Biography
I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Section of Virology at Imperial College London, where I have been working since September 2003, first as a postdoc in Professor Martin Allday's group investigating the roles of the Epstein-Barr virus EBNA3 proteins in the transformation of B-cells and oncogenesis, and then leading a research group since 2012. My research programme takes a genetic approach to explore the mechanisms used by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) to establish latency, which has ledt me to study the sensing and suppression of DNA viruses by cells, and investigate the intersection between EBV diversity, mutation and pathogenesis. I previously graduated from Oxford University (MBiochem, DPhil) and studied Herpesvirus Saimiri under Prof. Adrian Whitehouse at the University of Leeds.

Regulation of the host cell transcriptome by EBV.
We (and others) have previously generated genetic mutants of the EBV nuclear antigens (EBNAs) 3A, 3B, 3C, 2 and -LP. Our transcriptomic analyses of cell lines carrying these genetic variants and early B cell infection data are available at www.ebv.org.uk. These data are a searchable by gene name, with the intention of allowing other researchers to explore our data, to identify EBV gene products that may influence phenomena they observe. Future data sets will be added as they are published or deemed non-confidential.

This resource is intended to be open to the research community, and anyone wishing to have their data added should contact me, and I will endeavour to do add it, subject to the limitations of my programming skills.

Teaching
I am a co-director of the long-running MSc in the Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of Viruses, as well as a module lead (Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution) and academic tutor for the course. I also teach about oncogenic and persistent viruses on several other courses across Imperial College, and previously co-developed and taught the year 2 Immunology course in the BSc in Medical Biosciences (BMB).

Job/Studentship Vacancies
My lab does not currently have any funded vacancies. However, any individuals interested in joining my lab should contact me as far in advance as possible in case there is an opportunity to include you in a funding application.

Enquiries are welcome from second year Undergraduates who wish to undertake a summer studentship in my lab. Please contact me by Christmas (or shortly thereafter) as it is now a requirement for students to have funding (from internal UROP bursaries or external granting bodies) to support such a placement.

Enquiries from prospective PhD students with independent funding (or with the potential to obtain such funding) are welcomed at any time. Funded PhD opportunities are mainly available through schemes operated at a college-wide level. This includes the MRC Doctoral Training Programme (operated centrally by Imperial College Faculty of Medicine), the BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme, and the College-funded President's PhD studentships. Clinical students interested in undertaking a PhD should consider the clinical schemes centred around the Wellcome Trust 4i programme within the Faculty of Medicine. Any directly funded opportunities will be advertised through find-a-Phd.com. 

Note that the BBSRC and MRC schemes (as for all UKRI studentships) now offer up to 30% of awards to international students, with the rest going to students with UK citizenship, settled status, or (some) Irish nationals. The President scholarships in the Faculty of Medicine are currently funded only for those eligible for Home fees (and are exceptionally competitive). Other studentships available for international students to come specifically to Imperial are described here. PhD schemes typically take applications annually around November-January to begin in the following September/October.

Team:
Dr Wiyada Wongwiwat
Miss Alexandra Popper