Fernanda is an immunologist in Dr Yin Wu’s group, studying γδ T cells in cancer. Having built her career in the wet lab, she is now moving into computational biology while keeping γδ T cells at the centre of her research. She uses spatial and single-cell transcriptomics to understand where these cells are found within tumours and how they interact with their surroundings.

This move builds on a Data Analytics programme at the London School of Economics, which she completed with distinction in 2024. Before this, she spent three years as a Senior Scientist at Achilles Therapeutics. There she led a programme working with tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes to expand neoantigen-specific T cells for cell therapy.

From 2012 to 2020 she was a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Adrian Hayday’s lab at King’s College London and the Francis Crick Institute. Her work on Vδ1 γδ T cells in breast tissue showed their role in tumour immunosurveillance and their association with better outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer.

Her interest in tumour immunology goes back to her PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she studied the physiological role of the multidrug resistance protein MDR1 in the immune system.