People

Dr Jose Jiménez (Group leader)

Dr. Jose Jiménez is a molecular biologist that earned his Ph.D. in environmental microbiology in 2006 working for Spanish Research Council (CIB-CSIC). After that he moved into systems and synthetic biology of bacteria in postdoctoral stays in the National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC; Spain), Harvard University (USA) as a Fellow for the Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology program and the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT (USA). Jose was appointed as Lecturer in Synthetic Biology in 2014 at the University of Surrey and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018. He joined the Dpt. of Life Sciences at Imperial College London in 2020.

Dr Jose Jiménez (Group leader)

Dr. Jose Jiménez is a molecular biologist that earned his Ph.D. in environmental microbiology in 2006 working for Spanish Research Council (CIB-CSIC). After that he moved into systems and synthetic biology of bacteria in postdoctoral stays in the National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC; Spain), Harvard University (USA) as a Fellow for the Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology program and the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT (USA). Jose was appointed as Lecturer in Synthetic Biology in 2014 at the University of Surrey and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018.

Eveliny Nery

(PhD candidate)

Eveliny is a member of the CDT in Quantum Bioengineering at Surrey. Eve got interested in unconventional microbes during her MSc in the Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa in Madrid, supervised by Prof. Ricardo Amils, in which she isolated bacteria from extreme environments. Eveliny is studying the potential role of coherence in the energy transfer of the photosynthetic antenna present in purple proteobacteria.

Edeline D’Souza

(PhD candidate)

Edeline is a biologist in the Quantum Biology DTC at the University of Surrey, which is focused on investigating non-trivial quantum effects in biological processes, and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.  Edeline is interested in the understanding of the role of quantum behaviour in cryptochromes, the protein involved in magnetoreception and navigation, both from fundamental and applied viewpoints. She is carrying out part of her research in the National Physical Laboratory under the supervision of Dr Alex Jones

Joanne Benton

(Project manager)

Dr Joanne Benton is the project manager for MIPLACE (Microbial Integration of Plastics in the Circular Economy).  Her background is in Plant Physiology and Crop Protection and she gained her PhD from The Nottingham Trent University.  She then coordinated an international research programme investigating the effects of ozone pollution on crops and natural vegetation at the same university.  Following this, she became the business manager for a sustainable living consultancy based in London.

Alice Banks

(Postdoctoral researcher)

Dr Alice Banks is a research fellow in synthetic biology working on the MIPLACE project for microbial integration of plastics in the circular economy. Her research focusses on engineering microbial communities using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyurethane (PU) as feedstock. She completed her PhD in fungal molecular biology at the University of Bristol and then moved to work as a postdoctoral research associate at Newcastle University investigating cell-free protein synthesis systems.

Umar Abdulmutalib

(PhD candidate)

Umar is conducting a PhD project engineering bacterial strains and processes for the effective conversion of PET waste into a growth substrate for biotechnological applications. This research is sponsored by the Nigerian Petroleum Technology Development Fund.

Syeda Begum

(PhD candidate)

Syeda is conducting a PhD project investigating the tradeoffs between growth and gene expression in mammalian cells. This project is a collaboration with LGC and it is sponsored by the Doctoral Training Programme of the Dpt. of Life Sciences at Imperial College London.

Said Muñoz-Montero

(PhD candidate)

Said is conducting a PhD project investigating the dynamics of microbial populations in fluctuating environments with a focus on antibiotic resistance mechanisms and their transmission. For this project Said was awarded by Imperial College with a prestigious President’s Scholarship.

Satya Prakash

(Postdoctoral researcher)

Satya is a postdoctoral fellow leading our research activities in SECRETed. Satya’s work focuses on the automated assembly and optimisation of combinatorial pathways and non-conventional microbial chassis for the production of novel siderophores and surfactants.

Former members
  • Dr Jaime Gonzalez (now postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne; Switzerland)
  • Dr. Juhyun Kim (now Assistant Professor at Kyungpook National University; South Korea)
  • Dr Alex Smith (now postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge)
  • Dr Manuel Salvador (now project manager at Idener SL)
  • Dr Maria Getino (now postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College London)
  • Dr Elizabeth Saunders (now at BBSRC)