Generations of Exceptional Scientists
Meet the lab
Dr Felix Chan - Group Leader
Joseph Hamshire - Visiting Researcher
Sergio Julius - Research Assistant
Muktar Johnson - PhD Student
Rhea Aujla - M.Pharm student
Sofia Williams - M.Pharm student
Daniel Lewis - PhD Student
Principal Investigator
Dr. Felix Chan
(he/him)
Email: f.chan@bham.ac.uk
Dr. Felix Chan was originally from Padang, Indonesia. He completed his undergraduate in medical sciences at Universitas Indonesia; before moving to the UK to pursue his M.Res in Neuroscience degree at Newcastle University. Felix fell in love with neuroscience so much that he decided to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at Newcastle University. His PhD thesis is on creating the first in vitro brain slice model of mitochondrial epilepsy and the importance of glutamine metabolism in this type of epilepsy.
Dr. Chan then moved to Brown University in the USA to undertake a postdoctoral training in cellular and molecular neuroscience. Here, Dr. Chan started his work on pediatric focal epilepsy and characterized the importance of lysine metabolism in various pediatric epilepsy like tuberous sclerosis complex. In September 2022, Dr. Chan moved back to the UK to Aston University to establish his independent research group continuing to work on metabolism in epilepsy. In November 2024, Dr. Chan and his group relocated to University of Birmingham; where he is currently based.
Dr. Chan and his research group has a wide range of interests in studying metabolism and mitochondrial biology.
Dr. Chan loves baking (ask him for his signature chocolate brownie) and also have unparalleled love for Taylor Swift musics.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Alumni
Dr. Parag Juvale (2023-2024)
Research Assistant
Alumni
Sebastian Osbourne (2025) - now Associate Lecturer at University of Lincoln
Sergio Julius
(he/him)
Email: s.julius@bham.ac.uk
Sergio Julius was born in Medan, Indonesia and studied high school in the capital city of Jakarta. In high school, he developed an interest in psychology and decided to study psychology at the University of Bath. He is particularly interested in the use of psychedelics in the field of mental health, and his undergraduate dissertation focuses on the perspectives of psychology students on the therapeutic use of psychedelics. He is also broadly interested in the biological underpinnings of psychology and behaviour. Currently, Sergio is a research assistant at the Chan Lab working on the PERSONA project.
Beyond his studies, Sergio is currently the Musical Director at Aquapella, Bath’s award-winning collegiate a cappella group. Being a part of Aquapella has allowed him to travel all around and outside the UK to perform, compete, and make friends with various other a cappella groups. His spare time is often spent composing and arranging music as well as improving his singing and beatboxing.
PhD Students
Co-supervised students
Alumni
Hanya Sandel (2023-2024) - now PhD student with Dr. Philip Kitchen at Aston University
Katy McGonigal (2023-2024) - now PhD student with Dr. Mandeep Marwah at Aston University
Daniel Lewis
(he/him)
Email: dxl379@student.bham.ac.uk
Co-supervised with Dr. Martin Higgs
Dan completed his BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University in 2021, where he discovered a passion for neuroscience. During lockdown, he worked part-time at the UK Biocentre COVID-19 qPCR testing lab in Milton Keynes, gaining hands-on lab experience.
He then moved to London in 2022 to complete an M.Res in Translational Neuroscience at UCL and joined an Alzheimer’s drug-discovery project, before spending another year at UCL as a research assistant in the Department of Targeted Intervention, studying metabolism in stem-cell-derived intrafusal muscle fibres.
In 2023, Dan joined the Higgs DNA Damage and Lysine Methylation Group to begin his PhD, part of a Great Ormond Street–affiliated programme in the Department of Cancer and Genomics at the University of Birmingham. Dan’s project uses patient-derived cells and iPSC-derived neurons to study DNA-damage-repair in SETD1A haploinsufficient cells and aims to better understand a newly identified neurodevelopmental disorder linked to schizophrenia. Dr. Chan is Dan’s secondary supervisor and has been invaluable in guiding the iPSC aspects of the project.
Outside the lab, Dan is quite sports obsessed — he loves playing and watching rugby, and in the summer you’ll usually find him following cricket or going for a run.
