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Engineering Biology in Cambridge

 

EngBio ECR Meet, Greet & Talks

EngBio ECRs (formerly EngBio Postdocs) is a initiative to help connect postdocs and postgrads across the university. We will be hosting regular events where you can meet and network with other postdocs from across university departments, as well as supporting early career researchers to pursue their own projects and initiatives.

Postdocs, research and support staff and graduate students are welcome from across the University and University-affiliated institutes (MRC-LMB, Babraham Institute etc.).

You can sign up to join the EngBio Postdoc community and receive notifications about events and opportunities using the link here list information on Sympa. Look for Engbio Postdocs List or sign up at the form at end of page.

You can also receive notifications about upcoming meetings by signing up to the Meetup Group and Postdoc Mailing List (below)

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Next Meeting: 18 March 2024, 12pm-1pm at Postdoc Centre, Basement, 16 Mill Lane. 

Sign Up HERE  or email vr314@cam.ac.uk

Talk One

Monday 18 March, 12pm.

Marion Short, Chemistry "Microbial Electrosynthesis for CO2 Conversion to Acetate"

Abstract: Acetogenic bacteria can convert CO2 and H2 into acetate via the acetyl-CoA pathway, in which CO2 is used as a carbon source and H2 provides reducing power. H2 can be generated sustainably by water electrolysis and supplied to the bacteria in situ by employing microbial electrosynthesis. However, one of the challenges associated with microbial electrosynthesis is the low energy efficiencies due to high electrical resistance resulting from the low ionic strength of the bacterial growth media. Therefore, I will be researching different methods for increasing the salt tolerance of the bacteria in order to use more electrically conductive growth media and increase the energy efficiency of microbial electrosynthesis for CO2 conversion to acetate.

Talk Two

Soleh Anderlini, Dept. Chemistry. “Plastic-eating” bacteria: challenges with Ideonella sakaiensis and its’ PET-digesting enzymes

Abstract: Ideonella sakaiensis, discovered in 2016 by Yoshida et al, is able to fully metabolize poly(ethylene glycol) plastics and survive on them as its’ sole carbon source. It utilizes two key enzymes, PETase and MHETase, to hydrolyze PET in to ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid which are then further metabolized. In this presentation, I’ll be talking about challenges with growing I. sakaiensis in aerobic and anaerobic environments as well as possibilities for engineering other bacteria to exhibit similar PET-digesting behaviors.

 

Sign Up here on MEETUP or  email vr314@cam.ac.uk

 

 

Future Dates:

Monday 20 May - Pehuen Pereyra Gerber, Dept. Medicine

 

Previous Meets

  • 19 February "Curing plasmids for restoring antibiotic sensitivity in vivo" Alma Wu, Dept. Engineering (Bakshi Lab) and ‘A modular toolset for electrogenetics’Joshua Lawrence, Dept. Chemistry
  • 22 January “A microfluidics-enabled workflow for rapid large-scale sequence-function mapping informs biocatalyst engineering” Maximilian Gantz, Dept. Biochemistry
  • 11 December "Production of nanobodies in Marchantia polymorpha"  Anna Sze Wai TSE, PhD student, Haseloff Lab, Department of Plant Sciences 
  • 20 November, Talks by Charlie Wedd, Engineering "Measuring the kinetics of phage infection steps with single-cell microscopy" and “Engineering a photo-active enzyme for organic decarboxylations” Irina Gostimskaya, Dept. Chemistry.
  • 16 October, Talks by Guillermo Serrano Najera, Dept. of Genetics and Georgeos Hardo, Engineering.
  • 18 September, Aaran Vijayakumaran, MRC Toxicology Unit.
    'The Nanoscale Architecture Of The Airway Epithelium By Volumetric EM, Deep-Learning Segmentation and Super-Resolution Imaging.'
  • 17 July, 12pm-1pm  Layla Malouf, Dept of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology. Title: Building synthetic cells using DNA nanotechnology.
  • 19 June, 12pm-1pm  Devmalya Sarkar, Insitute of Manufacturing.  Title: ‘App’reciating User Needs: early-stage user involvement in need identification for user-centric health apps
  • Monday 15 May MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB)  12pm-1.30pm.  MRC LMB Talks and Tour,  Edoardo Gianni, PhD Talk Title: Engineering a self-replicating RNA machine
  • Monday 17 April, 12pm-1pm. Postdoc Centre, Mill Lane. Dr Nikolai Kazantsev  ‘Rapid Response Capability to Future Disruptions: A Consortium Network Case’
  • Monday 20 March, 12pm-1pm Postdoc Meet and Greet at Dept. Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB), Philippa Fawcett Drive, West Cambridge Site CB3 0AS.
  • Monday 20th February 2023 12pm-1pm - Dr Jenny Molloy will host a meet and greet.

Information about past meetings is available in the meeting archive.

 

Sign up to the EngBio Postdocs Mailing List & Knowledge Database

This mailing list is for University of Cambridge postdocs interested in synthetic/engineering biology. Members may post to this list with relevant information about events and opportunities for postdocs, or to ask questions and advice from the community. The information you provide will be shared with members of the University of Cambridge EngBio Postdocs and used to add you to the postdoc mailing list.

At the end of the form you may also choose whether you wish to sign up to the EngBio IRC Directory and/or the EngBio IRC newsletter.

For more information about the mailing list please see the list information on Sympa. For more information about how we store and use your data please see our privacy policy.