People

Who we are and what we work on.

Filippo Menolascina

Filippo is the Principal Investigator of the cSynBioSys group. An electrical and electronics engineering by training, Filippo was among the first to demonstrate, with his PhD dissertation, in vivo real time control of synthetic gene circuits. Filippo holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and serves as advisor to startups and Venture Capital firms investing in biotech and data science.

Lucia Bandiera

Lucia Bandiera is a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh since 2017. She graduated magna cum laude at the University of Bologna in 2012 and, in 2016, she was awarded a PhD in Bioengineering from the same institution. Her research focuses on optimization of microfluidics/microscopy experiments for automated model inference of biomolecular networks.

David Gomez Cabeza

I am a PhD student in the cSynBioSys group, working on optimal experimental design for automated model calibration and selection of biomolecular networks integrated into a microfluidic experimental platform. I graduated in Microbiology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, transitioning to a more quantitative and computational line of research during my MSc in Systems and Synthetic Biology from the University of Edinburgh.

Freddie Starkey

Freddie Starkey is a PhD student in Bioengineering working on machine learning for gene circuit design automation and design of novel promoters. He graduated in Informatics from the University of Edinburgh in 2019 after producing a masters thesis on the use of graph databases to store and analyse protein interaction networks.

Maria Jimenez Ramos

I am PhD student on the Precision Medicine Programme. I completed a BSc in Basic and Experimental Biomedicine and then obtained a MSc in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. My research involves using a computational and experimental approach to identify and optimize a combination of drugs that could be used for therapy for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Alumni

Brian Philip

I am a research associate in synthetic biology. After obtaining my PhD from UCL I spent a year in industry before joining the cSynBioSys group in October 2019. My research focuses on the development of an in vitro platform to incorporate evolution as an engineering stage to develop more effective cellular immunotherapies.

Zhaozheng Hou

4th Year PhD in BioEngineering. In the last few years, I have been working on developing a microfluidic experimental platform for automatic model inferring. My research interest is the optimal experimental design for model calibration.

Jamie Gilman

I am a research associate in microbial synthetic biology. I gained my PhD from the University of Exeter, and joined the cSynBioSys group in April 2019. My research focuses on using Design of Experiments to inform data-driven design of transcription activation systems in yeast.