People

Current and former researchers in the Chris French Laboratory.

Current researchers

Headshot of Prof. Chris French.

Personal Chair of Microbial Biotechnology. 

Maxine in the forefront standing and smiling with trees in the background.

PhD student.

Project title: Development of tools for information processing in transcriptional biosensors.

Alumni

Postdoc, PhD and MSc alumni

Headshot of Dr Abdelrahman Zaky

Research Fellow.

Project title: Investigating the Marine Fermentation Approach for the Sustainable Production of Biofuels

Dr. Eric Thorand

Post-doc.

Project title:  Synthetic biomaterials for transparent armour.

Marcos holding a test tube in a lab.

PhD student.

Project title: Development of novel methods for high throughput screening of recombinant constructs for conversion of cellulosic biomass to useful products.

Dr Felipe Millacura in a lab.

PhD student.

Project title: Modular Cell-free systems using an Adaptable DNA-Logic as core processing machinery.

Bethan Highley standing in a graduation gown and smiling.

Bethan Highley

MSc student.

Project title: Novel method for sensitive detection of specific RNA sequences for rapid diagnostic tests. 

Headshot of Dr. Dariusz Abramczyk.

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Project title: Accelerating industrial metabolic engineering using YeastFAB.

Afterwards:  Research Fellow at University of Edinburgh, UK

Athan Malamos working with test tubes in a water bath.

Athan Malamos

MSc student.

Project title:  AsGard Biosensor.

Dr. Chao-Kuo Liu working in the lab.

Project title: Combinatorial assembly of gene cassettes for cellulose degradation.

Headshot of Dr. Maryia Trubitsyna.

Dr. Maryia Trubitsyna

 Project title: Novel methods for DNA assembly: PaperClip.

 Afterwards:  Lab manager and Postdoctoral Research Associate at Rosser Laboratory, UK.

Dr. Morsaline Billah in a lab.

Project title: Generation of macroparticles for arsenic sensing on drinking water.

Afterwards: Lecturer at Khulna University, Bangladesh.

Dr. David Radford standing next to a statue and smiling.

Dr. David Radford

Project title: Arsenic Biosensor Consortium

Afterwards: Student Support Tutor at University of Edinburgh, UK.

Headshot of Dr. Craig Munns in his graduation cap and gown.

Dr. Craig Munns

Project title: Recombinant and wild type micro-organisms for the degradation and fermentation of lignocellulosic material for biofuel production.

Afterwards: Community Farm Development Manager at Barfield Educational

Uros Zupancic

Project title: Rapid electrical detection of bacterial growth.

Dr. Steven Kane

Project title: Screening the degradome of Cellulomonas fimi.

Headshot of Jamie.

PhD student.

Project title:  Establishing a standardised DNA assembly pipeline for natural product pathway engineering in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Andreas working with petri dishes in a lab.

Dr. Andreas Andreou

PhD student.

Project title: Synthetic biomaterials for transparent armour.

Headshot of Florentina Winkelmann

PhD student.

Project title: A new biological route for large scale manufacture of methacrylic acid from renewable feedstocks.

Konstantinos Tsaridis sitting on grass.

Konstantinos Tsaridis

MSc student

Project title: CRISPR-based in vitro signal processing machinery for use in cell-free systems.

Dr. Christopher Nwankwo working in a lab

PhD student

Project title: Biosensors for use in developing nations.

Headshot of Dr. Paulina Kanigowska.

PhD student.

Project title: High-throughput DNA manufacturing, editing protocols and biological workflows from a process engineering perspective.

Afterwards: Automation specialist at Nuclera Nucleics, UK.

Gediz Kocaoglan standing in the lab and smiling.

MSc student.

Project title: BacilloFlex.

Afterwards: PhD student at Univesity of Edinburgh, UK.

Dr. Olivia Wei Liu standing in a lab and smiling.

Project title: Development of a tyrosine recombinase in vivo for orthogonal SCRaMbLE of synthetic chromosomes for the Sc2.0 consortium and in vitro recombinase toolkit for metabolic engineering.

Afterwards: Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge University, UK.

Dr. Alejandro Salinas Vaccaro working in the lab.

Project title: Conversion of green algal polysaccharides to biofuels.

Afterwards: Postdoctoral Fellow at Newcastle University, UK.

Headshot of Dr. Jan Oltmanns.

Dr. Jan Oltmanns

Project title: Novel biosensor formats.

Afterwards:  Junior Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Germany.

Headshot of smiling Dr. Kwabena Duedu in a lab.

Dr. Kwabena Duedu

Project title: Enzyme engineering for cellulose degradation.

Afterwards: Lecturer at the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana.

Dr. Jon Stanley

Project title: Novel approaches to radiotherapy using engineered proteins.

Kuan Meng (Evan) Lee

Project title: Markerless genome editing in E. coli and related bacteria.

Dr. Joe White

Project title: A synthetic model system for biosynthesis of starch-like polysaccharides.

Dr. Eugene Fletcher

Project title: A synthetic biology approach to improving solvent tolerance.

Former undergraduate research students

Jovanna Maharaj standing in a dress outside.

Jovanna Maharaj

Honour student

Project title: Tolerance and production of methacrylate esters on Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains

Headshot of Juro Oravec.

Honour student

Project title: Engineering of methacrylate esters producing a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Nuoya Chen standing in the lab and smiling.

Undergraduate student

Project title: BioPlustec, a novel Cell-free production system of bioplastics.

Cal Vickerstaff working in a lab.

Project title: Novel method for sensitive detection of specific RNA sequences for rapid diagnostic tests.

Afterwards: MSc. student at University College London, UK.

Alexander Orr working in the lab.

Project Title: Developing a synthetic biology toolkit for manipulation of central metabolism in microorganisms.

Niels Wicke working in the lab.

Project title: Development of a modular DNA assembly toolkit for B. subtilis synthetic biology.

Afterwards: PhD student at Oxford University, UK.

Teri working in the lab.

Project title: iGEM 2017 - SMORE: A modular toolkit for site-specific recombination.

Afterwards: 4th year undergraduate student, UoE, UK

Headshot of Brendan Largley in the lab, smiling.

Project title: DNA printer, an assembly technique codon by codon.

Afterwards: 4th year undergraduate student, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Franklin Lo deep in thought in the lab.

Project title: A novel method for sensitive detection of specific RNA sequences.

Afterwards: 2nd year undergraduate student, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Raphael Ferriera

Project title: Synthetic glycobiology: producing polysaccharides in bacteria.

Shanaz Shaiful

Project title: Production of levan and other polysaccharides in bacteria.

Amin Mustafa

Project title: Determining the factors that limit growth of recombinant cellulase-producing strains on cellulosic substrates.

Karen Chan

Project title: Test the novel procedure for conversion of lactic acid to ethanol using LDH, ADH and PDC.

Philip Davies

Project title: Development of bioreporters for membrane stress.

Piotr Kasprowicz

Project title: Determination of the effect of temperature and age of the culture on secretion of C. fimi cellulases (CenA and Cex) from E. coli JM109.

Suzy Lowi

Project title: Escherichia Coli and Cellulomonas Fimi Co-Culture Experiment.

Kristin

   

Beth

   

Yuma Shino

   

Lina Gasiunaite