k.sedgley – Engineering Biology at Bristol

Plant BioDesign PhD Programme: Designing Plant Systems for a Green Economy

Posted on December 19, 2025December 19, 2025 by k.sedgley

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.

The people behind the COVID-19 research efforts at Bristol

Posted on April 27, 2021April 28, 2021 by k.sedgley

Over the past year the BBI have contributed expertise, equipment and resources to support UNCOVER, Bristol University COVID-19 Emergency Research Response Group.

Bristol based photographer Tom Skipp has captured portraits of some of the people involved, including BBI Director Dek Woolfson. Tom was motivated to tell the human stories behind the people at Bristol who are playing an important role in global efforts to overcome COVID-19.

A series of these portraits are part of a billboard campaign on show at various locations across Bristol until the 9th May.

92-98 Kingsland Road, BS2 0QZ – Drs Ore Francis, Research Associate, and Rajeka Lazarus, a consultant in infectious diseases and microbiology at UHBW
28 Stapleton Road, BS5 0QX – Dek Woolfson, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute
34 Ashley Road, BS6 5NS – Adam Finn, Professor of Paediatrics at Bristol, Director of the Bristol Vaccine Centre at Bristol Medical School and lead of Bristol UNCOVER Group
265 Church Road, BS5 9HU – Dr David Mathews, Reader in Virology
Electric Ladyland, Trinity Road, BS2 0FJ – Dr Christy Waterfall, Senior Research Associate

Image credit: Tom Skipp

Tom Skipp: Web | Instagram

Biodesign companies make a splash at the inaugural Launch: Great West science innovation awards

Posted on June 7, 2019September 6, 2019 by k.sedgley

Last night we got dressed up in our best frocks to attend the first Launch: Great West awards. The event aimed to celebrate the growing number of new companies in the SW that leverage the world-class science base of our local universities. It was a buzzing and incredibly professional evening thanks to the hard work of the organisers at Spin Up Science. As a headline sponsor, the Bristol BioDesign Institute was there on mass and we were over the moon to see that companies that use biodesign technologies swept the board, winning five of the eight awards.

The winners were:

The Ones to Watch Award: Rosa Biotech who use biodesign to develop novel sensors inspired by the mammalian olfactory system

The Rising Star Award: CytoSeek who develop new biodesign technologies to enhance cell therapies

The BioDesign Award: Ceryx Medical develop bioelectronics to mimic nerve centres within the body

The Global Good Award: Imophoron use biodesign to develop new types of vaccines to emerging developing-world diseases

The Deal of the Year Award: Ziylo/Carbometrics who took a biodesign approach to the development of new glucose binding molecules leading to a trade sale to Novo Nordisk of up to $800M

This event really shows how far the science entrepreneurship community has grown in the last few years. As our local MP Thangam Debbonaire said in the opening speech, Bristol is growing an amazing innovation ecosystem that builds on the best elements of the University, local industries and city as a whole.

We are very much looking forward to the next event to see if biodesign companies can do even better!

BBI in Berlin: Better together

Posted on May 24, 2019September 6, 2019 by k.sedgley

Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology Director Professor Imre Berger, EPSRC SynBio CDT Student Julien Capin, and Bristol BioDesign Institute Scientific Manager Dr Kathleen Sedgley, were invited to present the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology at the British Embassy in Berlin on the 13 and 14 May 2019.

Russel Group Universities’ UK-Europe Knowledge Diplomacy Reception was opened by Chris Skidmore MP, and followed by a panel discussion Chaired by Dr Julie Maxton CBE, Executive Director of the Royal Society.

The UK and Germany work together more than they work with any other country in Horizon 2020, in fact the UK is involved in over half of all German-led EU bids. Between 2013 and 2017 70,000 scientific publications were co-authored between academics in the UK and Germany, 2,177 (3.1%) of which involved the University of Bristol.

Read more about the importance of UK-German collaboration, and the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology (page 11) of the Russell Group Knowledge Diplomacy Reception Brochure.

The second event was organised in collaboration between BUILA (the British Universities International Liaison Association), and their German counterpart DAIA, (the Deutsche Assoziation für Internationalen Bildungsaustausch) supported by the British Council and Universities UK International.

The Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology was one of only 10 partnerships selected to to showcase collaborations between the UK, Germany and Europe. Here’s the team with University of Bristol’s Director International, Caroline Baylon.

Read the full ‘Better together’ news item

A synthetic biologist goes to an art gallery

Posted on May 16, 2019September 6, 2019 by k.sedgley

Fabio Parmeggiani, BrisSynBio and EPSRC Fellow in Synthetic Biology

On May 2nd I walked in into the North street gallery to see a first for me: a piece of art inspired by my work. And I was not alone. The room was buzzing with scientists, artists, friends and visitors who got together to see the Creative Reactions exhibition, a project that explores the relationship between science and art with 50 art pieces inspired by the collaboration between scientists and artists.

The piece I have been contributed to was “Designing proteins”, a collage that draws inspiration from the design and manufacture of proteins in the field of synthetic biology.

I was proud of the work done by my partner in crime, Rosie Carmichael as it came up from our replies to the organisers that were asking us about our work and our impressions on the collaboration. I think we both started with separate ideas about what we wanted to say and worked to get to a midpoint that at the end was much more compelling that our initial ideas. And I think this process has helped us to become more aware of what and how we communicate and how much work is involved in each other’s job.

Creative reaction was a wonderful experience as a scientist and it will capture the eyes and the mind of all the visitors they will come and see the exhibition, because of its diversity of themes, styles and ways of communication.

Definitely go and check it out. Your eyes, your brain and your soul will thank you.

Science from Fabio Parmeggiani, BrisSynBio and BBI research fellow http://www.bristol.ac.uk/brissynbio/people/fabio-parmeggiani/index.html
Art from Rosie Carmichael http://www.rosiecarmichael.com/
Organisation by Creative Reactions Bristol Creative Reactions Bristol

Creative Reactions Events

Northstreet Gallery from from Thursday 2nd May to Sunday 19th May 2019

The Island from Monday 20th May to Saturday 1st June 2019

https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/creative-reactions

Bristol launches new Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology

Posted on April 8, 2019May 16, 2019 by k.sedgley

Minimal biology is a new emerging field at the interface between the physical and life sciences. A partnership between the Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, the University of Bristol and the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG) in Germany was inaugurated on 27 March 2019. …. read more