lai
Dr Li Yuan Chan
Dr Ben Jones
Postdoctoral Training Fellow:
Medicinal Chemistry 1
Dr Ben Jones is a postdoctoral research fellow working with Gurdip Bhalay in the Medicinal Chemistry 1 group. He received his MChem with Industrial Training from Heriot-Watt University, which included a year-long placement at Roche in Basel, and a summer placement at Genentech in San Francisco, both in medicinal chemistry. Ben completed his PhD at the University of Bristol under Professor John Bower, focusing on the development of aza-Heck reactions and their application in total synthesis. He then undertook a postdoctoral position at the University of Vienna with Professor Nuno Maulide, working on inverse hydride shuttle chemistry and total synthesis. Before joining the ICR, he gained industrial experience in Process Chemistry at Sai Life Sciences UK.
Soumak Manna
Research Data & Systems Engineer:
Integrative Cancer Epidemiology
Soumak joined the Generations Study team in 2025 under the mentorship of Professor Garcia-Closas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a postgraduate diploma in Business Analytics. Prior to joining the team, Soumak gained extensive data-focused experience at leading IT consulting and technology firms, where he developed expertise in SQL, Python, Google Cloud platform, Hadoop, Spark, and ETL best practices. At the Generations Study, Soumak is responsible for data management, governance, and transformation, with a focus on optimizing participant-facing interfaces in line with FAIR principles.
Nida Mirza
Higher Scientific Officer:
Pre-Clinical MRII provide histopathological support and analysis for MRI biomarker validation.
Sabine Dreibe
PhD Student:
ICR-CTSU Early Phase and Adaptive Trials
Sabine is a PhD student with an MSc in Medical Statistics. Prior to joining the ICR, she worked as a trial statistician, gaining valuable experience in clinical research. Her academic background is further enhanced by additional training in precision oncology and cancer genomics at Harvard Medical School. Sabine’s research interests focus on early-phase adaptive platform trials in precision oncology.
Maggie Qiao
Trials Methodologist:
ICR-CTSU Early Phase and Adaptive Trials
Being graduated in Statistics in UK and China, Yu (Maggie) began her career as a SAS programmer at Pfizer, then worked as a trial statistician at OCTRU (University of Oxford). She joined the ICR as a Trials Methodologist in 2025, focusing on early-phase trials and adaptive designs, and methodology improvement work.