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. He was promoted to Reader in 2023.

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 where he was appointed to Reader in 2023.

Perrine Dalby

(PhD candidate)

Perrine is a member of the EPSRC CDT in Biodesign Engineering based at Imperial College London. Perrine is interested in understanding and engineering the transcriptional and translational machinery to optimise the allocation of cellular resources for gene expression. Perrine is using natural and orthogonal gene expression systems to mitigate the impact of genetic circuits and pathways on the cellular fitness.

Diana Barreiros Jorge

(PhD candidate)

Diana is a member of the EPSRC in BioDesign Engineering based at Imperial College London. Diana is exploring ways in which engineering biology tools can be applied to microbes used in seaweed biorefineries to produce value-added chemicals. She is very passionate about environmental conservation and is motivated to work towards a circular bioeconomy.

Carla Gilabert Carbajo

(Research Associate)

Carla Gilabert Carbajo is an expert in microscopy using super-resolution methods to investigate the cellular allocation of the gene expression machinery in three dimensions, as well as the pattern of inheritance of the transcriptional and translational machinery.

Rebecca Boccola

(PhD student)

Rebecca Boccola is a PhD student part of the EPSRC Engineering Biology CDT. She is combining theoretical and experimental work to investigate how heterogeneities in the distribution of cellular resources impacts the performance of recombinant genetic circuits and biosynthetic pathways, as well as the evolutionary constraints that shape genome architecture.

Daniel Boros

(PhD candidate)

Daniel is a member of the EPSRC in BioDesign Engineering based at Imperial College London. Daniel is interested in developing molecular tools for lab directed evolution. In his project Daniel is leveraging the ability of retro elements to edit genomic DNA for diverse applications in Synthetic Biology.

Catalina Cruañas-Pániker

(PhD candidate)

Catalina is conducting a PhD project investigating the microbial degradation of next generation polyolefin plastics such as polyethylene This project is a collaboration with Polymateria Ltd. and it is sponsored by the NERC – Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme 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.

Brooke Wain

(Postdoctoral researcher)

Brooke is a postdoctoral fellow interested in biological approaches to the management of plastic waste and including microplastics biodegradation. She is leading our contributions to the UKRI Preventing Plastic Pollution Engineering Biology Hub (P3EB).

Former members
  • Dr Zheren Zhang (now Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London)
  • Dr Syeda Begum (now Senior Scientist at P.Happi Ltd.)
  • Dr Alice Banks (now Technical Lead at NunaBio Ltd.)
  • Dr Joanne Benton
  • Dr Eveliny Tomas Nery (now postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University; Finland)
  • Dr Umar Abdulmutalib (now Experimental Officer at the University of Surrey)
  • 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 Senior Scientist at GSK)
  • Dr Elizabeth Saunders (now at BBSRC)