The LARP Society Story

Dr. Berman received her Ph.D. in 2007 with Tom Steitz at Yale University, performed her postdoctoral studies with Tom Cech at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and joined the Department in 2012.

​Dr. Mark Bayield is a professor in the Department of Biology at York University. He was previously a post-doctoral fellow at National Institutes of Health (NIH) and received a doctorate from Brown University.

Dr. Jarosz is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Developmental Biology at Stanford University. He was previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research and completed his PhD training at MIT.

Dr. Blagden is clinician scientist with a fascination for clinical trials, mRNA and understanding (and preventing) the process of cancer development. Sarah is presently director of Oxford’s Cancer Trials Office (OCTO) and research group lead at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Mardakheh is a principal investigator with the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. He was previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research (UK), and completed his PhD training at the University of Birmingham. 

Connor is a PhD student in Dr. Mark Bayfield's lab at York University studying the roles of the human La protein in promoting tRNA maturation and its links to oncogenesis. He received his B.Sc. in Biomedical Science at York University.

Kendra completed a double Master in Public Health and Reproductive Medicine (excellence) in Australia. She joined Professor Sarah Blagden's Laboratory in a dual post: Research Assistant/ Laboratory Manager.

Dr. Prabhu is a postdoctoral associate in the Berman Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his PhD training with the Miller Lab at McGill University in 2023.

Brittney is a PhD student in Dr. Mark Bayfield’s lab at York University. She is investigating the La protein Mlp1 in Tetrahymena thermophila and its involvement in the biogenesis of non-coding RNAs. 

Alex is a postgraduate oncological research student at the University of Oxford studying towards a DPhil (PhD) in Oncology within the Blagden lab of the University of Oxford and the Lilley lab of the University of Cambridge.