Current projects

Machine learning approaches to biosynthetic pathway optimisation - Liam Hallett - supervisors: Geoff Baldwin, Patrik Jones, Stephen Muggleton

Design and engineering of biosensing by blood cells - Annalise Zouein- supervisors: Tom Ellis, Francesca Ceroni

Engineering systems with emergent patterns in synthetic biofilms - Martina Oliver Huidobro - supervisors: Mark Isalan, Robert Endres

Engineering synthetic microbial consortia for next-generation biotechnology - Eliza Atkinson - supervisors: Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Guy-Bart Stan

Developing a framework for population-level cellular modelling employing agent-scale - William Beardall - supervisors: Guy-Bart Stan, Tom Ellis

Rational design of DNA Nanostructures for disease diagnostics and prognostics - Francesca Smith - supervisors: Molly Stevens, Tom Ouldridge, Chris Barnes

Synbio production of monoterpenes through computationally-guided enzyme engineering - Joshua Whitehead - supervisors: Nigel Scrutton, Sam Hay, Paul Freemont

Synthetic metabolic exchange for enhanced sustainability of agriculture - Elisabeth Bavorova - supervisors: Patrik Jones, Tolga Bozkurt

Designing next-generation therapeutics for atopic eczema by controlling skin microbiome - Jamie Lee - supervisors: Reiko Tanaka, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro

Using cell free systems and machine learning to prototype engineered protein designs - Matas Deveikis - supervisors: Paul Freemont, Geoff Baldwin

Engineering industrially relevant traits in the farmed insect Hermetia illucens  - James Fawcett - supervisors: Nikolai Windbichler, Giorgio Gilestro

A modular protein engineering toolkit - Daniella Pretorius - supervisors: James Murray, James MacDonald

Engineering novel bacterial therapies for targeting microbes associated with chemotherapy response and toxicity - Kimberley Owen - supervisors: Chris Barnes, James Kinross

Alkaloids synthesis via enzymatic cascades - Daniel Garrido - supervisors: Helen Hailes, John Ward

Engineering an HIV Synthetic Biology Sensor (HIVSynse) - Megha Gill - supervisors: Michael Thomas, Stefanie Frank

Genome scrambling and biosensor technologies for production of high value chemicals in synthetic yeast (Chem@Sc2.0) - Eloise O'Connor- supervisors: Jason Micklefield, Patrick Cai

Establishing a synthetic biology toolbox for biosensor development in important probiotic host organisms - Kushaal Desai- supervisors: Geoff Baldwin, Karen Polizzi

Engineering biological complexity in yeast: synthetic pattern formation and emergence - Oliver Hernández - supervisors: Naomi Nakayama, Tom Ellis

icRNA: in vivo circular RNAs for efficient expression and control of genes and polyproteins  - Lisa Doetsch - supervisors: Guy-Bart Stan, Tom Ouldridge, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro

Microfluidic platforms for the engineering of continuously-operating, synthetic nucleic acid-based systems - Kate Collins - supervisors: Tom Ouldridge, Claire Stanley, Guy-Bart Stan

Engineering synthetic C1 utilisation in non-conventional organisms for sustainable bioproduction - William Newell - supervisors: Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Patrik Jones

Tumour-Targeted Delivery of Synthetic DNA Payloads By Engineered Bacteria - Alison Heggie- supervisors: Tom Ellis, Teresa Thurston, Ramesh Wigneshweraraj

Design considerations for improved pDNA and therapeutics production - Tom Copeman - supervisors: Francesca Ceroni, Tom Ellis

Optimised construct design for in vitro and in vivo therapeutic production - Jacopo Gabrielli - supervisors: Francesca Ceroni, Cleo Kontoravdi

Programming synthetic cells as new therapeutic vectors - Lucy Chen - Supervisors: Yuval Elani, Francesca Ceroni

Application of Process Raman Spectroscopy for bioprocessing using gene edited production hosts and cell-free systems - Pedro Lovatt Garcia - Supervisors: Paul Freemont, Geoff Baldwin, Sergei Kazarian

Engineering plant organelles for food ingredient production - Alexia Groff - supervisors: Peter Nixon, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro

Optogenetics for integrated, continuous processes for large-scale chemicals manufacture: Next generation manufacturing through synthetic biology - Cathal O'Reilly - supervisors: Nigel Scrutton, Sam Hay, Eriko Takano

Engineered genetic bioaugmentation vectors and pathways for bioremediation - Alejandro Marquiegui - supervisors: Neil Dixon, Michael Brockhurst

Engineering a shape-changing light-actuated living tissue - Mallica Pandya - supervisors: Guillaume Charras, Chris Barnes

