Aleksandra Boikova

I have joined the Monaco Group in April 2024 as a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellow, investigating strategies to therapeutically target lipid-associated macrophage transition to a pro-inflammatory state in atherosclerosis. The presence of this macrophage population closely links carotid artery stenosis to adverse cerebrovascular events. Working under supervision of Prof. Monaco, Dr Lea Dib, Dr Luke Payne (NNRCO), Dr Alexey Epanchintsev (NNRCO), I will be validating the molecular mechanism underpinning the phenotypic switch through transcriptomic characterisation of pathways associated with the transition in scRNAseq datasets of human atherosclerotic arteries, CRISPR screening of druggable targets in iPSC-derived macrophage model and functional studies in murine conditional knockout models. 

I have completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge with a research focus on the evaluation of Myc-driven cardiomyocyte cell cycle re-entry as a therapeutic strategy for cardiac regeneration. I have characterised the Myc transcriptional programme in cardiomyocytes by generating snRNAseq atlas of the genetic mouse model and complemented it with cardiac function characterisation of the Myc activity after acute MI. In collaboration with AstraZeneca, we developed a novel mRNA modality for cardiac repair after myocardial infarction, efficacious in both acute and established pathological states.

My research interests lie at the intersection of cell fate transcriptional regulation, cardiovascular disease and translational therapeutics, leveraging a combination of bioinformatic approaches, stem cell models and functional rodent studies to identify novel treatment modalities.