Previous Team Members. 2025 Mathew WoolfHonors Student - UK Antoine Hoguin sLola Post-doctoral researcher - FrancePrecise genome editing and bioengineering of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. 2024 Mohammed AlhadebHonors Student - Saudi Arabia Yen Peng Chew, Apple(2019-2024; Darwin Trust PhD student - Malaysia)Apple holds a MBiol in Microbiology and Biotechnolgy from the University of York. For her PhD project, she developed tools to enhance CRISPR-Cas genome editing in model green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and investigated the repair mechanisms during editing. 2023 Gabin Rousseau (Genetics Society summer student - France) 2022 Nerea Caro GuerreroBBSRC-EASTBIO summer student - Spain Andre Alves Breda CoimbraGenetics Society summer student - Portugal Marina Pilukova Honours student - Bulgaria 2021 Muriel Monteiro 2016-2021; Darwin Trust PhD student - IndiaMuriel was working on role of S-nitrosylation in plant viral immunity for her PhD project. Fei Yue 2018-2021; Post-doctoral researcher - ChinaYue Fei obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology (Molecular Plant Science) at the University of Edinburgh in 2018. She continued her research here in Edinburgh as a postdoctoral research associate in the Molnar Lab. Her research project was to identify and characterise the translation-associated host factor of Papaya Ringspot Virus (PRSV) and generate novel resistance alleles by genome editing. Aron Ferenczi2017-2021; EASTBIO-DTP student - HungaryIn collaboration with our industrial partner, ScotBio, Aron establishes CRISPR-based, transgene-free genome editing protocols in microalgae to promote their biotechnological applications. His work also includes the establishment of novel gene editing assays and elucidation of DNA repair pathways and genomic factors responsible for certain editing outcomes. He currently focus on microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Aron has a keen interest in the future direction of gene editing technologies and their applications. He hold a BSc in Plant Science and MSc in Bioinformatics, both from Edinburgh University. 2020 Erika Kroll Honours student Bob MasonBob Mason Karolina Brzezinska Summer student - Algae UKKarolina worked on improving CRISPR/Cas12-mediated knock-ins by utilising synchronised cell cultures and favouring homology-directed integration of the donor DNA. She then attempted to increase the levels of carotenoid production in C. reinhardtii by overexpressing an inactive CrBKT pseudogene. 2019 Adela RuzickovaErasmus+ PhD student from Charles University - Prague, 6 months Eva Steele Honours student Sara Gonzalez Brito Summer student - College Vacation Scholarship 2018 Fei Yue 2014 - 2018; China Scholarship Council studentHer PhD project studied the molecular and environmental factors that are involved in virus-induced epigenetic modifications in virus-infected plants. Her work characterised the sequence complementary requirements between sRNAs and their nuclear target sequence. She also identified the key factors that are associated with inefficient virus-induced transcriptional gene silencing at high temperature. Lindsay Williams Honours student Avejade AbiogSummer student Magnus GwynneSummer student Matthew Fellbaum PHYCONET Undergraduate Summer Studentship 2017 Douglas Pyott 2013 - 2017; EASTBIO-DTP studentHis PhD research explored how environmental cues such as light and temperature can modulate RNA silencing-mediated defence to viral infection and also how modern genome editing techniques can be employed to generate virus-resistant germplasm (Pyott et al., 2016). Lila Grandgeorge Honours’ students Ethan Roos Honours’ students Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez TalanconMSc student Adam KovacSummer student Iain RatterPHYCONET Undergraduate Summer Studentship Andromachi XypnitouResearch Assistant 2016 Xu MengzhenMSc student Aron FerencziHonours’ student 2015 Emma Sheehan MSc student Lindsay Williams Gatsby Summer Studentship 2014 Abirah Zulkifli MSc student Debbie Frederickson Matika2014 - 2016; Research Assistant This article was published on 2025-05-23
