The Robertson lab develops genome engineering tools for the de novo synthesis of non-model gut bacteria, with the ultimate aim of reprogramming the microbiome to study and modulate human health. This PhD project will develop de novo genome design and synthesis tools for non-model bacteria. The student will become an expert in synthetic biology, with a focus of total genome syntheses for prokaryotes.

At the LMB we have previously made seminal contributions to the field of synthetic genomics, providing approaches for the synthesis of genomes from scratch as well as the redesign of their genetic codes to unlock new-to-nature properties such as viral resistance (Fredens et al., Nature 2019; Robertson et al., Science 2021). Now, in the Robertson lab we aim to manipulate the genetic code of non-model bacteria to unlock the benefits of synthetic biology for the field of microbiome research.

PhD students will have the opportunity to develop the next-generation of genome design and genome synthesis technologies for prokaryotic systems. Potential projects include developing novel synthetic DNA recombination technologies for native gut bacteria. Enquiries to discuss potential project details are highly encouraged.

References

Robertson, W.E., Funke, L.F.H., Torre, D.d.l., Fredens, J., Elliott, T.S., Spinck, M., Christova, Y., Cervettini, D., Böge, F.L., Liu, K.C., Buse, S., Maslen, S., Salmond, G.P.C., Chin, J.W. (2021)
Sense codon reassignment enables viral resistance and encoded polymer synthesis
Science 372(6546): 1057-1062

Fredens, J., Wang, K., Torre, D.d.l., Funke, L.F.H., Robertson, W.E., Christova, Y., Chia, T., Schmied, W.H., Dunkelmann, D.L., Beránek, V., Uttamapinant, C., Llamazares, A.G., Elliott, T.S., Chin, J.W. (2019)
Total synthesis of Escherichia coli with a recoded genome
Nature 569(7757): 514-518