The Machesky Lab

Updates

Please select from dropdown lists below to see what we’ve been up to!

Roberta Palmulli

2026

May

  • MCR/SCR Research Day: Well done to Dr. Sayantika Ghosh for presenting her talk, ‘Feeling the forces: How Cancer Cells Sense the Substrate’, at this interdisciplinary event by Robinson College.

April

  • 2026 BSCB Dynamic Cell VI Conference: Wonderful set of talks at this event co-organised by Prof. Laura Machesky. Congratulations to PhD student Li Ma on her poster!
  • American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting: Well done to former Part II student Adi Raja (supervised by Dr. Sayantika Ghosh) for presenting his first poster!
  • Prof. Laura Machesky and Prof. Robert Insall’s trip to China: Warm welcome as speakers for the 100th Anniversary Tsinghua University Life Sciences Symposium on Cellular Construction and Function, ‘Architecting Life’, and lead panellists in Peking University’s interactive session ‘Academia & Beyond‘ in the school of Medicine. 

March

  • CRUK Cambridge Festival 2026: Many thanks to Prof. Laura Machesky and lab members Dr. Roberta Palmulli, Li Ma, Wei Du, Dr. Sayantika Ghosh and Aven Spencer for volunteering in the open day’s activities, engaging with children and the public on what it’s like to work in cancer research.
  • New PhD Studentship: Congratulations to our visiting master’s student Virgile Gobry on securing the highly competitive Gates Cambridge Scholarship to complete a PhD in the Machesky Lab – we look forward to welcoming him back in October after his graduation this summer!

February

  • CRUK Fundamental Biology of Cancer (FBC) Annual Symposium: ‘Cancer Metabolism and the Tumour Microenvironment’ at Magdalene College. Fantastic contributions from our PhD students Osian Jones and Wei Du for their short talks and posters, and to Dr. Lisa Dobson for her talk on Patient Outreach and panel-led discussion with the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) Network on bridging the gap between patients and researchers in fundamental cancer research.
  • ‘Cambridge Biochemistry Global Women’s Breakfast 2026’: Thank you to Prof. Laura Machesky for her inspiring careers talk as part of this worldwide initiative to celebrate International Day of Girls and Women in Science.
  • New Video for World Cancer Day: ‘Explaining the Biology of Metastasis’, released by the CRUK Cambridge Centre Fundamental Biology of Cancer (FBC) Programme to mark World Cancer Day (4th February 2026) – narrated by our very own Dr. Lisa Dobson!

January

  • Departmental Away Days: Well done to our PhD students Li Ma, Wei Du and Osian Jones for their great flash talks and posters at the annual Biochemistry Department Away Days held at St John’s College Old Divinity School, with special mention to Osian Jones for winning second prize in the department for his flash talk!
  • Successful PhD application! Congratulations to Machesky Lab MRes student Yixian Huang on securing a PhD position in the department. We are delighted that you will be staying on as a permanent member of the lab!
  • Department of Biochemistry’s Independent Research Fellowship Symposium: Well done to Dr. Roberta Palmulli for her excellent presentation on her research journey so far and plans going forward.

2025

November 

  • World Pancreatic Cancer Day Symposium: Great talk by Dr. Lisa Dobson on the role of creatine metabolism in pancreatic cancer invasion and metastasis as part of a fantastic new conference hosted by the CRUK pancreatic cancer research programme.
  • ‘CYRI-B loss promotes enlarged mature focal adhesions and restricts microtubule and ERC1 access to the cell leading edge’: Congratulations to Dr. Sayantika Ghosh on her recent paper with former Machesky Lab member, Dr. Jamie Whitelaw, published by the Journal of Cell Science. Read more…

October 

  • LEAF Certification: Well done to the Machesky Lab for receiving the Bronze LEAF Award for commendable efforts towards sustainable lab practices!
  • ‘Precision Pints’: Fantastic talk by Dr. Roberta Palmulli on her recent findings for the Fundamental Biology of Cancer (FBC) CRUK Programme speaker session at the Panton Arms.

