Meet the Team

Julia Y. Rho

Group Leader

Education

PhD in Chemistry

University of Warwick, 2019

Advisor: Sébastien Perrier

MChem (inc. BSc) in Chemistry

University of Warwick, 2015

Advisor: Prof. Sébastien Perrier, Tutor: Prof. Giovanni Costantini

Click here for more infomation about Julia 🙂

Hannah Howie

PhD Student

Hannah is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at UCL. Her research focuses on the assembly and disassembly of polymeric nanoparticles, with the long-term goal of advancing their use in gene delivery applications.

In the summer of 2023, Hannah completed an internship under Dr. J. L. Kiappes, where she explored spatial visualization skills in organic chemistry and investigated effective ways to teach challenging concepts such as stereochemistry to first-year undergraduate students. The following summer, she was selected to participate in GSK’s 19th Residential Training Experience at their Stevenage site, gaining hands-on experience in a process chemistry laboratory. Hannah’s earlier research includes her undergraduate dissertation on the use of β-cyclodextrin nanoparticles in the treatment of Niemann–Pick C disease, and her Master’s project in the Rho Group, where she investigated polymer-plasmid nanoparticles for enhanced gene delivery.

Beyond the lab, Hannah serves as Events Manager for the Chemical and Physical Society at UCL, where she helps organise academic and social events for the department. In her free time, she enjoys playing the violin and spending time with her family.

Yaqi Yang

PhD Student

Yaqi earned her Master of Science degree in Food Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2025. During her undergraduate studies, she developed edible antibacterial films, a type of biomaterial, focusing on their fabrication, mechanical properties, and antimicrobial performance. As a graduate student, she gained extensive experience in molecular biology, investigating the interactions between probiotics and human noroviruses.

Currently, Yaqi is a PhD student in Chemistry at UCL, working in Dr. Rho’s group on the development of dynamic stealth polymers. Her research explores innovative polymer systems designed for adaptive and responsive biomedical applications.

Outside the lab, Yaqi enjoys watching films and swimming.

Justine Sansom

LiDo student

Justine is a BBSRC LIDo PhD student completing a rotation in the Rho Research Group, with Dr Sabrina Simoncelli as secondary supervisor. Her project involves engineering T-cell surfaces with synthetic polymers to test how these coatings affect the organisation and function of immune receptors.

She graduated from the University of Warwick in 2025 with a BSc in Biochemistry. For her final-year project in the Pankratov Lab, she investigated how the glial‑neuronal signalling network contributes to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration by combining electrophysiological recordings of long‑term potentiation in wild‑type and dnSNARE mice with a systematic review. In Summer 2025, in the Pappu Lab at Washington University in St Louis, she engineered large DNA constructs for transcription, designed modular RNA‑recognition‑motif proteins and developed fluorescence assays that dissect how phase separation of the ALS‑linked protein TDP‑43 is regulated. In Summer 2024, in the Stone Lab at the University of Oxford, she explored BMP control of lymphatic-valve development using multiplex immunofluorescence, RNA-FISH, confocal microscopy, iDISCO tissue clearing, and light-sheet imaging. During university, in the Bowman Lab at Warwick Medical School, she established an in vitro ubiquitin-ligase assay for UBR7 and combined wet‑lab biochemistry with sequence analysis, AlphaFold predictions, and PyMOL visualisation to map conserved residues and suggest drug‑binding modes.

Outside the lab, Justine is a piano teacher, a musician (piano, viola, bassoon, saxophone), a keen runner, rock climber, and plays lacrosse and netball; she also enjoys cooking and reading.

Jerry Xu

Masters student

Jerry is currently a fourth year MSci Chemistry student at UCL. In the summer of 2024, he completed an internship at a biotechnology startup in London, investigating the chemical mechanisms underpinning bacterial remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil. He is focused on organic synthetic chemistry and particularly drawn to polymer nanoparticle materials. His third-year literature review project focused on light-activated polymerisation-induced self-assembly, building on various reversible-deactivation radical polymerisation methods.

This summer he worked in the Rho group as a summer intern, exploring the use of polymers to assist in drug delivery. For his Master’s research project jointly supervised by Dr Booth, he is currently developing DNA-conjugated polymeric nanoparticles.

Outside of the lab, Jerry loves playing badminton, piano, and cooking.

Salama Abdullahi

Masters student

Salama is an MSci Chemistry student at UCL. In her second-year summer she undertook a summer placement in the chemistry department of UCL on nanowire formation in organic semi-conductor polymers. She was tasked with working with different solvent/ antisolvent combinations to see what would induce nanowire formation in organic semiconductor polymers and presented her findings.

Her third-year literature review was based on self-assembly of cyclic peptides and their use in targeted drug delivery for cancer. Salama has also completed an internship in the pharmacy department at UCL in the summer of 2025 in the development of multifunctional nanocarriers for targeted neuroprotective drug delivery in neurodegenerative diseases. Her master’s project in the Rho research group, under the joint supervision of Dr Simoncelli, is based on developing synthetic polymers on the surface of cells for enhanced immune function.

Outside of the lab, Salama enjoys hanging out with family and friends, reading and travelling.

Mudra Gol

Masters student

Mudra Gol is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Sciences at University College London (UCL). She completed her undergraduate studies at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India, earning a BSc in Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Zoology. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the one-pot green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and the study of their antimicrobial properties. She has also co-authored a review paper titled “Kocuria species: an emerging threat to nosocomial infections”, published in the Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology (JPAM), under the guidance of Dr. Suma Sarojini at CHRIST University.

For her Master’s dissertation, Mudra is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Julia Rho and Dr. Pratik Gurnani, focusing on the Synthesis of Dual-headed PEG lipid nanoparticles (PEG-LNPs) for mRNA delivery and the evaluation of their delivery efficiency. Beyond academics, she is a professionally trained Kathak dancer, plays basketball, and enjoys travelling and exploring new music.