“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
- African proverb
Pau studied Human Biology at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, before moving to Oxford, London and the Technical University of Denmark where he obtained his PhD in Computational Biology.
He then received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation to pursue his postdoctoral studies at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. After securing a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from NIH/NCI, he established his lab at the University of Cambridge – CRUK Cambridge Institute in 2020.
I really enjoy thinking deeply about research questions and how by doing so we can contribute towards improving disease outcomes.
Ab initio protein / peptide / drug design
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” - Albert Einstein
This will never work / You can’t do it
Perseverance
Mihkel is a postdoctoral research fellow who is interested in (unravelling and targeting) protein signalling networks. His PhD work in the University of Tartu in Estonia was on protein phosphorylation in yeast cell cycle. He then joined the Institute of Cancer Research in London to characterise motif-mediated protein-protein interactions in a high-throughput manner. He joined Pau Creixell’s lab with a Horizon Europe Guarantee MSCA postdoctoral fellowship to investigate the therapeutic potential of targeting dynamic protein-protein interactions.
In my free time I enjoy hiking and exploring new areas
Short linear motifs in signal processing
"Intelligence is knowing the right answer. Wisdom is knowing when to say it." - Tim Fargo
Unmotivated people, mushy peas
Resourcefulness
Greta has two master’s degrees, from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, one in Chemistry and one in Pharmaceutical Science. She worked in IBM Research Europe on toxicity prediction using deep neural networks and at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland. Her main expertises lie in computational chemistry and protein chemistry as well as machine learning.
In my free time, I love baking and sharing the new creations with the lab members
Protein design
Science usually does not work the way you want
"Power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it" – Dale Carnegie
"Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied" – Dale Carnegie
Mingxuan has recently completed studying Chemistry with Molecular Physics Master’s Program at Imperial College London, where he specialised in robotic chemistry and computational chemistry for drug design. He came top in the year – the best chemistry student in the whole of London, 2021. He is now at Cambridge Universtiy working towards his PhD in Pau Creixell’s group.
The Medicine Buddha Pagoda in Nanjing makes me reminisce of my home far, far away. Its spirit also reminds me to dedicate myself to improving medical approaches to ease suffering in this world.
Molecular biophysics and experimental drug discovery
I cannot stand long beans, especially if they are undercooked. Too rubbery!
Nuo is interested in using functional and computational approaches to develop the nanobody and explore novel cancer signaling arms. Before moving to the UK, he studied and worked with colleagues at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine to discover oncogenic axes in DUX4/IGH-driven leukemogenesis.
Like Naruto, Ramen is my soul as well.
Cancer signaling explorer
"Life is not easy for any of us. But so what? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted with something and that this thing must be achieved." - Marie Curie
Luis is a biologist, geneticist and bioinformatician from Costa Rica. His past research was focused on human genetics, DNA repair and radiation oncology. His current research as a PhD student in the Creixell Lab is focused on the molecular evolution of tyrosine kinases. Moreover, he combines high-throughput biochemistry and structural bioinformatics in order to design less toxic and more efficient therapeutic hits to target oncogenic tyrosine kinases in paediatric brain tumours. He was awarded a PhD fellowship from the Board of Trustees of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BIF) in 2022 and became an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Biology in 2023.
I am passionate about history, architecture and art. Castles are fascinating and remind me that every kingdom must one day come to an end.
Structural bioinformatics and protein biochemistry
Try until you achieve it
Waking up early
Perseverance
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit” - Will Durant (The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers)
I love sailing. Out on the open ocean, you are a free spirit. In science, the possibilities and pathways can also seem endless, so that's why both of my passions are combined in this icon.
Creating figures or powerpoints (I wouldn’t say I am particularly good at it, but I love spending time on that and improve)
“The world belongs to the brave” – Eva zu Beck
English breakfast
James is the Creixell group’s lab manager. His background is mostly in stem cell research, where he enjoyed 11 years in Austin Smith’s group. He is excited to be exploring new pastures with Pau and the team, in cancer research and protein biochemistry. When not in the lab, he can be found with his family in Norfolk.
This is our family dog, Jester, a Border Collie.
Cell culture
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” – Anne Frank
Arrogance
“The [person] who views the world at 50 the same as [they] did at 20 has wasted 30 years of [their] life” – Muhammad Ali
“...deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned to certain death, but we still possess one power, and we must defend it with all our strength for it is the last – the power to refuse our consent” – Steinlauf
As part of our continuous improvement and challenge, we continuously offer constructive feedback to one another as an opportunity to grow and care for each other.
In other words, we think that doing science in collaboration with others can be even more fun, so we collaborate internally and with many other labs around the world. We believe that being prepared to be wrong and follow the data is key to what we do and part of our scientific integrity, which is why we are excited that there is so much to discover.
We aspire to continue improving and challenging ourselves.
At the same time, we take science very seriously and we can be a little intense at times (we hope you don’t mind intense wizards) as we tend to work hard and play hard. This is because most of us are in this in the hope of positively contributing to society in the long-term.
When we agree to do science together, we are also agreeing to spend more time together than with other friends and family, which makes it particularly key that we not only care for each other but also that we trust each other. For us to do the best science and persist we rely on being able to trust each other.
We aim to become master wizards, meaning that virtually all our magic tricks integrate experimental and computational wizardry and benefit from multiple scientific disciplines. In line with that, we come from many different scientific and personal backgrounds and this is something we positively embrace. This is a known recipe for more disruptive science and the best way to learn from each other.
*Some icons created by Javier Cabezas, Creative Mania Alina Oleynik InonMark Stephen Plaster for the Noun Project