August 

  • ‘The voltage-gated sodium channel β3 subunit modulates C6 glioma cell motility independently of channel activity’: Many congratulations to Dr. Lisa Dobson on her latest paper in collaboration with the Tony Jackson lab, Department of Biochemistry, published in the BBA – Molecular Basis of Disease. Read more…

July

  • Aspiring Students Training Programme (ASTP): It was a pleasure to be part of the ASTP programme for the second year running and a delight to host another keen A-level student in our lab! With special thanks to Dr. Lisa Dobson for supervising the week-long visit.
  • ‘Tethered Exosomes Containing the Matrix Metalloproteinase MT1-MMP Contribute to Extracellular Matrix Degradation’: Congratulations to Post-Doc Dr. Roberta Palmulli on her latest publicationin the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. Read more…

June

  • ‘Is macropinocytosis more than just a passive gulp?: We are delighted to announce our latest review article in the Current Opinion in Cell Biology, by Dr. Roberta Palmulli and Prof. Laura Machesky. Read more…

March

  • Another PhD success! Many congratulations to Dr. Sam Hodder, on passing her viva and completing her PhD on the role of Ack Kinase in the Pi3K signalling pathway. Wishing her all the best in her future endeavours and we will miss her very much in the lab!
  • Dynamic Cell VI Annual Conference 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Roberta Palmulli and Dr. Sayantika Ghosh for presenting their work on macropinocytosis and mechanosensing, alongside former lab member Dr. Loic Fort, who presented his new work on actomyosin contractility in stem cell fate.
  • CRUK Cambridge Festival 2025:  A big thank you to volunteers Li Ma, Dr. Lisa Dobson, Wei Du and Dr. Sayantika Ghosh for all their help on the day leading activities for the initiative, ‘Get Hands on with Cancer Research in Cambridge’.

February

  • PhD Completion! Congratulations to Machesky Lab Post-Doc Dr. Sayantika Ghosh on passing her PhD viva, the final step in completing her PhD – many celebrations are in store!

2024

September

  • New video interview: ‘My Lab in 3 Minutes’ video by the CRUK Cambridge Centre’s Fundamental Biology of Cancer (FBC) Programme on our lab’s research on pancreatic cancer and how tumour stiffness influences cell behaviour.
  • ‘Scar/WAVE drives actin protrusions independently of its VCA domain using proline-rich domains’: New publication in Current Biology, a collaboration between Insall and Machesky lab groups providing novel insights into Scar/Wave Regulatory Complex Mechanistic Function. Read more…

July

  • Aspiring Students Training Programme (ASTP): it was a pleasure to be part of the ASTP programme for the first year running in the Department of Biochemistry. Thank you to Dr. Sayantika Ghosh for supervising the week-long visit of our A-level student!
  • 2024 Alkis Memorial Fund Prize: Congratulations to Part II student, Yuexuan Zhang, on winning the prize for the highest project mark in her cohort following some fantastic work in the Machesky Lab on the therapeutic potential of Src inhibitors in pancreatic cancer, supervised by Dr. Lisa Dobson. 
  • ‘Soft glassy rheology of single cells with pathogenic protein aggregates’: Congratulations to Machesky Lab Post-Doc Dr. Shatruhan Rajput on his recent publication on the effect of protein aggregates on actin-dependent cell mechanics. Read more…

June

  • ‘CD63 sorts cholesterol into endosomes for storage and distribution via exosomes’: Many congratulations to Dr. Roberta Palmulli on her recent Nature Cell Biology publication, providing novel insights into cholesterol trafficking to exosomes. Read more…

May

  • Departmental Centenary: A wonderful time celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, and congratulations to Machesky Lab PhD student Osian on receiving a prize in the Centenary Photography Competition for his confocal image, ‘Mitochondrial Transfer Between Pancreatic Cancer Cells via Tumour Microtubes.’
  • ‘CYRI-B-mediated macropinocytosis drives metastasis via lysophosphatidic acid receptor uptake’: New eLife publication implicating CYRI-B as a Novel Mediator of Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis. Read more…
  • 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award: Congratulations to Machesky Lab PhD student Sam Hodder for winning this award for the development of ‘Chum’, an interactive platform using stories and games to educate children with cancer about their treatments.