People
Hiro Ohkura(group leader)
Hiro obtained his PhD from Kyoto University, Japan in 1990 under the supervision of Prof Mitsuhiro Yanagida. After a postdoc in Prof David Glover's lab in Dundee University, he started his lab in 1997 at The University of Edinburgh. In 2008, he was appointed as Professor of Cell Biology. He had been a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow for 20 years since 1997, and is a Wellcome Investigator in Science from 2018. He is also one of the founding members of The Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology.
Raluca Vintan(PhD student)
Raluca obtained her BSc degree in Food Biotechnology from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2019. Following this, she relocated to the Netherlands to complete her MSc in Molecular Biotechnology at Wageningen University & Research. Her master's research centered on a Type III CRISPR-Cas system. Her work included an investigation of the system's function using a biophysical approach for her thesis, and a contribution to a project developing a molecular diagnostic tool based on the system, during her internship at a startup. Before graduating in 2025, she gained further experience by exploring the molecular mechanisms of thrombocytopenia during a research practice at the Institute for Developmental Immunology (IDI) at the Medical University of Innsbruck. In October 2025, she joined the Ohkura lab at the University of Edinburgh as a PhD student, funded by the Darwin Trust. Outside of her academic pursuits, Raluca enjoys reading, traveling, swimming, and collecting records.
Ferdinand Meneau(postdoc)
Ferdinand obtained his bachelor's degree in molecular and cell biology in 2017, from the University of Orléans, France. For his master's degree in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology, he worked in Dr Philippe Meyer's laboratory (IBPC, Paris, France) on the regulation of Hsp90 and Hsp70 chaperones. Then, in 2019, he joined the laboratory of Catherine Jessus (IBPS, Paris, France) to study the central role of the small protein ARPP19 in the mechanism of meiosis in the Xenopus oocyte. In 2024, he started as a postdoctoral research associate in Prof. Ohkura's group at the University of Edinburgh, to study the regulation of acentrosomal spindle assembly in the Drosophila oocyte. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring new cities, learning Italian and hiking.
Dan Tomlinson(PhD student)
Dan obtained his Master's degree in Physics in 2023 from the University of Warwick where he modelled the effects of coronal loop fine-structure on coronal loop oscillations. He started his PhD in 2024 titled 'Biology and Physics of the Spindle matrix' (jointly supervised by Prof. Hiro Ohkura and Prof. Wilson Poon) and generally enjoys the investigating the challenging physics behind biological processes. In his spare time, he enjoys playing instruments, video games, and hiking.
Julia Niziol(PhD student)
Julia obtained her bachelor's degree in Biophysics in 2021 from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, followed by a master's degree from the same institution in 2023. During those years, her research focused on extracellular vesicles and the development of a novel methodology for positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy studies with biological samples. In 2024, she embarked on a new chapter by joining Ohkura lab as a research assistant. Beyond her scientific pursuits, Julia enjoys traveling, nature walks and trying out new coffee spots.
Igor Dasuzhau(research assistant)
Igor obtained his Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences in 2022, from the University of Cambridge. There, he worked in Dr Karam Teixeira's lab on the germline and somatic repression of transposons in Drosophila. In 2023 he obtained his Master's Degree in Biochemistry in Dr Svetlana Khoronenkova's lab, investigating the use of a small molecule drug in the suppression of neuroinflammation. After working in the Khoronenkova lab post-graduation, he joined the Ohkura lab in 2024 as a research assistant. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the piano, learning new languages, and kickboxing.
Rayane Kaade(postdoc)
Rayane obtained her bachelor's degree in Life and Earth Sciences in 2018 from Lebanese University, Lebanon. In 2019 she moved to France to pursue her master's degree in Biotechnology-Proteomics, and she graduated in 2020 from Lille university - France. In October 2021 she joined the Ohkura lab as a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, funded by the Darwin Trust. In her spare time, Rayane enjoys hiking, jogging, and watching movies.
Gera Pavlova(postdoc)
Gera graduated from Kazan Federal University (Kazan, Russia) in 2013 with major specialization in Biochemistry. As a PhD student Gera was hired by Prof. M. Gatti to the Lab of Cell Division of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology SB RAS (Novosibirsk, Russia) in 2014. During PhD training she was searched and studied proteins involved in spindle assembly and functioning in Drosophila S2 cells. Gera obtained her PhD from IMCB SB RAS in Jan 2020 with the project describing the role of transcriptional factors in Drosophila mitosis. Hereafter Gera joined the Hiro Ohkura's Lab as a postdoc in March 2020. At her free time she enjoys knitting and soap making.
Xiang Wan(postdoc)
Xiang obtained his bachelor degree from Nanjing Agricultural University (China) in 2016. After graduation, he furthered his study and completed his master thesis at Dr. Shao-chen Sun's lab where he focused on porcine oocyte maturation, obtaining the degree in June 2019. From January 2020, he started his PhD study in Prof. Ohkura group at the University of Edinburgh, funded by the Darwin Trust, where he mainly works on molecular dissection of the meiotic spindle in Drosophila oocytes. In most of his free time, jogging is his only way to unwind.
Emma Peat(technician)
Emma has worked in technical positions in the NHS and Dundee and Edinburgh Universities. After leaving employment to have her family, she has since returned to work in the Ohkura Lab providing technical support. Emma's hobbies include fossil hunting, fish keeping and cake making as well as volunteering for a local youth group.
Former members of the lab
Xiang (TYK medicines, Zhejiang)
Rohan (Edinburgh University)
Em (Edinburgh)
Fiona (happily retired)
Ola (Edinburgh University)
Carmela (Oxitec)
Li Ern (University of Sydney)
Jule (Histocyte, Newcastle)
Elsa (Edinburgh University)
Charlotte (Edinburgh University)
Dan (Edinburgh University)
Pedro (Oxsed Limited, Oxfordshire)
Mariana (Nestle, Lausanne)
Simona (Edinburgh University)
Lucia (Edinburgh University)
Pierre (NovaGray, Montpellier)
Kathryn (University College London)
Verdiana (Max Planck institute)
Alex (Edinburgh University)
Ricardo (Oxford Nanoimaging, Oxford)
Mila (Flo Health)
Robin (Edinburgh University)
Manuel (Nature Communications, Springer Nature)
Sophie (Universite de Rennes, France)
Ponsit (Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand)
Elvira (College de France, Paris)
Sara (Edinburgh University)
Agata (Edinburgh University)
Karolina (Polpharma Biologics, Gdansk)
Heather (Edinburgh University)
Sally (Melbourne University)
Nathalie (Toulouse)
Heather (Edinburgh University)
Benjamin (Wilmer Innovation Center, Singapore)
Ana (Genentech, California)
Oscar (Medical training, King College London)
Neil (Imperial College)
Nick (Cambridge University)
Amy (Sheffield University)
Anne (Livingstone)
Nicola (Edinburgh University)
Sarah (Glasgow)
David (Lonza Biologics, Berkshire)
Karen (Edinburgh University)
Anne (QuintilesIMS, Tronto)
Nicola (Cambridge University)