Meet the Team

Assoc. Prof. Marta Polak

I am a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow & an Assoc. Prof. at the University of Southampton, leading Systems Immunology Group. Our research projects seek to understand how immune responses are initiated and regulated in human skin and whether we can find new treatment strategies for immune disorders. To be able to understand how the skin cells make a decision whether to activate or not immune responses, we use a wide range of methods – experimental, computational and modelling. We develop new methods for single cell analysis, we make an in silico model of molecular cross-talk in skin, and look for ways to treat eczema (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/ita/index.page?). Twitter @SIG__PolakLab

Dr Sofia Sirvent

Dr Andres Vallejo

Dr Ying Teo

I am a dermatology trainee who has an interest in Severe Cutaneous Adverse Drug Reactions (SCARs), in particular Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS). I am currently undertaking a post-graduate project exploring transcriptomic changes in DRESS compared to other diseases in order to validate biomarkers for identification of causative drug and evaluating the utility of skin tests in diagnostic work-up in DRESS.

Gemma Douilhet

Although I now work with the Faculty of Medicine, my background is actually in mathematics! I gained my BSc Mathemetics from the University of Essex in 2013, before training as a pprimary school teacher. Having decided to change careers, I found a passion for applying mathematics to biological contexts. After completing my Masters degree at Heriot Watt University I had the opportunity to join the Systems Immunology Group.

My PhD involves developing mathematical models of keratinocyte signalling pathways and combining them with novel parameter estimation techniques and exerimental data to make predictions about immune responses in the skin.

Patrick Trimby-Smith

Gabriela Barbeta

Dr Michaela Reynolds