Directed Evolution of Photosystem Chemistry
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Life Sciences
Abstract
The importance of photosynthesis for the evolution of life can hardly be overemphasised. It represents one of the key innovations that transformed Earth and paved the way for the rise of complex life.
Today, the improvement of photosynthesis to enhance crops and the production of compounds of commercial interest has become one of the grand challenges of photosynthesis research.
To improve photosynthesis, it is necessary to change photosynthesis. The study of the evolution of photosynthesis is the study of how photosynthesis has changed through time, which has been the focus of my research. The study of the evolution of photosynthesis can provide relevant insight on its potential for change, optimisation, or improvement.
For example, my research has shown that in several occasions through geological time, the chemistry of oxygenic photosynthesis was rapidly and radically optimised to match environments with very atypical light conditions such as those found at 200 meter-deep open ocean waters or within stromatolites. This indicated that the process has a level of plasticity and potential for adaptability well beyond what is currently recognised.
I want to link my research on the evolution of photosynthesis with Directed Evolution methods to experimentally prove that it is possible to control and purposefully change the chemistry of photosynthesis.
Directed Evolution is an extremely versatile method that is used to change the traits or the activity of a given enzyme by exploiting evolution. It can be done simply by subjecting an organism through repeated cycles of selection under the conditions that favour the desired traits, it can be enhanced by turbocharging mutational rates, it can be focused on a single gene of interest, and it can be combined with another method called Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction (ASR).
ASR is an evolutionary method commonly used to compute the most likely ancestral state of an enzyme. The ancestral enzyme gene can then be made using commercially available services and used to study the properties of the ancestral enzyme in the test tube. An interesting outcome of ASR is that the ancestral enzymes show superior stability and functional flexibility. These properties have made the combination of ASR and Directed Evolution a powerful biotechnological tool.
I currently lead a research programme on the molecular evolution of photosynthesis and this employs ASR to reconstruct the ancestral states of Photosystem II.
Photosystems are nature's solar cells and they power life on Earth by converting light into useful chemical energy. They have done so for billions of years. Photosystem II uses light to decompose water into oxygen, protons, and to generate an electric current. This is the hallmark chemical reaction of oxygenic photosynthesis.
The photosystems are very complex molecular machines. This complexity means that they evolve very slowly. It is often believed that they exist as "frozen metabolic accidents". A concept that was introduced to imply that these systems have reached a maximum level of optimal performance and therefore have limited evolvability: in other words, it is thought that they cannot be changed in any way that is useful. This view is however contradicted by my own work, which instead suggests the photosystems have tremendous natural adaptability potential.
My research group aims to demonstrate that the function of the photosystems can be changed and controlled in any desirable way with the use of Directed Evolution. We will demonstrate that the function of the photosystems can be optimised to any particular condition given an appropriate set of selective pressures. We will provide tools and a molecular blueprint for the control and optimisation of photosystem chemistry for potential future molecular applications.
Today, the improvement of photosynthesis to enhance crops and the production of compounds of commercial interest has become one of the grand challenges of photosynthesis research.
To improve photosynthesis, it is necessary to change photosynthesis. The study of the evolution of photosynthesis is the study of how photosynthesis has changed through time, which has been the focus of my research. The study of the evolution of photosynthesis can provide relevant insight on its potential for change, optimisation, or improvement.
For example, my research has shown that in several occasions through geological time, the chemistry of oxygenic photosynthesis was rapidly and radically optimised to match environments with very atypical light conditions such as those found at 200 meter-deep open ocean waters or within stromatolites. This indicated that the process has a level of plasticity and potential for adaptability well beyond what is currently recognised.
I want to link my research on the evolution of photosynthesis with Directed Evolution methods to experimentally prove that it is possible to control and purposefully change the chemistry of photosynthesis.
Directed Evolution is an extremely versatile method that is used to change the traits or the activity of a given enzyme by exploiting evolution. It can be done simply by subjecting an organism through repeated cycles of selection under the conditions that favour the desired traits, it can be enhanced by turbocharging mutational rates, it can be focused on a single gene of interest, and it can be combined with another method called Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction (ASR).
ASR is an evolutionary method commonly used to compute the most likely ancestral state of an enzyme. The ancestral enzyme gene can then be made using commercially available services and used to study the properties of the ancestral enzyme in the test tube. An interesting outcome of ASR is that the ancestral enzymes show superior stability and functional flexibility. These properties have made the combination of ASR and Directed Evolution a powerful biotechnological tool.
I currently lead a research programme on the molecular evolution of photosynthesis and this employs ASR to reconstruct the ancestral states of Photosystem II.
Photosystems are nature's solar cells and they power life on Earth by converting light into useful chemical energy. They have done so for billions of years. Photosystem II uses light to decompose water into oxygen, protons, and to generate an electric current. This is the hallmark chemical reaction of oxygenic photosynthesis.
The photosystems are very complex molecular machines. This complexity means that they evolve very slowly. It is often believed that they exist as "frozen metabolic accidents". A concept that was introduced to imply that these systems have reached a maximum level of optimal performance and therefore have limited evolvability: in other words, it is thought that they cannot be changed in any way that is useful. This view is however contradicted by my own work, which instead suggests the photosystems have tremendous natural adaptability potential.
