Generations of Exceptional Scientists
Meet the lab
Dr Felix Chan - Group Leader
Joseph Hamshire - Visiting Researcher
Sergio Julius - Visiting Researcher
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)
PhD 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
Placement Students
2024-2025 Cohorts
Alumni
2023-2024 Cohorts
James Sunderland - now B.Sc Neuroscience final year student at Aston University
Eddie Hildebrand - now B.Sc Biology final year student at University of Bath
Jake Whitaker - now M.Biomed third year student at University of Bath
Anna Peat - now M.Biomed third year student at University of Bath
Sergio Julius
(he/him)
Email:
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.
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.
2025-2026 Cohorts
Joseph Hamshire
(he/him)
Email:
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!
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
Join Us!
We are always keen to hear from interested individuals to join us or to partner up for collaboration!