Muktar Johnson
(he/him)
Email: maj506@student.bham.ac.uk
Co-supervised with Dr. Richard Tuxworth and Dr. Daniel Fulton
Muktar Johnson is originally from Ireland where he completed his Bachelor's in Trinity College Dublin. His degree was focused on biological and biomedical science, but after gaining a profound interest in how neuronal activity can orchestrate behavioural responses, he decided to specialise his degree in Neuroscience.
In 2023, Muktar relocated to the UK, where he worked as a Research Technician, then later as a Research Associate in 2025 at the University of East Anglia. Here, he employed rodent models to evaluate the impact of nutrition on cognitive performance, further solidifying his desire to pursue an advanced research degree.
Muktar is now a PhD Student in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham. His project is focused on investigating chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity using Drosophila Melanogaster and brain slices cultures.
Outside research, Muktar enjoys playing MOBA video games, reading manga, and watching anime.
M.Pharm Students
2025-2026 Cohorts
Alumni
2024-2025 Cohorts
Muskan Paul - continuing in Pharmacy study at University of Birmingham
Abdul-Lateef Jimoh - continuing in Pharmacy study at University of Birmingham
Rhea Aujla
(she/her)
Email: rxa293@
student.bham.ac.uk
Rhea Aujla is a final year M.Pharm project student who is working on the ESPER proejct (Evaluating Sleep in People affected by Epilepsy Research). In her spare times, Rhea enjoy singing and is always looking to pick up new hobbies, at the moment this includes salsa and netball.
Sofia Williams
(she/her)
Email: sxw1084@
student.bham.ac.uk
Sofia Williams is a final year M.Pharm project student who is working on the ESPER project (Evaluating Sleep in People affected by Epilepsy Research). With future aspirations to work in academia, her areas of interest include sleep, neurodiversity and rare genetic neurodegenerative conditions. In her spare time, Sofia always has her next concert booked, is captain of a netball team and is constantly trying out new dinner recipes !
Placement Students
Alumni
2024-2025 Cohorts
Agathe de Oliveira - now continuing as medical student at University of Tours, France
Sergio Julius - now research assistant at the Chan Lab
2023-2024 Cohorts
James Sunderland - now B.Sc Neuroscience graduate
Eddie Hildebrand - now B.Sc Biology graduate
Jake Whitaker - now M.Biomed third year student at University of Bath
Anna Peat - now M.Biomed third year student at University of Bath
2025-2026 Cohorts
Joseph Hamshire
(he/him)
Email: j.hamshire@bham.ac.uk
Joseph Hamshire is a visiting researcher at the University of Birmingham, currently working on the use of cell models to study the molecular mechanisms underlying rare genetic epilepsies. He's recently completed the second year of his undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at the University of Bath and is currently undertaking a placement at the University of Birmingham. Joseph has found a passion for laboratory work during his coursework at the University of Bath, leading to his decision to pursue a placement position.
Born in London, raised in Nottingham, and studying in Bath, Joseph has yet to develop a particularly distinct accent. In his spare time he enjoys walking, judo, and tabletop games (one of these is more boring than the others). Ask Joseph about Indie tabletop games!
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Sebastian Osbourne - 2025
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Agathe de Oliveira - 2025
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Muskan Paul - 2025
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Abdul-Lateef Jimoh - 2025
Partners and Collaborators
Dr. Mandeep Marwah - expert in pharmaceutics and drug formulation
Dr. Georgie Agar - expert in sleep in rare genetic disease
Dr. Darcy Krueger - Director of the TSC Clinic
Dr. Helen Bateup - expert in TSC
Prof. Grainne Gorman - Director of Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research
Prof. Wyatt Yue - expert in structural biology and drug discovery in rare diseases
Dr. Chris Stewart - expert in microbiome profiling
Dr. Rhys Thomas - expert in rare forms of epilepsy
Prof. Mark Cunningham- expert in neurophysiology and epilepsy
Dr. Mustafa Sahin - Director of Translational Neuroscience Center
Dr. Stacey Bissell - expert in sleep and feeding behavior in TSC
Prof. Clare Anderson - expert in sleep and metabolism
Prof. Andrew Bagshaw - expert in sleep and neurodevelopment
Dr. Anirban Dutta - expert in neuro- and bio-engineering
Dr. Daniel Fulton - expert in glial biology and neurophysiology
Join Us!
We are always keen to hear from interested individuals to join us or to partner up for collaboration!