News

On 21 May 2026, the EngBio IRC convened its annual Symposium and Forum at St Catharine’s College, bringing together researchers in the engineering biology community for an afternoon showcasing leading work across the field. By integrating an early‑career Symposium, a poster session, and an evening Forum, the programme offered a focused examination …

The Designer Membranes and Bio-inspired Interfaces Symposium, organised by Dr. Roger Rubio Sánchez at Wolfson College, Cambridge, recently concluded after two days of vibrant and intensive cross-disciplinary exchange. The event brought together physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers to explore the evolving fundamental and applied role of m…

The symposium “Integrating chemistry, engineering and biology to create the next generation of vaccines” was held on 30th March at Queens’ College, coordinated through the Royal Society of Chemistry and EngBio IRC. This event brought together physical scientists and life scientists to engineer new approaches to vaccines that could have great impact…

Dr Francis Krampa joins the Engineering Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre (EngBio IRC) as Coordinator and Events Manager, bringing a distinguished blend of scientific expertise, operational leadership, and community‑building experience. He previously coordinated the University’s MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise, where he oversaw academic deli…

Dr Jenny Molloy received Special Recognition for Advocacy and Awareness at the 2nd Annual European Open Source Awards, held in Brussels. The Special Recognition for Advocacy and Awareness award is given to the individuals ensuring open source is included in the policy-making agenda, raising the awareness of open source technologies and its communit…

We reflect on some of the achievements of our Cambridge engineering biology community in 2025. Chung Lab Reveals New Insights into Viral and Bacterial Infection MechanismsLed by Dr Betty Chung, the Chung Laboratory published several impactful studies last quarter. The team revealed new insights into how viruses exploit –1 programmed ribosomal frame…

On Monday 10 November, the EngBio IRC hosted our latest EngBio Forum. We were delighted to welcome keynote speakers Prof Andreas Walther and Dr Claudia Contini. The speakers shared some of the latest developments in synthetic cell research, as well as some interesting insights into potential new applications for this growing field.So what are synth…

The Cambridge iGEM team won a Gold Medal at the 2025 iGEM Grand Jamboree. Their project ‘CamiRa’ aimed to develop a cheap, fast and accessible tool for on-farm crop diagnosis.The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) is the world’s largest synthetic biology competition, in which university students work in labs over the summer to solv…

A huge thank you to everyone who came and spoke to us at Freshers Fair, and to those of you who've recently joined our mailing list. We had a great time chatting and meeting fellow EngBio and biotech enthusiasts and we hope to see you soon at one of our events.We'd also like to say thanks to our Early Career Research Committee team volunteers, who …

This year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has highlighted important work done by scientists across the globe to understand immune intolerance and regulatory T cells, also know as Tregs. But what are Tregs? And why are they important? Professor Adrian Liston discusses.This year the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Mary …

The EngBio IRC is searching for enthusiastic Postdoc, PhD student and support staff volunteers to join the Early Career Researcher Committee, and help shape the future of engineering biology research in Cambridge.We are looking for new members to join the EngBio IRC Early Career Researcher Committee. This is an excellent opportunity to meet like-mi…

Testers wanted! Local start-up CCA.BIO are looking for collaborators working with live cell imaging to test their environmentally-controlled microscope prototype.Microscope InformationWe’ve developed a fully autonomous live cell imaging microscope with an integrated environmental control chamber, designed to simplify and automate cell culture imagi…

The Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public (KCSEP) are looking for researchers to join the latest iteration of 'The Hopes and Fears Lab'. The Lab invites publics and researchers to connect over something we're all experts in — how we feel about the future of science and technology. It all takes place in a cardboard lab designed by artist …

On Monday 7 July 2025 we held our first annual symposium. The session started with inspiring talks from Cambridge's EngBio Mission award winners. Then we heard about an exciting innovation opportunity from the new EngBio3 accelerator. The morning rounded up with a poster session and lunch - and some fantastic discussions!The Future of EngBio in Cam…