Team Members

Luke Johnston

Luke graduated with a BSc (Hons) Microbiology from Glasgow Caledonian University before completing his collaborative MSc Industrial Biotechnology at leading universities across Scotland, which was awarded by the University of Strathclyde. His MSc student placement was at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies,  where he worked on an innovative pilot project to implement single-use, fully continuous technologies in biologic drug production. Luke began his PhD with the Burgess Group in collaboration with FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies and IBioIC in January 2021, where he is working on the application of real-time mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to optimise CHO cell fermentations.

Luke has a keen interest in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, particularly upstream processing. He is eager to enhance the production of valuable recombinant proteins through increased understanding of host cell line biology, which can facilitate informed and rational choices in the design and execution of bioprocesses.

Ricardo Valencia Albornoz

Ricardo did his undergraduate in Environmental Engineering at the UTFSM in Valparaíso, Chile. He is currently a doctoral student in IQB3, under the supervision of Karl Burgess and Diego Oyarzún, working in the coupling between metabolomics and machine learning for optimization of bacterial strains. His PhD is funded via a Darwin Trust scholarship. My hobbies are listening to music and singing in the choir, and also playing racket sports (tennis, padel, table tennis) and chess.

Georgina Barrett

I graduated from the University of Liverpool with an honours degree in Biological and Medical science and then moved to the University of Glasgow for my MSc. During my MSc my project focused on lipid changes between staphylococcus aureus planktonic cells and biofilms through mass spectrometry analysis. I’m now studying for a PhD in Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology; focusing on ultra-high throughput metabolomics on CHO cells. Outside of university I love to travel and explore new places. I like being active so usually spend my free time looking after and riding my horse, hiking around the Scottish countryside or attempting to cook nice meals with my friends.

Tessa Moses

Tessa obtained her PhD in Biotechnology from the lab of Prof. Alain Goossens, University of Ghent, Belgium in 2012 on the metabolic engineering of plants and yeast for the production of triterpenoid saponin building blocks. She was a postdoctoral scientist in the group of Prof. Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre until 2015 where she worked on exploiting the syntegron technology platform for the assembly and optimisation of complex genetic ensembles, in particular the development of a triterpenoid biosensor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. She obtained a Special Research Fund (BOF) from the University of Ghent, Belgium in 2015 to work as a doctoral assistant with research activities on the engineering of yeast for the screening and sustainable production of high-value pharmaceutical and pesticidal triterpenoids. Tessa joined the University of Edinburgh in 2017 as a postdoctoral research associate in the group of Prof. Susan Rosser to develop a yeast platform for saponin production with applications in home and personal care products. She has extensively used metabolomics in her synthetic biology projects with expertise in the analysis of specialized small molecule natural products. She joined EdinOmics as the Metabolomics Specialist in 2019.

Lisa Imrie

Lisa completed her BSc (Hons) in Microbiology and Biotechnology from Napier University in 2003.  She undertook her Honours project at Moredun Research Facility where she was then offered a position in their Functional Genomics Unit providing an Edman degradation protein sequencing service to the units’ clients.  She quickly moved on to working with the mass spectrometers within the facility and this is where her expertise grew.  In 2013 she joined the Kinetic Parameter Facility at the University of Edinburgh (since rebranded as EdinOmics) working with the units Thermo Scientific QExactive mass spectrometer to provide a reliable and robust proteomics service.  She now works alongside the units other specialists to provide a comprehensive 'omics' service to both internal and external clients. 

In 2018 Lisa embarked on a part time PhD project linked to the Visicort project.  Her aim is to use multiomics to characterise different eye tissues in keratoconus and Fuch's dystrophy patients.