The INT are proud to support Dr Akaash Kumar, PhD through our College Junior Research Fellowship programme by contributing to his Research Fellowship at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. Akaash's PhD work, completed at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) and University of Cambridge is now published in Nature Photonics!
Akaash shared "My PhD research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology focused on developing new imaging technologies to see the complex processes inside living cells at greater detail and speed. I designed and built a multispectral imaging system that overcomes a major limit in fluorescence microscopy, allowing us to simultaneously image up to eight or more 'colours' at video rates, instead of the usual two or three. This is compatible with any camera-based microscope, allowing us to visualise faster, more complex interactions live. It was an incredibly exciting project, and I'll never forget seeing our first multispectral dataset from a living cell.
“What I enjoyed most was the interdisciplinary approach, spanning physics and engineering all the way to cell biology. It gave me the opportunity to learn from amazing people in different fields (though I'll admit, it also makes you feel like a novice in every discipline at the beginning!).
"I am thrilled to have received a research fellowship from Fitzwilliam College and the Isaac Newton Trust to support my Postdoctoral research at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. I'm now using the imaging technology I developed to watch living T cells (important cells of our immune system) as they hunt and kill cancerous/infected cells. I aim to study how different biological structures in T cells change and interact with one another during the killing process to uncover their spatiotemporal coordination. We can finally see this process in more detail and speed than before, and I hope to use these biological insights to improve our understanding of adaptive immunity and future immunotherapies.“
We are looking forward to seeing how Akaash's project continues to develop and the impact the new imaging technologies has on his research findings.
Image credit: Dr Akaash Kumar
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