Meet the Team
We’re building the Nicholson Lab
We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate and a Research Assistant to join our growing team investigating how epigenetic heterogeneity drives glioblastoma recurrence. Both positions offer hands-on experience with patient-derived models and cutting-edge single-cell genomics.
Dr James Nicholson
Group leader
Lecturer in Brain Tumour Computational Biology
James has a BSc & MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. He obtained his PhD studying murine models of pituitary/brain tumours at Queen Mary University of London, where he also completed an MSc in Bioinformatics. Following this he began his post-doctoral training at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York in the laboratory of Prof. Fine where he leveraged single cell methods and brain organoid co-cultures to model Glioblastoma. James then returned to QMUL to complete his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Marino at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence where he continued to work on modelling brain tumours and developing precision medicine pipelines. In 2026, James became an independent Early Career Researcher at the Brain Tumour Research CofE and is also supported by a Brain Research UK fellowship. Now he is bringing together his expertise in the areas of organoid modelling and single cell epigenomics to uncover how intratumoural heterogeneity drives brain tumour evolution, treatment resistance and recurrence.
Dr Nicholson is currently co-supervisor for two PhD students hosted in the Marino lab
Vaishnavi Dokka
Vaish’s project combines organoid culture and bioinformatics to explore the role of tumour-microenviromental interactions across different brain regions and cancer types.
PhD student
Rizwan Hameed
Riz’s project explores the mechanism of METTL7B driven lineage specification in glioblastoma.
MD-PhD student