PhD projects will tackle challenges of clean growth, resilient food and environmental sustainability by engineering plants e.g. for biomanufacturing, disease resistance, increased yields and phytoremediation, as well as developing new tools for gene editing, large-scale screening and synthetic control.
Build your skills in engineering biology for enterprise, technology, research & innovation careers.
APPLY NOW: Deadline 19 January 2026
(PhD 1) Pierre Buscail and Thomas E. Gorochowski to create SynProm, a modular synthetic biology toolkit for rapid, spatio-temporal monitoring of plant gene activity. Design, test & model synthetic promoters in Nicotiana benthamiana with a focus on plant immunity.
Apply here: https://lnkd.in/euhCHSmC
(PhD 2) Heather Whitney, Thomas E. Gorochowski, and M. Carmen Galan + more, to take plant RNA synthetic biology to a new level. Create novel biofacbrication methods that blend living and non-living processes to enable robust and effective RNA delivery to turbo-charge agriculture.
Apply here: https://lnkd.in/ef5trATq
(PhD 3) Claire Grierson, Jill Harrison and the John Innes Centre and beyond to bioengineer plant roots to improve root-soil binding and soil stability.
Apply here: https://lnkd.in/e6t9bvXD
These positions are only available to UK applicants. They are part of the TechExpert pilot providing an enhanced annual (tax-free) stipend of £31,000.