Dr Claire Higgins
Dr Higgins is a Reader in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative medicine, and Principal Investigator of the lab. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from Durham University, and stayed there to undertake a PhD in Skin Developmental Biology. In 2007 she moved to New York as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Dermatology at Columbia University. Here, with a Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award she remained as an Associate Research Scientist before moving back to the UK to establish her own research group in 2014. Now at Imperial, she runs a research group that focuses on skin and the hair follicle, wound repair and regeneration.
Dr Summik Limbu
Summik joined the Higgins lab as a PhD student in October 2017. She was funded by an iCASE from the EPSRC with HairClone and researched human dermal papilla cells and their role in follicular neogenesis. After obtaining her PhD in 2022, Summik remained in the lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher, researching wound closure of diabetic wounds. Before joining the lab, Summik worked as a Research Assistant at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Her initial project at the Sanger aimed to derive induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) from patients with genetic mutations in their DNA repair pathway to find mutational signatures associated with various diseases.
Dr Jack Hayes
Jack joined the Higgins lab as a PhD student in October 2020 and is also a member of Biotribology in mechanical engineering at Imperial College. Before joining the lab, Jack completed a Masters in civil engineering at the university of Liverpool, graduating with a first-class masters in 2020. Jack changed disciplines and his project focuses on the residuum socket interface, using experimental and numerical techniques, Jack hopes to reduce injury occurrence in lower limb amputees using a combined biological and engineering approach. Jack is currently a PDRA in the group funded by the British Skin Foundation.
Mr Jia Jun Lee
JJ joined the Higgins lab as a PhD student in October 2021. Before joining the lab, JJ graduated with a B.A. in Natural Sciences (Pharmacology) from the University of Cambridge, with first-class honours in 2020. After working for a year in industry with the Experimental Drug Development Centre (A*STAR, Singapore), JJ is now working on the mechanisms of re-epithelialisation and angiogenesis in acute and chronic wound models, in an effort to apply this knowledge to diabetic foot ulcers. JJ's PhD is funded by the National Science Scholarship from A*STAR (Singapore).
Mr Tomas Andriuskevicius
Tomas graduated from King’s College London in 2021, having completed an MSci degree in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence. He then pursued an MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, where he worked on the application of artificial neural networks in classifying serotonin data obtained through fast-scan cyclic voltammetry. Alongside his studies, he also gained 3 years of industry experience as a software engineer. In October 2022, Tomas joined the Higgins and Hashemi labs to pursue a PhD project that involves examining the relationship between monoamine levels in skin or hair cells and those in the central nervous system with the aim of promoting mental health. The project is being funded by an iCASE award from the EPSRC, with the support of Proctor & Gamble.
Ms Anna Rhodes
Anna joined the Higgins Lab as a PhD student in October 2022. She first worked in the lab as a third-year Molecular Bioengineering student where she investigated the influences of germ layer identity on fibroblast reprogramming to iPSC using molecular techniques. Anna then completed her MEng thesis in the Oliva Lab where she developed ex vivo models of healthy and fibrotic skin by exploring how scaffolds with diverse rheological properties regulate fibroblast gene expression. For this work, she was awarded the Stephen Richardson Prize and graduated with first class honours overall. In her PhD, Anna is working in the field of regenerative medicine; she will pursue interdisciplinary solutions to control histamine and serotonin release in the hair follicle. Anna’s PhD project is funded by the BBSRC as part of the BISCoP CTP in collaboration with Procter & Gamble.
Ms Joanna (Asia) Gosieniecka
Asia joined the Higgins lab as a PhD student in October 2024, after graduating with First Class Honours in MEng Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding the extended effects of stress on hair follicle regeneration through in silico and in vitro models. Asia gained bioengineering research experience during her final-year project on enzyme pathway optimization for D-lysergic acid synthesis at the National University of Singapore, where she completed a year abroad, and through an internship at the Polish Academy of Science, where she conducted high-throughput screening and cell culture studies for drug development. She was awarded the iCASE scholarship from EPSRC, with the support of Henkel.
Ms Ireen James
Ireen joined the Higgins lab as a PhD student in October 2024 where she is working on innovative solutions for tissue engineering. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Beijing University of Technology and completed her Master’s in Bioengineering at the University of Tokyo. Her master’s research focused on the development of a bone biomaterial through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing of human pluripotent stem cells, a project that highlighted her strong interest in regenerative medicine. At Imperial, Ireen’s current research in the Higgins lab focuses on improving the load-bearing capabilities of amputee stump skin through cellular reprogramming and peptide delivery. This work is aimed at enhancing the durability and comfort of prosthetic interfaces.
Ms Marily Chasioti
​Marily began her academic journey at the University of London, earning a BSc in Biomedicine in 2024. She then moved on to UCL to complete her MRes in Human Tissue Repair and Tissue Transplantation, graduating with Distinction in 2025. During her that time, she was nominated the award of research excellence for her project on the optimisation of lentiviral transduction of human airway stem cells for LAMA3 delivery, for which she earned a spot on the Dean’s List . Now she's diving into her PhD research on keloid scarring at the Higgins Lab, which she joined in September 2025.