Current Members

We are the Molecular Evolution Lab.

Emma Chaloner

Emma completed her MSc at University of Edinburgh in Synthetic Biology, and is now a PhD student funded by an EPSRC DTP Studentship. Emma is designing photosystem I complexes fused with reductive dehalogenase or cytochrome P450 BM3, using a combination of rational design and directed evolution. Find her here.

Samantha Jenkins

Samantha completed her MScEng at Aalborg University in Denmark, before working in industry for a few years. She was awarded a Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP studentship for a project co-supervised with Dr Anne Jungblut at the NHM. Samantha is studying adaptations to extreme Polar environments in cyanobacteria, using adaptive evolution methods on wild and model strains. Find her here.

Hannes Giovanazzi

Hannes completed his MSc in Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology at Imperial College London. He’s been awarded a QMUL’s Principlal Scholarship and is currently working in developing our directed evolution methods applied to Photosystem II to engineer arsenic and alcohol oxidation biocatalysis. Find him here.

Chidị Smythe

Chidi completed his Msci in Genetics at UCL. He’s been awarded a TREES DLA PhD studentship and co-supervised with Dr Anne Jungblut at the NHM. Chidị is studying the origin and evoution of cyanobacteria using mutation accumulation experiments to measure rates of genome and evolution, and novel molecular clock approaches. Find him here.

Zach Hale

Zach joined QMUL on an studentship from the European Space Agency, co-supervised with Dr. Chris Duffy. Zach completed his MSci in Astrophysics at UCL. He is developing computational approaches to simulate the origin and evolution of photosynthesis using thermodynamic models. Find him here.

Alumni

Research technicians

Dr. Violeta Cordón-Preciado (2020-2026). In charge of running long-term evolution experiments with several cyanobacterial strains. Our cyanobacteria genomcis specialist. Find her here.

Postdocs

Dr. Tom D. Kim (2021-2026). Directed evolution and structural phylogenetics of photosystem II. Currently, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford. Find him here.

Dr. Hyeryeong Lee (2024-2025). Fusing photosystem II subunits to fluorescence proteins using a SpyCatcher/SpyTag approach. Currently a Marie Curie Research Fellow at Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. Find her here.

Dr. Joko P. Trinugroho (2021-2022). Site-saturation mutagenesis of cluster ligands in Photosystem II. Currently, an independent research at Indonesian Research Institution (National Research and Innovation Agency). Find him here.

PhD students

Dr. Thomas Oliver (2017-2022). Bioinformatic and bioenergetic studies on the evolution of Photosystem II. Currently, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Roberta Croce at VU University Amsterdam. Find him here.

MRes and MSc students at Qeen Mary University of London

Joanna Guseva (MSc in Synethetic Biology and Biotechnology, 2024/2025) Developing a Photosystem I complex fused with reductive dehalogenase; Ryan McCulloch (MSc in Bioinformatics, 2024/2025) Studying the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis using cross-braced molecular clocks.

MRes and MSc students at Imperial College London

Joe Hartley (Molecular Plant and Microbial Science, 2022/2023) Engineering a Ru water-splitting cluster in Photosystem II using directed evolution; Francesca Levi (Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology, 2022. A Directed evolution approach to expanding the functional properties of Photosystem II; Puzhi Zhang (Molecular Plant and Microbial Science, 2020/2021) Rotation 1: Origin and evolution of the oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent Mg-protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester oxidative cyclases. Rotation 2: Altering the structural configuration of the Mn cluster of Photosystem II using random mutagensis of the ligand sphere; Kaija Walters (Biochemistry MRes sutdent in a remote internship from University of Heidelberg) Research project on characterizing the diversifiction of D1 variant forms using ancestral sequence reconstruction; Max Gray (Applied Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology, 2020) Using directed evolution to improve the hydrogen production capabilities of a photosystem 1-hydrogenase chimera; Amber Connerton (Molecular Plant and Microbial Sciences, 2020) Ancestral sequence reconstruction of Photosystem I from Cyanobacteria: A cautionary tale; Yuxi Liang (Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, 2020) Timing the origin and early diversification of photosynthesis; Korawit Opassathian (Molecular Plant and Microbial Sciences, 2017) Investigating variant photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.

Undergraduate final-year projects and summer placements at Queen Mary University of London

Zohra Mehreen (2024) Directed evolution of Photosystem II for methanol and ethanol oxidation; Monique Bennett (2024) Expressing reductive dehalogenase and cytochrome P450 in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Undergraduate final-year projects and summer placements at Imperial College London.

Theo Lupu, Jonah McDonald, Anita Jennings (2023) Evolution and diversity of photosystem II genes in viruses; Zachary Bawa (2022) Characterising an early branching cyanobacterium (Pseudanabaeba sp. PCC 6802), with insights into a molecular basis for multicellularity; Wenxin Li (2022) Directed evolution of Photosystem II to replace the Mn cluster with Ru; Nitara Wijayatilake (UROP thanks to a generous bursary from the Genetics Society, 2021) Random mutagenesis of the ligand sphere of the water-splitting cluster of Photosystem II D1 core subunit; Aaryan Bhatia (2021) Creating gene diversification libraries of the D1 subunit of Photosystem II; Isabelle Zhang (2021) Time-resolved evolution of type I photosynthetic reaction centres; Sunny Chen (2021) Tracing the evolution of photosynthetic gene clusters in anoxygenic bacteria through the perspective of macroevolution theories; Isabella Higson (2019) Re-evaluating the evolution of chlorophyll synthesis; Elisabeth Bavorová (2019) Investigating the evolution of photosystem II reaction centre–Was the ancestral enzyme capable of water oxidation?; Ivan Zheludev (2018) Ancestral sequence reconstruction of the D1 core subunit of Photosystem II; Jeffery So (2014) Type I reaction centre and bacteriochlorophyll g of the Heliobacteria; Morgan Valles (2013) The biochemical and biophysical characterization of Photosystem II in heterocysts of cyanobacteria Anabaena sp. PCC 7120; Alysha Shua (2013) Biochemical and biophysical characterisation of Photosystem I in heterocysts.