Stochasticity-resilient control of microbial communities in bioprocessing - Sophie Zhu- supervisors: Duygu Dikicioglu, Gary Lye

Combining in vitro peptide display and in vivo directed evolution to search for entirely de novo folds of DNA-binding domains - Amir Guppy - Supervisors: Mark Isalan, Geoff Baldwin

Developing a CRISPR toolbox for efficient gene editing in crops - Clodagh Towns - Supervisors: Karen Polizzi, Jose Jimenez, Cleo Kontoravdi

Application of synthetic gene circuits to novel NK cell immunotherapy - Robin Blackwell - Supervisors: Hugh Brady, Geoff Baldwin

A Molecular Device for Tuneable Evolution - Daniel Boros - Supervisors: Jose Jimenez, Guy-Bart Stan

Engineering synthetic disease resistance genes to tackle plant pathogens - Freddie King - Supervisors: Tolga Bozkurt, Nikolai Windbichler

Engineered enzymes, metabolic pathways and bioproduction systems for high-value chemicals manufacturing - Anthony Barlow - Supervisors: Patrik Jones, Geoff Baldwin

Engineered phage for expanded host range and increased payload capacity - Li Cheng - Supervisors: Joanne Santini, Saul Purton

Computational biofilms: analogue spatial computing with bacterial colonies - Kathleen Zhang - Supervisors: Chris Barnes, Karen Polizzi, Alexey Zaikin

Modular assembly of synthetic microbial communities - Casey Chen - Supervisors: Alex Fedorec, Chris Barnes

Engineering bacterial traps to understand and inspire next-generation antibiotics - Vincent Fideli - Supervisors: Bart Hoogenboom, Guillaume Charras

Artificial intelligence driven platform to aid experimental design of optimised plasmid DNA for in vivo expression of biologics - Josh Mayne - Supervisors: Stephen Goldrick, Francesca Ceroni

Application of novel Raman spectroscopy device and advanced data analytics to optimise viral vector production and design - Olaide Ibiyemi - Supervisors : Stephen Goldrick, Stefanie Frank

Developing a pipeline for rapid optimisation of transcriptional expression regulation - Matt Jago - Supervisors : Mato Lagator, Neil Dixon, Michael Brockhurst

Engineering of human artificial chromosomes to decipher the mechanisms of chromosome instability-driven prostate cancer progression - Smruti Biswal - Supervisors : Patrick Cai, Robert Bristow

Biodesign and engineering of functionalized spider silk variants - Faisal Giwa - Supervisors : Rainer Breitling, Eriko Takano

Employing AI-guided approaches to discover and engineer plant disease resistance proteins - Cristina Vuolo - Supervisors: Tolga Bozkurt, Nikolai Windbichler

Towards full sequence design of functional chromosomes by AI - Timon Schneider - Supervisors: Tom Ellis, Guy-Bart Stan, Alexey Zaikin

Accelerating organism engineering through the application of AI - Alfred Brown - Supervisors: Geoff Baldwin, Patrik Jones, Stephen Muggleton

Development of high-value chemicals bioproduction integrating metabolic engineering, Design of Experiments and entrepreneurship - Céline Caraffa - Supervisors: Patrik Jones, Geoff Baldwin

Engineering a motile Biohybrid microrobot - Josh Christopher - Supervisors: Yuval Elani, Francesca Ceroni, Karen Polizzi

Effects of the spatial distribution of resources on the performance of genetic circuits - Rebecca Boccola - Supervisors: Jose Jimenez, Rubén Pérez-Carrasco

Understanding regulation of biosynthetic gene clusters to facilitate production of secondary metabolites - Jeremy Chua- Supervisors: Mato Lagator, Sam Hay, Eriko Takano, Rainer Breitling

Implementing a Design-Build-Test-Learn pipeline for the discovery of a silyl hydrolase - Chris Carr - Supervisors: Lu Shin Wong, Samuel de Visser, Sam Hay

Antibiotic discovery using a DBTL plug-and-play robotics pipeline - Jonathan Foldi - Supervisors: Eriko Takano, Rainer Breitling, Nigel Scrutton

Engineering microbial cell factories for production of improved anti-infectives - Matthew Crossley - Supervisors: Jason Micklefield, Yi Jin

A Universal and Controllable Interface between Synthetic Cells and Living Cells - Chelsea Dack - Supervisors: Michael Booth, Stefan Howorka

Discovery of new microbial consortia for the degradation and biovalourisation of Polypropelene - Isobel Barber - Supervisors: Jack Jeffries, Helen Hailes