Skip to main content

Engineering Life

We employ principles from engineering to dissect and manipulate molecular processes and cellular behaviours. To elucidate how biological phenomena emerge from component parts, we apply precision technologies such as genome editing, microfluidics, machine learning and droplet encapsulation.

Our overall aim is to develop the knowledge and tools to control cell function and fate using a combination of synthetic biology and bioengineering and involves close engagement with the Physics of Life and Mathematics of Life approaches. At the molecular level we undertake mechanistic dissection of complex processes such as RNA metabolism, polysaccharide biosynthesis, cell cycle and host-pathogen interactions. At the cellular level our focus is on antibiotic resistance in microbes where we seek to detect and control outlier responses from individual cells that underlie persistent infections. At the level of multicellular organisation we concentrate on collective behaviours underpinning tissue formation from stem cells. The scope extends to disease mechanisms, tissue regeneration and drug discovery.

Contributing research groups

   

Akshay Bhinge

Ge Guo

Nic Harmer

Ben Housden

Stefano Pagliara

Steffen Scholpp

Austin Smith

James Wakefield

Steve West

 

 

Bhinge Group

Bhinge Group

Stem cell models of neurodegenerative diseases

View group

Harmer Group

Harmer Group

Enzyme cascades in Living Systems

View group

Housden Group

Housden Group

Genetic screening technologies for drug-target discovery

View group

Pagliara Group

Pagliara Group

Membrane transport in living systems

View group

Scholpp Group

Scholpp Group

Contact-mediated signalling in development and disease

View group

Smith Group

Smith Group

Pluripotent Stem Cell Biology

 

View group

Wakefield Group

Wakefield Group

Engineering Drosophila to understand chromosome segregation/Engineering Galleria to understand infection and immunity

View group

West Group

West Group

RNA and gene regulation for Health and Life Sciences

View group

Guo Group

Guo Group

Stem cells and synthetic embryogenesis

View group