We are delighted to congratulate Armin Lak and Samira Lakhal-Littleton, who have been awarded the title of Professor by the University of Oxford. Well done to DPAG’s two new Professors!
Armin Lak has been awarded the title of Professor of Neuroscience.
Armin Lak completed his PhD in neuroscience at Cambridge University with Wolfram Schultz, investigating the roles of midbrain dopamine neurons in economic decision making. As a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, he worked with Matteo Carandini, Kenneth Harris and Adam Kepecs at UCL (London) and CSHL (NY). Armin’s research combines neuronal circuit tools with novel behavioural and computational methods that he developed to investigate the roles that frontal cortex and dopamine neurons play in perceptual and economic decisions.
The research being undertaken in Armin’s group has been supported by a Henry Wellcome fellowship, ERC starting and ERC consolidator grants
Read about the research being done in the Lak Group here
Samira Lakhal-Littleton has been awarded the title Professor of Iron Physiology.
Samira completed a DPhil in Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford in 2007, then joined the laboratory of Sir Prof Peter Ratcliffe as a postdoctoral researcher. There, she investigated the interplay between Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIFs) and iron homeostasis. Her research findings defined the molecular mechanisms underlying this interplay.
In 2013, Samira secured a BHF Intermediate Research Fellowship and became an independent principal investigator. During her BHF fellowship, Samira discovered that many cell types use ferroportin and hepcidin to finetune intracellular iron levels, thus revealing the crosstalk between the cellular and systemic axes of iron regulation. A Senior Research Fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MRC) has enabled Samira and her team to build on her earlier discoveries.
Find out more about the work of the Lakhal-Littleton Group here
Head of Department Professor David Paterson comments, ‘I would like to give my warmest congratulations to both Armin and Samira who have achieved full professorship in the distinctions exercise. This is a tremendous achievement, especially for tutorial fellows who have extensive duties beyond research’.