Principal Investigator
Prof. Sabine Flitsch
Professor of Chemical Biology
Sabine heads all group projects, spanning from glycoscience and glycoenzymology to industrial biotechnology.
Group Management
Postdoctoral Scientists
Dr. Jolanda van Munster
BBSRC Future Leader Fellow
Jolanda is a BBSRC Future Leader Fellow, working on elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underpinning interaction of Aspergillus niger with wheat straw.
Dr. Nicholas Weise
Teaching & Research Associate / Public Engagement Programme Manager
Nick teaches biotechnology, biosynthesis and nucleic acid chemistry and manages outreach contributions from the group, as well as being involved in various research projects.
Dr. Peter Both
Research Associate
Peter is working on the discovery of glycozymes for biosynthesis and functional studies of medically-relevant glycans. His work is funded by the IBCatalyst Glycoenzymes for Bioindustries project.
Dr. Fabio Parmeggiani
Research Associate
Fabio is working as a synthetic chemist on the speciality glycans project.
Dr. Christopher Gray
Research Associate
Chris is involved in the development of novel whole-cell biocatalyst screening technologies using mass spectrometry. Chris also works on ion-mobility mass spectrometry methods for characterizing carbohydrates.
Dr. Lorna Hepworth
Research Associate
Dr. Nico Kress
Research Associate
Nico is working on designing P450 catalysts by application of enzyme modelling tools towards the acceptance of novel substrate classes for the synthesis of fine chemicals. His project is funded by the ProgrES ERC grant.
Dr. Kun Huang
Research Associate
Doctoral Candidates
Mr. Jack Manning
4th Year
Jack is developing cytochrome P450-catalysed reaction steps for incorporation into in multienzymatic synthetic cascade. His project is funded by CoEBio3.
Mr. Edward Pallister
3rd Year
Ed is learning how to fabricate glycan arrays and new mass spectrometry techniques to enable translation of his skills in Years 2 and 3 at A-Star in Singapore.
Mr. Andrea Marchesi
2nd Year
Andrea is working on the H2020 Marie Curie funded project “GlycoVax” and his PhD is focused on developing new enzymes for glyco-based vaccines.
Mr. Ashley Mattey
2nd Year
Ashley is part of the IBioIC CTP programme. He is working on deexpanding the selectivity and specificity of galactose oxidase enzymes (GOase) towards bioactive saccharide products. He will complete industrial placements at Prozomix Limited and Bio-Shape Ltd.
Mr. Gergory Bulmer
2nd Year
Greg is supervised by Jolanda van Munster and is supported by the EPSRC Studentship programme. His PhD focuses on characterising the enzymatic breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass by the fungus Aspergillus niger.
Miss Bethan Jones
1st Year
Bethan is working with cytochrome P450 enzymes as a means of late-stage functionalisation within multi-enzymatic synthetic cascade.
Mr Max Lubberink
1st Year
Re-tasking of Carboxylic Acid Reductase (CAR) to new chemistries.
Mr Grayson Ford
1st Year
Grayson’s research is currently based on production of multi-enzyme cascades for the synthesis of bioactive compounds. This currently focuses on a GOase-IRED cascade, and he will then work towards engineering CARs for the production of amino aldehydes.
Research Active Alumni
Professor Rein Uljin CUNY Advanced Science Research Centre, New York, USA.
Professor Iain Wilson BOKU, Vienna, Austria.
Professor Josef Voglmeir Nanjing Agricultural University, China.
Professor Gideon Grogan University of York, UK.
Professor Roslyn Bill Aston University, UK.
Professor Helen Osborn Reading University, UK.
Professor James Dowden Nottingham University, UK.
Professor Elaine O’Reilly Nottingham University, UK.
Professor Paula Booth King’s College London, UK.
Professor Juana Reyes Martinez Guanajuato University Mexico.
Dr Anthony Green The Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, UK.
Dr Anne Routledge York University, UK.
Dr Derek Macmillan University College London; UK.
Dr Martin Weissenborn Institut of Technical Biochemistry, Universität Stuttgart, Germany.
Professor Antonio Sanchez Ruiz Universidad de Castilla~Le Mancha
Dr Dominique Richardson University of Helsinki
Dr Daniel Pienaar University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg