Phycobloom

Welcome back to our Meet the Team series! Next up is our Metabolic Engineering Team Lead, Aranzazú Díaz Ramos. Drawing on her PhD and postdoctoral experience in Molecular Biology, she oversees project strategy and experimental design, ensuring that our goals of producing sustainable biofuels are achieved. After obtaining her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow, Aranza spent most of her early-career research years working at the University of Edinburgh focusing on crop innovation to improve plant photosynthesis for future food security. She possesses a robust understanding of chloroplast architecture and photosynthetic processes, which she now applies to algal engineering. Having spent 8 years in Scotland, Aranza developed an interest in hiking, camping, and swimming in the Scottish Lochs. She always takes her dog, Ludo, along on these trips. She also enjoys cooking and makes as much Mexican food as possible.

🐾 Today, our team had the absolute pleasure of joining Paws in Work for a very special session. We spent half an hour over lunch with the most adorable 8 week old Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppies, and it was every bit as wonderful as it sounds! A perfect lunchtime activity for #WorldMentalHealthDay spent with sleepy puppies, and a whole lot of cuddles. It was an incredible opportunity to unwind, bond with our teammates, and recharge for the rest of the day. A huge thank you to Paws in Work for bringing such joy and warmth into our office. 🐕 💚

Meet our Algae Biologist, Ekta Kumari! At Phycobloom, she is a project lead on developing a genetic toolkit for stable and efficient algal engineering. Ekta brings over 8 years of scientific expertise in the field of algal biotechnology. Her research has been multifaceted, covering molecular biology, biochemistry, and synthetic biology. She holds a PhD from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, where the primary focus of her study was investigating the activity of enzymes that were genetically incorporated in the cell wall of microalgae. During her postdoctoral research, she continued her exploration by investigating the biology of calcium carbonate biogenesis and morphogenesis in unicellular algae. Her work led her to be awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. If she is not in the lab, she delights in exploring diverse cuisines, from street food to fine dining. She loves binge watching horror movies. She is also a curious wanderer.

This week, in our Meet the Team series, meet our Microbiologist, Nanakow Baiden PhD! At Phycobloom, Nanakow is developing a screening platform to analyse the lipid composition of our algae. Nanakow’s academic background comprised a PhD focussed on characterising the biophysical properties of a lake sediment bacterium. This involved protein purification, spectroscopic techniques, and whole cell assays. He then began microalgae work as a Postdoc, where his focus was on generating transgenic clones of a diatom that expressed antimicrobial peptides for the purpose of treating infected animal livestock in compliant marketplaces. Outside of work, Nakakow’s interests are music, fitness, podcasts, and mushroom coffee; usually in that order.

Welcome back to our Meet the Team series! Next up is Ian Hu, PhD. As Phycobloom’s CTO, Ian shapes the technological development roadmap, oversees the projects, and is actively involved in the hiring process. He aligns each of the staff’s strong suits with the projects, and his day-to-day job revolves around enabling everyone to succeed. Ian is also the makeshift electrician, plumber, organic chemist, and the maintenance department for most of the lab equipment. Ian started his career making tomatoes sick in a cancer research lab, gaining experience in drug development, fermentation, animal science, and psychology. He then went on to do a PhD in Cambridge on protein biophysics, biochemistry, and structure and evolutionary biology. Ian is a martial arts fanatic and is usually broken a couple of days a week - he’s got Russian, Filipino, Indonesian, and Thai martial arts under his (imaginary) belt. As deadly as he is, Ian is a big jazz fan and cares very much about his coffee. He also enjoys fixing vintage cameras and instruments.

Next up in our Meet the Team series is our CEO and Co-founder, John C. Waite! John’s job at Phycobloom is to set the long-term vision for the company and to lead on all things commercial. Day to day he helps project-manage the technical work, while providing a non-biologist’s perspective to scaling Phycobloom’s process. John’s academic career was focussed on Metallurgy, and he completed his Doctorate in Energy Materials. Over that time he developed his communication skills by teaching maths and science between primary and undergraduate level. Now he uses these skills to translate the Phycobloom vision to new audiences. John is a keen Formula 1 fan, and weekends will often see him glued to the TV screen watching cars go round and round. Now that F1 has committed to switching to 100% biofuels by 2026, he maintains this is actually work-related.

Welcome to our new Meet the Team series! At Phycobloom, we are incredibly proud of our team and we wish to showcase them and their achievements. First off is our Algal Biologist Joseph Beaney! At Phycobloom Joe is developing an inducible biocontainment system for microalgae. Joe has a background in biochemistry and completed his Master’s degree at the University of York. There, he studied genetic engineering strategies and environmental adaptations of extremophilic microorganisms. Outside of work Joe enjoys general knowledge quizzes, bird watching, restoring classic cars, as well as travelling the country visiting car shows, historical cities, and nature reserves.

A few weeks ago I took a small detour on my way to work to grab a coffee and croissant from No 10! I and others were there to hear Andrew Griffith and Paul Freemont speak about the UK's vision for Engineering Biology, including an investment of £2 billion over the next 10 years. It was great to meet academics and companies from across the industry, all of whom were eager to share stories and advice, and to offer support where they could. I was at the event representing Phycobloom where we are using Biology to create algae that can secrete their oils to unlock truly sustainable biofuels. If you're interested in helping to build a decarbonised transport sector then please reach out! A special shoutout to Larry The Cat who saw us all off at the door!

It was a pleasure to have the Extantia team visit our lab yesterday. Ensuring #biofuels live up to their potential is certainly a challenge, but one we know we can overcome thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of our brilliant team!

We are thrilled to announce that Phycobloom has been selected as a participant in the Engineering Biology CR&D competition run by the fantastic team at Innovate UK! This funding will allow us to develop a genetic toolkit to better harness our algae and propel our technology forwards. At Phycobloom, we're using synthetic biology to unlock the power of algae in order to create truly sustainable biofuels. Chlorella sorokiniana holds immense potential across a range of industries and this project will be key to harnessing it. If you're interested in learning more about what we're up to then give us a follow and stay tuned for updates!    #EngineeringBiology #CRDcompetition #Sustainability #Innovation #Phycobloom #Chlorella #GeneticToolkit Read more: https://lnkd.in/eg6Zwcvg