Manav Pathania

PI
Manav received a BA in Biology from Grinnell College, in Iowa, and received his PhD in Cell Biology from Yale University, in Connecticut. At Yale he investigated microRNA control of postnatal neural stem cell differentiation and survival in Professor Angelique Bordey’s lab. His first postdoctoral appointment was in Professor Josef Kittler’s lab at UCL in London, where he explored the neurobiological consequences of autism and schizophrenia candidate gene misexpression in vitro and in vivo. Following that, in his second postdoctoral appointment Manav developed in vivo models of paediatric high-grade glioma in Professor Paolo Salomoni’s lab at the UCL Cancer Institute. He set up his independent group at the University of Cambridge (2018-2025), and then moved to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford (2026-), where his team focuses on identifying novel targeted therapy approaches for paediatric gliomas and interrogating the role of the tumour microenvironment.

​Fun fact: Manav has lived in India, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States, before settling in the UK.

Milena Bikova

PhD Student
​​Milena is currently undertaking a DPhil under the supervision of Dr Manav Pathania at the Ludwig Institute Oxford Branch, and Professor Claudia Kleinman at McGill University, as part of an international collaboration. Prior to this, she completed a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Essex, where she worked with Dr Vladimir Teif investigating nucleosome repositioning in cancer and ageing. Her research focused on how chromatin organisation affects gene regulation and how these changes may be used for diagnostics. This experience shaped her interest in the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms that drive disease and led her to pursue further research in cancer biology. Currently, she is interested in how the tumour microenvironment shapes different aspects of tumour behaviour. To study this, she will use computational approaches, analysing spatial transcriptomics and single-cell RNA sequencing data generated from mouse models developed in the Pathania lab that recapitulate the molecular alterations of paediatric gliomas. Through this work, she hopes to widen our understanding of tumour-microenvironment interactions and identify pathways that could be explored therapeutically.

Postdoc TBD

Postdoc
TBD

Jade-Ellen Brown

PhD Student
Jade received a BSc from the University of Nottingham, where she conducted her dissertation project on the effect of modulating VEGF-A splicing on endothelial cell migration. She then completed an MRes in Cancer Biology at Imperial College London, undertaking two research projects: the first under Dr. Alexis Barr, investigating the regulation of cell cycle entry in breast cancer, and the second at the ICR under Dr. Rachael Natrajan, studying the effects of splicing factor mutations on breast cancer therapy resistance. In the Pathania Lab, Jade is a PhD student studying the role of genetic and transcriptional heterogeneity in driving H3K27M paediatric glioma disease progression and therapy resistance.

Antonella De Cola

Postdoc
Antonella received her MSc and PhD degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy), where she also qualified as a Medical Biotechnologist. During her PhD she identified roles for specific proteins in cell cycle regulation, cell death and histone gene transcription with Professor Gerry Melino. Her first postdoctoral position was with Professor Vincenzo De Laurenzi at CeSI-MeT University of Chieti-Pescara, where she studied microRNAs in patient-derived breast cancer stem cells. Specifically, she investigated the function of particular microRNAs in cancer stem cell survival, differentiation and therapy resistance both in vitro and in vivo. Her work has resulted in a number of publications and productive collaborations. In the Pathania Lab, Antonella will bring her considerable cancer biology expertise to bear and probe the roles of chromatin remodelling complexes in paediatric brain tumour initiation, maintenance and relapse.

Computational Biologist TBD

Computational Biologist
TBD

Arman Ghodsinia

Postdoc​
Arman graduated with a BSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines. After completing his degree, he worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Professor Reynaldo Garcia, where he characterised non-hotspot mutations in PIK3CA. He then obtained an MSc in Radiation Biology from the University of Oxford, working with Professor Tim Humphrey to investigate transcriptional responses to DNA damage. Finally, he completed an MRes and PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he engineered synthetic cytokines for therapeutic applications in the laboratory of Professors Adrian Liston and James Dooley. In the Pathania Lab, Arman will use genetic “barcodes” and sequencing to track tumour cells over time in living brain tumour models. This will allow him to follow how tumours grow, change, and respond to various treatments. By studying the cells that survive therapy, he hopes to learn why some tumours become resistant and return after treatment. The goal of this work is to help develop treatments that are more effective and have fewer long-term side effects for brain tumour patients.

Michael McNicholas

​PhD Student (formerly Research Assistant)
Michael has recently graduated with a BSc from the University of Surrey where he carried out a wide variety of projects as part of a research-intensive undergraduate degree in Biochemistry. These included studying the DNA damage response in cancer cell lines with Lisiane Meira at Surrey, and the role of the opioid system and G-protein coupled receptors in addiction and associative learning in Brigitte Kieffer's lab at McGill. His undergraduate research has contributed to two publications with two more in preparation. In the Pathania Lab he will be working on understanding how histone mutations rewire the epigenome to induce DIPGs and the role of different co-occurring mutations in this process.

Lucie Pepino

Postdoc
Lucie received her MSc and PhD degrees in Neuroscience from the University of Aix-Marseille (France). Her PhD project addressed sex-linked differences in an inflammatory pain model in Dr. Aziz Moqrich’s lab (advised by Dr. Ana Reynders). Her project was designed to explore differences in pain perception at various levels of analysis, including global behaviour, hormone contribution, and spinal gene expression, in response to inflammatory-evoked pain. By further exploring one of the top upregulated genes in males, she identified a male-female difference in neutrophil recruitment to the spinal meninges, and more specifically to the pia mater. In the Pathania lab, Lucie will investigate how partner mutations in H3K27M and H3.3G34R gliomas modify interactions between brain tumour cells and their microenvironment (blood vessels, microglia, neurons, astrocytes and infiltrating immune cells).

Ekta Yadav

Research Assistant
Previously, Ekta worked with Dr Yvonne Couch at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, investigating how the brain communicates injury to the immune system. Prior to this, she was a Research Technician at the Leeds Institute of Medical Research, where she contributed to glioblastoma research, focusing on in vivo models, combination therapies, advanced imaging, radiotherapy, and downstream tissue analysis. Ekta holds a research master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Leeds, where she studied how postnatal neurogenesis and spinal cord stem cells can be harnessed using transgenic models, organotypic slice cultures, acute recordings, and in vivo approaches, alongside an MSc in Biochemistry. She is currently a Research Assistant in the Pathania Lab, where she contributes to multidisciplinary studies on brain tumour progression and therapeutic resistance using advanced in vivo models, alongside supporting lab operations.

Research Assistant TBD

Research Assistant
TBD

Vello

Lab mascot
Vello is a Lagotto Romagnolo who hasn't yet learned to hunt for truffles. He is the lab mascot and is very excited about everything.

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Alumni

Carmo Cunha
Research Assistant
​
​Amelia Foss
NIH OxCam Fellow

Kyle McGeehan
MPhil Student - Gates Cambridge Fellow

Cameron Lloyd
Research Assistant