The team

Michelle Bishop

Associate Director, Learning and Training

Michelle leads the Learning and Training programme at Wellcome Connecting Science, overseeing the development and delivery of learning events, activities and resources for professional audiences across the life science research and healthcare sectors. Michelle has spent more than 15 years in genetics and genomics education, previously working at Health Education England. She has a background in molecular biology and genetic counselling and a PhD in the field of genetics education.

Treasa Creavin

Head of Scientific Meetings and Digital Learning

Treasa’s main role is to develop the scientific programme. She leads the scientific meetings and digital learning programme, with responsibility for conferences, discussion-based courses, workshops and MOOCs. Prior to joining the team, she was the Editor of Trends in Genetics and the Reviews Editor of Genome Biology. She has a broad background in microbiology and genetics. She obtained her PhD in genetics from University College London and was a postdoctoral researcher at UCL Medical School and at AIST in Japan.

Laura Wyatt

Senior Manager – Events and Policy

Laura has worked with the Learning and Training team since August 2007, after graduating with a BA Hons degree in Event Management. Laura is responsible for the logistical organisation of up to 10 conferences, retreats, summer schools and workshops per year.

Jemma Hume

Conference and Events Organiser

Jemma has been a Conference and Events Organiser since 2007. She is responsible for the logistical organisation of up to 10 events per year. Before joining the scientific conference team, she was the head receptionist at Hinxton Hall Conference Centre.

Lucy Criddle

Conference and Events Organiser

Lucy is a graduate of the University of Wolverhampton, with a degree in Hospitality Management. During her studies she spent one year working in Lapland with the Finnish Tourist Association. She previously worked at the University of Cambridge, as part of a conference sales team, and has been working within the Learning and Training team for the past 15 years.

Zoey Willard

Conference and Events Organiser

Zoey has worked in event management since 1996 organising events in pharmaceutical, technology, finance, and economic development areas within large corporates, agencies and the public sector. Zoey has led more than 300 event projects in over 20 countries around the globe. She has a BA Hons degree in Geography from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Sarah Heatherson

Conference and Events Administrator

Sarah has an extensive administrative background both within the private and public sectors.  She previously worked at Bank of America’s London office for 10 years as Personal Assistant within the Technology Department. Prior to joining us she worked for NHS Mental Health Services as a Medical Secretary. She is responsible for managing administration within the team.

Amanda Fletcher

Conference and Events Organiser

Amanda graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in Event Management and has since worked for a number of event agencies, managing a range of conferences and events across the globe for corporate as well as pharmaceutical clients. Amanda has also coordinated a number of successful events whilst working in hotels and a large UK conference venue.

Jane Murphy

Programme Developer

Jane manages scientific aspects of conferences and discussion-based courses, in addition to developing ideas to expand the programme portfolio. She has a broad scientific background – her PhD focussed on vaccine development and she then worked on immunology as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Jane has since taught practical bacteriology at the University of Cambridge, where she also carried out research in virology and human genetics.

Nagehan Bahadir

Scientific Programme Officer

Nagehan joined the team in 2021 to contribute to developing scientific conferences and discussion-based courses. Prior to this, she worked at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and Veterinary Medicines Directorate, UK as a scientific coordinator. She has played a significant role in managing and organising various scientific events, such as science festivals and competitions since 2010. Nagehan holds a PhD in molecular biology and genetics from Gazi University, Turkey.

Alice Matimba

Head of Training and Capacity Building

Alice leads the computational- and laboratory-based courses and the global training programme. Key to this is developing strong links with international networks and centres in LMICs. Alice graduated with her PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Thereafter, she pursued a pharmacogenomics postdoctoral research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in USA, before joining the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences in 2012, where she focused on health education and research in non-communicable diseases, pharmacology, genomics and ethics.

Karon Chappell

Course and Event Organiser

Nicola Stevens

Course and Event Organiser

Nicola has been an Event Organiser since 2007. She has previously worked in the audit and risk management department of a large NHS Trust, and prior to that worked in the banking industry for 13 years.

Martin Aslett

IT Manager

Martin joined the team as IT Manager in 2016. Prior to this, Martin worked in the Pathogen Informatics team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute for 14 years, providing software support for both internal and external users. He has a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology from Leeds University, and an MSc in Biological Computation from York University.

Dusanka Nikolic

Senior Education Developer

Dusanka joined the team in the role of Senior Education Developer.  She focuses on the design and development of online courses and the associated online education and training programme, within the current online programme, working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders, such as the scientific developers and educators, and our online Partner, FutureLearn.  Dusanka has MSc in Computer Science from Imperial College London. She worked in software development and taught in Higher Education.  She has an MA in Education from the Institute of Education, University College London, where she also worked on application of ICT in education.

Isabela Malta

Global Training Assistant Manager

Isabela has a biomedical science background. She worked at the microbiology laboratory of the Oxford University Hospitals, for the NHS, prior to completing an MPhil at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. Her research focused on gene regulation in a Gram-negative bacteria. Isabela joined the team to help coordinate the Global Training programme. The programme focuses on building capacity in scientists from Latin America, Asia and Africa, providing them with scientific and personal skills, and the creation of self-sustaining regional networks. Being originally from Brazil, Isabela strongly believes that by empowering LMIC’s scientists with the skillset needed for R&D, we accelerate progress in the global south.

Aaron Dean

Laboratory Assistant

Prior to joining the team as an Laboratory Assistant Aaron spent over three years working as an MLA at Broomfield Hospital’s Microbiology Department. Aaron also obtained a BSc(Hons) Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Portsmouth in 2016.

Jorge Batista da Rocha

Education Developer

Jorge joined Wellcome Connecting Science in October 2021 as an Education Developer working on COG-Train courses. Jorge’ role is to create and coordinate virtual courses and remote classrooms on all aspects of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing and analysis.  Jorge holds a PhD Human Genetics and Bioinformatics from the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience. His research focused on pharmacogenomics in African populations and the interpretation of genetic variants which could be used for precision medicine strategies. He enjoys community outreach and engagement, and loves sharing how genomic knowledge can be used to enrich the world.

Liã Barbara Arruda

Education Developer

Liã has a background in molecular virology and global health, with significant experience in laboratory capacity development in LMICs. In December 2021 she joined the team as an Education Developer working on the COG-Train project. She has developed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) aiming to improve SARS-CoV-2 surveillance capacity in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Liã holds a PhD in Tropical Medicine from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.