Team

Karen Sarkisyan

Karen did his PhD on fluorescent proteins development with Konstantin Lukyanov and Alexander Mishin in Moscow and then worked on protein evolution with Fyodor Kondrashov in Barcelona and Vienna.

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Aubin Fleiss

Aubin did his PhD on yeast chromosomal rearrangements with Gilles Fischer at LCQB, Paris. He then joined the lab in 2019 to work on protein evolution and protein engineering.

Aubin likes to mix molecular biology with programming.

Eleanor Warren

Ellie did her PhD with Robin Williams at Royal Holloway where she worked on identifying targets of dietary fatty acids using Dictyostelium. She joined the lab in 2020 to screen venom peptides in C. elegans, and is really enjoying working with this model organism.

Feng Gao

Feng did his MSc in Genomics in Hong Kong and BSc in Biotechnology in Shenyang. As associate research fellow in BGI/CNGB, he focused on synthetic genomics and the related functional study in organisms. Feng wants to make good use of synthetic biology as well as other cutting- edge technologies for biomedical research and clinical application.

James Marshall

James said he would send the text for the website on Monday.

Angus Choi

Angus worked a clinical pharmacist in Hong Kong and completed his MPhil on stroke treatment at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With a passion for drug development, he aims to harness synthetic biology and C. elegans to discover new neuroactive drugs.

Edith Forestier

Edith completed her PhD at the CNRS in Strasbourg, where she investigated terpene biosynthesis, before turning to plant metabolic engineering to boost the synthesis of high-value natural products. She joined the lab in April 2025 to develop plants with novel traits, with a particular focus on pigment production as a way to explore and expand natural compound diversity.

Xiangyu Xu

Xiangyu received his PhD from the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology in Belgium, where he investigated how protein post-translational modifications mediate plant responses to environmental stress. He then joined the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on the dynamic regulation of membrane proteins and stress-responsive signaling pathways. Deeply fascinated by post-translational modifications, Xiangyu aims to leverage this for developing novel biological tools and uncovering unexplored regulatory mechanisms in plant biology.

Macià Sureda Vives

Maria-Elisenda Alaball Pujol