Category: PhD

EPSRC and BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineering Biology

Posted on by wayne.powell

The Engineering Biology Centre for Doctoral Training (EngBioCDT) is one of nine new CDTs at the University of Bristol, which will equip and nurture engineering and science students, thanks to a nationally-leading £57 million funding boost from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and its Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Engineering biology is one of the five critical technologies predicted to deliver prosperity to the UK as highlighted in the Government’s National Vision for Engineering Biology (December 2023). Sitting at the confluence of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, AI and Data Science, it has the potential to provide innovative solutions to global challenges for sustainable food, materials and chemicals, combatting climate change, and technologies for improved healthcare, by harnessing biology in new ways and creating biomimetic and engineered living systems capable of surpassing what is possible from single-discipline approaches.

The EngBioCDT, run jointly with the University of Oxford, will provide bespoke cohort-based training with a focus on how engineering biology concepts and technologies can be translated into products with real-world impact. It will include teaching on: modelling and control theory, artificial intelligence and machine learning, gene circuit design, protein design and engineering, and tissue engineering.

The EngBioCDT will train 68 students over five cohorts between 2024 and 2032 in collaboration with over 20 partners including industry, startups, innovation specialists, and national institutes.

The Director of the EngBioCDT, Dr Lucia Marucci, said: “I am so excited to start directing our new Engineering Biology Centre for Doctoral Training in partnership with the University of Oxford, and cannot wait to welcome our new students in September. Many thanks to the EPSRC and BBSRC for funding our programme.”

At Bristol, the CDT will be managed also by Prof Imre Berger, Dr Tom Gorochowski (Deputy Director), Prof Jen McManus and Prof Dek Woolfson.

Applications open for Engineering Biology CDT

Posted on by wayne.powell

Deadline: 19 April 2024

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/engineering-biology/

Are you interested in how synthetic biology concepts and technologies can be translated into real-world impact?

Applications are now open for PhDs in Engineering Biology, as part of the EPSRC BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Engineering Biology (EngBioCDT), run jointly by the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford. It will provide bespoke cohort-based training with a focus on how synthetic biology concepts and technologies can be translated into products with real-world impact.

Society faces major global challenges including a need for sustainable food, materials and chemicals, solutions to combat climate change, and innovative technologies for improved healthcare. Engineering Biology (EngBio) is an emerging field at the confluence of the Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, AI and Data Science. It has the potential to provide innovative solutions to these challenges by harnessing biology in new ways and creating biomimetic and engineered living systems capable of surpassing what is possible from single-discipline approaches.

After training in the fundamentals of mathematics, biology, engineering and computing, and undertaking team-based problem-solving projects, you will complete two short research projects, one of which will develop into your substantive PhD project. Throughout the course, you will undertake bespoke training in innovation and commercialisation, responsible innovation, EDI and bioethics, and career development.

Each year, a summer school will take place in June/July which will include talks from engineering biology leaders, student pitches from innovation in engineering biology projects, and outreach projects.

Through close links with our industrial partners, and activities such as industrial placements, mentorship and translational training, the CDT will empower students to deliver EngBio solutions to real-world applications through skills and knowledge training.

Further info for applicants:

Celebrating PhD viva successes

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Congratulations to Veronica Greco, Dora Buzas and Jazz Ghataora for successfully completing their PhD vivas.

Jazz Ghataora’s PhD research focused on the development of bacterial biosensors for the purpose of monitoring environmental heavy metal pollution, using the host Bacillus subtilis as a chassis. This project required the design of synthetic gene circuits, novel engineered chimeric proteins and structure guided mutagenesis. His supervisors were Prof. Susanne Gebhard and Dr. Bianca Reeksting. Jazz, a Research Associate in the BioCompute Lab at University of Bristol, is currently researching next generation reporter tags for yeast platform strain development as part of the BrisEngBio project ‘Nanopore-based physiological monitoring of yeast for bioprocess optimisation’, led by BBI Co-Director Thomas Gorochowski, and University of Washington’s Jeff Nivala.

Dora Buzas‘ PhD focused on the ADDomer vaccine development platform and the engineering of high-affinity binders. The project involved the structural analysis of the Adenovirus Penton base protein-derived ADDobody and also other scaffold proteins from chimeric origins. Dora, a member of the ADDovenom research team and the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, was supervised by Prof Imre Berger and Prof Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel.

Veronica Greco‘s PhD thesis title was: ‘Recombinase-based cellular memory: Methods for reading and reliable writing as steps towards real-world applications.’ She was supervised by Dr. Thomas Gorochowski and Professor Claire Grierson. Veronica is the Technology and Innovation Manager at CDotBio.