
Training Theme Panel
The Training Theme Panel oversees the training remit of the Society, working to encourage, commission, generate and review proposals for face-to-face training events and online courses in the biosciences throughout the year.
Training Theme Panel
9 members

Professor Luciane Vieira de Mello
Professor Luciane Vieira de Mello


Dr Clara Correia-Melo
Dr Clara Correia-Melo
Clara recently started as a Group Leader at the Leibniz Institute for Ageing – Fritz Lipmann Institute in Jena, Germany. Her research focuses on the biochemical crosstalk of ageing cells. Clara has a background in Human Pathologic Anatomy, followed by a PhD in Molecular Biology of Ageing at the University of Newcastle (UK), whilst holding a GABBA Fellowship. She then carried out her postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge & the Francis Crick Institute (UK) and the Charité Medical University Berlin (Germany), exploring the metabolic interactions of microbial communities.
Keywords: Biochemical crosstalk, metabolomics, host-microbiome, ageing, health & disease

Dr Alan Goddard
Dr Alan Goddard
Alan’s research focuses on the role of cell membranes and their components in biotechnological processes. Much of his work is conducted in collaboration with industry. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc in Biological Sciences and a PhD in microbial cellular communication. He then undertook two postdoctoral roles at Oxford University and then a Lectureship at the University of Lincoln. In 2016 he moved to Aston University. Alan’s involvement in both research and teaching drives his passion for training the next generation of scientists. He is a member of the Training Theme Panel and of the Editorial Board of The Biochemist.

Dr Liz Jenkinson
Dr Liz Jenkinson
Liz has a BSc in Molecular Genetics (Sussex) and a PhD in Biology (York). She joined Green Biologics (an industrial biotech company) in 2007 as a senior research scientist, becoming group leader in 2014, and then CTO in 2017. She was responsible for developing the clostridial genome editing technology, CLEAVE™, which enabled the use of clostridia as chassis strains for the production of alternative chemicals through fermentation of renewable and sustainable feedstocks.
Since 2020 Liz has been CEO of Biocleave which has further established clostridia as a platform host for high value biomolecules, including proteins and peptides. Liz is on the Training Theme Panel and Industry Advisory Panel. Alongside her colleague Mandy, she is co-developing a training workshop focussing on providing students with the transferrable skills needed to succeed in industry-based roles.

Dr Emma Rand
Dr Emma Rand
Emma teaches data analysis and reproducibility in analytic pipelines predominantly to those who do not see themselves as programmers. Teaching students at all levels as well as research professionals, Emma is passionate about developing the bioscience community’s capacity in sustainable software to enable world-class research. Emma runs Cloud-SPAN, a collaboration between the University of York and the Software Sustainability Institute which aims to upskill bioscience researchers in the specialised analyses on Cloud-based High Performance Computing. Emma delivers courses for the Biochemical Society and the international useR and RStudio (Posit) conferences and is a member of R Forwards, the R foundation’s taskforce on women and underrepresented groups.
Keywords: Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Data Science, Reproducibility, Data Analytics, Genomics, RStats

Dr Elliott Stollar
Dr Elliott Stollar

Elliott is a T&S Academic in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool. Elliott joined from an Associate Professor position at Eastern New Mexico University in 2018 to become Director of Studies for Biochemistry at Liverpool.
Since joining the Training Theme Panel, Elliott has led the development and implementation of the 2-day national lab training course called 'Engineering recombinant proteins for structural and functional studies' (Liverpool, November 2022.) Elliott has enabled Biochemical Society membership for over 100 current Liverpool biochemistry undergraduates in partnership with the Biochemistry and Systems Biology research department, which is the largest cohort of Student members from one single university, providing tremendous benefits to students and the university.

Dr Anja Winter
Dr Anja Winter

Anja obtained her MSc in Biochemistry from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2004 and then went on to do a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. After a brief stay in Brisbane, Australia, Anja took up a postdoctoral position with Prof. Sir Tom Blundell at the University of Cambridge in 2008. During this post, Anja became interested in fragment-based drug discovery, which is still an emerging field when targeting protein-protein interactions. In 2012 Anja joined Prof. Richard Bayliss’ lab at the University of Leicester where she worked on separases. In September 2016 Anja was delighted to start a lectureship position at Keele University which was a 5-year joint appointment with ILL in Grenoble, France in the first instance. Anja currently has an active research group with PhD and Masters students, fosters collaborations around the world and teaches on several undergraduate courses at the School of Life Sciences at Keele University.
The Winter lab has a longstanding interest in conducting science in an area that is helpful to the community – drug research to prevent or cure diseases and investigating the interaction between the human host and viruses or parasites. The lab's research is focused on proteins, studying their molecular makeup, investigating how they interact with other proteins and how these interactions can be targeted through drug discovery.
Current projects include: Molecular interactions between pathogens and host receptors, Complex formation of prohibitins in the mitochondrial membrane, and Targeting visceral leishmaniasis.

Dr Lorna Lancaster
Dr Lorna Lancaster
Lorna’s research focusses on the discovery and application of bacteriocins and bacteriophage in the prevention and treatment of infections. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BSc Biochemistry and Immunology followed by a PhD from the University of York in microbial Biochemistry where she discovered her passion for bacteriocins. She continued research at the Universitaet Witten/Herdecke in Germany, followed by a post-doctoral position at the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control.
She began teaching at the University of Lincoln in 2012, firstly in the School of Life Sciences and then moved to the School of Pharmacy. Within her current role, Lorna works with several industry partners to deliver an applied programme for the students.

Dr Kakoli Bose
Dr Kakoli Bose
As a Principal Investigator/Professor at one of the largest cancer research institutes and hospitals in South-East Asia (ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre), Dr Bose delves into the complexity of the macromolecules involved in apoptotic pathways and explores innovative ways to devise strategies for therapeutic intervention of associated diseases. She manifests her leadership and managerial skills by overseeing the day-to-day activity of the institutional biophysics facility in the capacity of faculty-in-charge as well as many other internal and external governing bodies.
Kakoli graduated from Calcutta University, India with an MSc in Physical Chemistry followed by a PhD in Biochemistry from North Carolina State University, USA where her research focused on the structure-function correlation of enzymes in the programmed cell death pathway. She received her post-doctoral training at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA where she worked on the structural characterisation of regulatory proteins of human papillomavirus that is associated with cervical cancer. Apart from being a dedicated researcher, Kakoli teaches doctoral courses at her institute and has delivered seminars across the globe in several universities, colleges and schools to popularise science. She has also organised many conferences, including an international INDO-US symposium on Enzymes at her institute. Dr Bose also holds posts on two of the Society's journals, including Editorial Board Member for the Biochemical Journal and Associate Editor for Bioscience Reports. She has received several accolades for her work, such as the National Women Bioscientist Award from Govt. of India in 2015.