Focus areas

• Protein Engineering & Functional Biomolecular Systems
• Biophysics, Nanotech & Biosensors
• Antimicrobial & Therapeutic Innovation

This theme encompasses:

• all aspects of synthetic or engineering biology, from innovation to application including the development and functional application of molecular biosensors.
• biophysical aspects of organismal biology across the scale.
• research on antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), form mechanisms to promising therapies.

Research Theme Champions

Dr Scott Lovell (University of Bath)

Dr Scott Lovell

Scott is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Chemical Biology in the Department of Life Sciences. Before joining the University of Bath in 2022, he was a postdoctoral researcher and Dean’s fellow in the lab of Matt Bogyo in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. Prior to this Scott acquired his PhD in Chemical Biology at Imperial College in the group of Ed Tate where he was also an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow. Scott has worked in research labs around the world including in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada and has significant industry experience having worked for AstraZeneca and Pfizer as a synthetic chemist.

Dr Jessica Cross (University of Bristol)

Dr Jessica Cross

Jessica works at the interface of chemistry, biology and engineering to design and engineer proteins to manipulate cell architecture, seeking to understand intracellular transport and design new protein machines for engineering biology.

Jessica is currently a lecturer in Engineering Biology working on the Bristol/Oxford CDT in Engineering Biology in the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology.

• Translational research workshop - for students to explore how their research can be translated into tackling biomedical questions
• Cross-disciplinary Summer School - focusing on contemporary biochemical and biophysical techniques and approaches (in collaboration with EPSRC PhD students)