People

We enjoy working together to tackle big questions in the field of eczema genetics

Prof. Sara Bown

Prof Sara Brown

Sara is a clinical academic dermatologist; she also loves baking cakes, gardening, or walking with a crazy Gordon setter

Dr Martina Elias

Dr Martina Elias

Martina is a postdoctoral research fellow and whiz in the lab; she is also a wild water swimmer and mum to the fun-filled Luca and Felix

Luke Johnston

Dr Luke Johnston

Luke is a postdoctoral research fellow with expertise in organoid models; outside work he enjoys the mountain bike trails around Scotland with his latest full suspension MTB

Eleanor Earp

Dr Eleanor Earp

Ellie is a PhD student on the prestigious ECAT scheme, hosted jointly in the Brown and Lowell labs; she's working with stem cells to learn about 'community effects' in skin

Emily Mortimer

Emily Mortimer

Emily joined our lab as a paid intern, to gain new skills researching gene-environment interactions in skin. From September 2024 Emily has been working on her PhD joint-funded by Medical Research Scotland and Unilever

Silvia Shen

Silvia Shen

Silvia is a statistical genetics PhD student focusing on post-GWAS analysis of eczema. Apart from maths, she likes to travel and visit her family in China and Austria

Nicola Lyttle

Nicola Lyttle

Nicola is a senior research technician with a wealth of experience in clinical trials as well as lab work - she supports all of our research activities. Outside the lab Nicola 'relaxes' with ultra-marathons.

Lauren

Dr Lauren Kelly

Lauren is the Brown Lab Dermatology Research Coordinator, supporting skin research within the Brown Lab and NHS Lothian. Outside of work, Lauren enjoys reading, Pilates & cat cuddles!

Eleanor Earp

Dr Andrii Iakovliev

Andrii is a Cross-Disciplinary Postdoctoral Research Fellow (XDF) with expertise in computer science, statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology. Outside of work, Andrii enjoys reading and hiking.

Mash Bandouil

Mash Bandouil

Mash is a PhD student in the EastBio program hosted jointly by the Malaguti and Brown labs. They will be using synthetic biology tools to characterize cell-cell communication in skin organoids. Outside of lab, Mash is a professional dancer and novice aerialist.

Alice Burleigh

Dr Alice Burleigh

Alice is a postdoctoral research fellow with an interest in topical steroid withdrawal (TSW). Outside of work, she loves running marathons, playing tag rugby, and crocheting.

Alumni

Ms Kim Morrison

Dr William Nicholson

William was a bioinformatician in the Brown Lab (2018-2020) contributing to a long-running analysis of deep sequencing data to make sense of the repetitive genes controlling epidermal differentiation

Ms Kim Morrison

Kim Morrison

Kim obtained her Masters in the Brown Lab (2018-2020), working on the eczema candidate gene LRRC32 aka GARP

 

Sheila Wright

Sheila Wright

Sheila was our lab technician and queen of the organoid skin model (2014-2020). Best wishes in your retirement Sheila - we miss you!

Ms Nina Dawe

Nina Dawe

Nina was our lab technician from August to December 2020; sadly the commute to Edinburgh was going to be just too far, so Nina now has a job as a school laboratory technican

Michael Song

Michael Song

Michael is a medical student at the University of Edinburgh and possible future dermatologist! He joined our lab in 2022-23 for a research project as part of his BMedSci in Health Sciences and we are proud to say he finished the year with a first

Mona Etorban

Mona Etorban

Mona was our research technician in the Brown Lab 2021-2024; she moved on to a position in industry and we wish you all the best Mona

Mona Etorban

Dr Carla Roca Bayerri

Carla was a postdoc in the Brown Lab 2021-2024; she moved to work in an NHS laboratory and we wish you all the best Carla

Mona Etorban

Dr Hong Kiat Ng

HK was a bioinformatician and visiting researcher from the NTU LKC School of Medicine, Singapore, in Edinburgh for part of 2024. HK has now returned to NTU where he is a Research Fellow and we have continued our collaborative work on skin genetics