Research degrees

Student profiles

Bruno Ferraz de Souza

Bruno graduated in Medicine from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1999 and completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology in 2003. From 2005 he undertook a visiting research fellowship to Dr John Achermann’s lab at ICH, triggering his interest in translational research. He enrolled as an MPhil/PhD candidate in 2007, supported by a scholarship from Capes, an agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. His PhD supervisors are Dr John Achermann and Professor Mehul Dattani, from the Developmental Endocrinology Research Group in the Clinical & Molecular Genetics Unit.

Bruno’s current work is identifying novel genes involved in the development of the adrenal glands in humans through the manipulation of steroidogenic factor-1, a master regulator of adrenal development. Besides his full-time research, he is also a student representative on ICH’s Staff/Student Consultative Committee which he chaired during 2008/09, and Biomedical Sciences Editor for Opticon1826, UCL’s postgraduate-run academic review.

“The high standards of the research at ICH have facilitated my transition from clinical medicine to lab-based research. My PhD project involves new and exciting techniques that will hopefully lead to the identification of candidate genes for patients with adrenal disease where the cause is currently unknown.” 

Saba Raza

Saba joined UCL Medical School as an undergraduate in 2004. After completing her preclinical studies, she undertook an intercalated BSc in neuroscience based in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at the Royal Free Hospital. She gained further research experience in Judith Campisi’s group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, before commencing her clinical training at University College Hospital.

In 2008, Saba was appointed to the UCL MB PhD programme, in which students combine both clinical and research training by intercalating a PhD in the clinical course. Saba was awarded a Medical Research Council studentship to support the PhD stage of the MB PhD course.

Her research is based on neural tube defects and neurulation, and she is investigating a mouse model of spina bifida.  She is co-supervised by Professor Andrew Copp and Dr Nicholas Greene in the Neural Development Unit.

Saba has been involved with the social committee at ICH, and is chair of the staff-student consultative committee. She is also a vice warden at UCL’s Gower Street student residences.

Past research students

Jonathan Tobin

Jonathan, a biology graduate from St Anne’s College, Oxford, started his PhD in the Molecular Medicine Unit in October 2005 and was funded by a MRC studentship. He worked under Professor Phil Beales on a rare genetic disease called Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) which causes obesity, blindness, kidney disease, and extra digits.

Jonathan completed his PhD in January 2009. He is now working as a postdoc at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and is trying to understand how a transcription factor controls the movement of tumour cells from the primary tumour to distant sites around the body, focusing on breast cancer.

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