
Biography
I joined Patron group at Earlham Institute in mid-April 2018; working towards sustainable bioproduction of insect pheromones in plants.
Plants are ingenious autonomous machines that are vital for our existence. With the advancements in genomics not only we can elucidate their regulatory mechanisms but can tune them to function as bio-factories. In my current project, I apply synthetic biology to rewire the genetic architecture of plants to produce insect pheromone molecules. Our aim is to turn these plant pheromone factories as a sustainable platform for biomolecule production and reduce the chemical footprint on our planet.
Prior to this, I worked on ‘stress induced nitrate allocation in plants’ with Prof Dale Sanders and Prof Tony Miller at JIC. During my PhD, I worked on colourful plant secondary metabolites ‘anthocyanins’ with Prof Cathie Martin at JIC. I contributed to an understanding of anthocyanic vacuolar inclusion formation in plants. I engineered novel anthocyanins in tobacco that can be commercially used as standards and natural food colourants. I also developed a pipeline for high anthocyanin production derived from tobacco callus cultures.
I am interested in understanding the regulatory mechanisms and pathways of unknown secondary metabolites and their application via synthetic biology.
Publications
Related reading.

Excellent science? It’s in the technical detail

Finding fungi at the fen

The genetic machinery that drives biodiversity

On the origin of errors: the causes and consequences of mistakes during DNA replication

Could long-read RNA sequencing be the future of drug discovery?

Why is genome annotation important?

Why cloud computing is important for data-driven bioscience research

How bioinformatics can crack the complex case of protist biodiversity

Exotic wheat DNA could help breed ‘climate-proof’ crops

Sequencing project to unleash the huge potential of euglenoids

Circadian clock insights could be key to increased wheat yields

European consortium launched to reverse biodiversity loss through genomics research

Tracking bacterial evolution in real time spots emergence of antimicrobial resistance

Big Data initiative awarded £6.3 million as part of major UKRI investment in research infrastructure

Not all looks rosy for the pink pigeon

Coronavirus jams communication signals to immune cells in the gut
