25 July 2024

An extraordinary congratulations is in order for Dr Mia Zol-Hanlon, joint PhD student between the Schumann lab and McDonald lab at the Crick institute who joins the ranks of of our PhD graduates! Mia delivered a beautiful (with respect to visual style, narrative structure and most importantly scientific content!) exit seminar before heading into her viva where we were delighted to hear she had passed! 

Mia's work entailed shedding light on the role of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) on neurotrophic signalling, specifically probing how heparin sulphate is implicated in GDNF/RET signalling. With a final push towards the end of her project, Mia generated illuminating cryo-EM structures of a number of complexes, yielding a multitute of new avenues for fruitful investigation! We're lucky that Mia will be remaining with us and the McDonald lab to continue her research as a Postdoc. Congrats Mia!