Yuqi Shen

I joined the Psaila and Mead groups in October 2022 after finishing my PhD with Prof. Richard Gibbons and Prof. Douglas Higgs at the WIMM, Oxford. During my PhD, I worked on how the chromatin remodeller ATRX regulates gene expression.

In my current postdoctoral work, I am interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying blood cancer development, with particular focuses on how mutations in haematopoietic stem cells reshape gene regulatory programmes intrinsically and remodel the bone marrow microenvironment extrinsically to drive disease progression. I am applying my experience in gene regulation in a more translational setting, developing iPSC-based model systems carrying patient-specific mutations and differentiating them into functional haematopoietic stem cells to trace disease progression and identify early molecular events that could inform preventive or targeted therapies. In parallel, I am combining this with an advanced 3D human bone marrow organoid model to study how interactions within the niche influence disease progression and therapeutic responses.