Selene joined STFC in 2005 and the CLF in 2008. Her research aims to combine many scientific tools to advance understanding within the area of cancer cell biology. In particular, she questions the structure-function relationship of proteins in their natural environment by developing cell and molecular biology methods, protein biochemistry, fluorescent labelling of ligands and nanobodies and super-resolution imaging. The projects she has worked on include the use of STORM, ONI nanoimagers and MINFLUX.
Selene’s research interests include using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques to observe the responses of the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) family of Receptors to stimuli. She’s primarily interested in applying FLImP and MINFLUX techniques, combined with molecular dynamic simulations, to obtain a picture of the entire membrane-embedded EGF receptor. She’s interested in studying alternative receptor-receptor interactions that occur during aberrant signalling in cancerous cells and in cells expressing mutated receptors (naturally occurring and purposefully designed mutations). She’s also interested in perturbing cellular systems to identify the effects of therapeutically-relevant small molecule inhibitors and peptides on proliferation and survival signalling mechanisms.