The Team
People
A diverse, interdisciplinary group of scientists and technicians united by a shared commitment to understanding liver disease.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Elena Palma
Principal Investigator and Lecturer (Adj/Hon)
Mitochondrial Medicine · ALD · Liver Cancer · Translational Research
Ele leads the Palma Lab at the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies, King's College London. With nearly 15 years of experience in hepatology research, her work focuses on developing novel multi-pronged treatments for alcohol-related liver disease and liver cancers. The lab uses translational experimental models to dissect fibrosis, inflammation, hepatotoxicity, liver regeneration, and mitochondrial dysfunction, bridging basic science and preclinical drug discovery. She holds a PhD in Cellular Biology and a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Padova, Italy.
Lab Members
Dr. Meliz Sahuri-Arisoylu
Research Fellow
Mitochondrial Dynamics · ALD · MetALD
Meliz joined the Palma Lab in 2024 as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant. She holds an MSc and PhD from Imperial College London and brings experience from both academia and industry. Her current work investigates changes in mitochondrial dynamics and function in Alcohol-Related Liver Disease (ALD) and Metabolic Dysfunction and Alcohol-Related Steatotic Liver Disease (MetALD), with a particular focus on megamitochondria and their role in disease diagnosis and treatment.
Una Rastovic
PhD Student
Mitochondrial Morphology · ALD · Liver Fibrosis
Una joined the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies as a Research Assistant in 2020 and started her PhD in the Palma Lab in 2023. She completed her BSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Zagreb and her MSc in Cancer Immunology and Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham. Her PhD investigates changes in mitochondrial morphology and function in ALD and liver fibrosis, with the aim of targeting mitochondria as a therapeutic strategy. She is a recipient of the Research Society on Alcohol Doctoral Students Small Grant.
Moyosoreoluwa Feyide
PhD Student
CCA · Tumour Models · Drug Testing
Moyo joined the Palma Lab in 2022 for his MRes research project focused on liver cancer precision cut tumour slice models and returned in 2023 to start his PhD. His research has focused on advancing and characterising human cholangiocarcinoma organotypic models for drug testing and the study of mitochondrial dynamics in CCA.
Anna Schulz
MRes Student
CCA · Tumour Models · Drug Testing
Anna is a Biomedical & Molecular Sciences Research MRes student working on the project 'Decoding the Cholangiocarcinoma Tumour Microenvironment to develop novel therapies. As part of her dissertation project she was awarded the 'Matt Wilson Scholarship'.
Sara Russo
Visiting PhD Student
SLD · Mitochondria
Sara is a visiting PhD student from the group of Prof Geltrude Mingrone, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS.
Alumni
Sergio Francesco Bozzano
Research Assistant · 2024–2026
Currently working at Imperial College London.
PapersBhavanaa Arunakumar
MSc Student · 2023–2024
Currently MRC iCASE a PhD at University of Leicester
PapersThesis: "Enhancing the success rate of human Precision Cut Liver Slice (PCLS) cultures to advance patient derived models of Alcohol-related liver disease and explore megamitochondria formation"
Thesis: "Novel therapeutic strategies for primary and secondary liver cancers."
Thesis: "Personalised human immunocompetent ex vivo models for primary and secondary liver cancer."