SynBio and Evolution lab at Imperial College London

Here is the final version of the ARTE channel news clip discussing microplastics pollution and our work engineering microorganisms to remove them!

La pollution microplastique sur les plages du Norfolk - ARTE Journal - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE Le 10 mars 2025, un porte-conteneur est entré en collision avec un pétrolier en mer du Nord, au large de l’Angleterre, provoquant un gigantesque incendie des bateaux. Dans un premier temps, les autorités britanniques ont écarté le risque de catastrophe environnementale, affirmant qu’aucun s...

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday with journalists Lucie Barbazanges and Adèle Prugnaud from the French-German TV channel ARTE talking about our work tackling microplastics pollution. Harry is a natural on camera!!
Imperial College London

It's been a while but we are back! Happily sharing our first preprint of 2025! An amazing work led by Harman Mehta in collaboration with Rodrigo Ledesma and Guy Bart-Stan also at Imperial College London. Harman showed that microbial biosynthetic pathways can perform better when split between different strains in a really nice example of engineered labour division. Check it out here:

Investigating The Potential of Division of Labour in Synthetic Bacterial Communities for the Production of Violacein With advancements in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, microorganisms can now be engineered to perform increasingly complex functions, which may be limited by the resources available in individual cells. Division of labour in synthetic microbial communities offers a promising approach to....

Hiya! Want to see something cool? Have a look at our latest video describing our efforts in the MIPLACE project for plastic recycling with biology. Check how quickly enzymes can dissolve PET trays! The video is part of a competition so, if you like it, don't forget to give a thumbs up on youtube!

ERA CoBioTech Video Contest 2022: Microbial Integration of Plastics in the Circular Economy 1st category (ERA CoBioTech research projects)Authors of the video: Joanne Benton, Alice Banks, the ERA CoBioTech MIPLACE project team

We are hiring!! We have a 3-year long position available for a postdoctoral researcher under our brand new project SECRETed. Our lab will be part of a European consortium developing bacterial platforms for the biosynthesis of novel surfactants and siderophores based on pathways identified in marine microorganisms. Our contribution will involve the use of automated pipelines for the combinatiorial assembly and expression of recombinant pathways in different microbial hosts. For info on how to apply check:
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/career-programmes/phd-vacancies/

Need something to read during the break? We are really proud to share our latest work!! This is a preprint describing Juhyun's work investigating tradeoffs between growth and gene expression in collaboration with our colleagues Alex Darlington and Declan Bates at the University of Warwick. We have identified easy-to-implement tricks to maximise protein production in bacteria such as culturing organisms slowly in a good carbon source. Congrats Juhyun!!

The interplay between growth rate and nutrient quality defines gene expression capacity The gene expression capacity of bacterial cells depends on the interplay between growth and the availability of the transcriptional and translational machinery. Growth rate is widely accepted as the global physiological parameter controlling the allocation of cell resources. This allocation has an i...

We are recruiting!! Interested in a PhD in ? Have a look at this opening. We are looking for candidates from a variety of backgrounds to investigate quantitatively the allocation of the gene expression machinery in mammalian cells. More info here:

Systematic analysis of the trade-offs between growth and gene expression in mammalian cells at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Systematic analysis of the trade-offs between growth and gene expression in mammalian cells at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

Santa has been a bit early this year!! Jaime's paper describing a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain capable of population invasion has just been published. Do not miss the press release prepared by our media office at Imperial College London giving a nice summary of the approach!

‘Trojan horse’ bacteria could help defeat antibiotic-resistant infections | Imperial News | Imperial College London Engineered strains of bacteria that displace antibiotic-resistant strains could tackle hard-to-treat infections.

Warm socially distanced welcome to Mirkomol Mirzarakhimov who will be doing a rotation in the lab as part of his MRes in Molecular Cell Biology. He will investigate dynamic of microbial populations resistan to antibiotics. Thanks Mirko for joining in such a difficult time!!

Happy to announce that we are finally open for business at Imperial College London. Really glad to see Dr Alice Banks officially cutting the red ribbon. Thanks Alice for the hard work making this day a reality!!