My research group aims to demonstrate that the function of the photosystems can be changed and controlled in any desirable way with the use of Directed Evolution. We will demonstrate that the function of the photosystems can be optimised to any particular condition given an appropriate set of selective pressures. We will provide tools and a molecular blueprint for the control and optimisation of photosystem chemistry for potential future molecular applications.
Planned Impact
The tangible or practical outputs of my UKRI FLF will be genomic and phylogenetic data, the methodological tools associated with the implementation of Directed Evolution to the light reactions of photosynthesis, and developed cyanobacterial strains that may be of interest for structure/function studies of photosynthesis or in biotechnology. The intangible outputs will be a superior understanding of the origin and molecular evolution of photosynthesis as well as fundamental principles and tools to change and control the chemistry of photosynthesis, which could lead to future potential applications.
The outputs of my programme will benefit current members of the photosynthesis group and the department, as well as students at all levels, other scientists in multiple disciplines involved in photosynthesis research, other scientists in other disciplines whose research is informed by the understanding of the evolution of photosynthesis, other scientists interested in the genetic engineering of photosynthetic organisms, other scientists and engineers interested in the translation of research into technologies, and the public.
The impact and benefits of my research will be immediately realisable after the outputs are available through associated news and media content, through dissemination at highly-regarded international conferences and meetings, through teaching and supervision of a new generation of scientists, and through public engagement via academic and non-academic online platforms, social media content, and the institution's popular festivals and science fairs. The potential biotechnological impact of my outputs may be realised at a later stage as promising targets are translated into viable technologies.
The outputs of my programme will benefit current members of the photosynthesis group and the department, as well as students at all levels, other scientists in multiple disciplines involved in photosynthesis research, other scientists in other disciplines whose research is informed by the understanding of the evolution of photosynthesis, other scientists interested in the genetic engineering of photosynthetic organisms, other scientists and engineers interested in the translation of research into technologies, and the public.
The impact and benefits of my research will be immediately realisable after the outputs are available through associated news and media content, through dissemination at highly-regarded international conferences and meetings, through teaching and supervision of a new generation of scientists, and through public engagement via academic and non-academic online platforms, social media content, and the institution's popular festivals and science fairs. The potential biotechnological impact of my outputs may be realised at a later stage as promising targets are translated into viable technologies.
Organisations
- Imperial College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- Queen Mary University of London (Collaboration)
- National Taiwan University (Collaboration)
- University of Cambridge (Collaboration)
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (Collaboration)
- ETH Zurich (Collaboration)
- University of Nottingham (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- Yale University (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (Collaboration)
- George Washington University (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol (Collaboration)
Publications
Eckardt NA
(2024)
Lighting the way: Compelling open questions in photosynthesis research.
in The Plant cell
Eckardt NA
(2024)
Lighting the way: Open questions in photosynthesis research
in The Plant Cell
Gisriel C
(2023)
Molecular diversity and evolution of far-red light-acclimated photosystem I
in Frontiers in Plant Science
Gisriel CJ
(2022)
Molecular Evolution of Far-Red Light-Acclimated Photosystem II.
in Microorganisms
Gisriel CJ
(2021)
Recent advances in the structural diversity of reaction centers.
in Photosynthesis research
Murphy
(2022)
Photosynthetic Life: Origin, Evolution, and Future
Oliver T
(2023)
The Evolution and Evolvability of Photosystem II.
in Annual review of plant biology
Related Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MR/T017546/1 | 30/04/2020 | 30/08/2023 | £1,213,899 | ||
| MR/T017546/2 | Transfer | MR/T017546/1 | 31/08/2023 | 29/04/2024 | £225,728 |
| Description | We are working toward enabling methods to engineer the components of photosynthesis, the photosystems, to enable biotechnological applications that could have an impact on the development of sustainable advanced technologies. Within the first 5 years of the fellowship we have been able to develop and adapt methods to perform directed evolution of the photosystems. We have produced the first gene libraries that diversify the key component of the photosystem. We have adapted simpler and more complex methods, which we are now using to engineer novel photosystems. We have now isolated over 50 photosystems with an unprecedented range of mutations that we plan to continue characterizing, and are preparing for a second round of evolution. We have also produced two lines of photosystem complex with novel catalytic domains including a reductive dehalogenation and hydroxylation domains. We have developed a CRISPR-based hypermutation system that we're about to deploy to begin testing and characterizing. We have also initiated a long-term genome evolution experiment in cyanobacteria: the only lineage of bacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis and of major biotech interest for developing green technologies. We have now over 100 genomes from five different strains, under different conditions and time points, giving us, for the first time, a high resulution view of genome evolution for these organisms. This new data is becoming a source of new discoveries and might have major impact for the practices and maintainance of photosynthetic microbes in culture collection or biotechnology projects. |
| Exploitation Route | The research is ongoing. I hope however that many of the method we are developing will open possibilities for the use of photosynthetic enzyme in biocatalysis applications. Many of our research on the origin and evolution of photosynthesis which is already published have lead to a revitalisation of the field bringing new investigators into the subject, and changing paradigms on this fundamental topic for the understanding of the history of life on earth. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Energy Environment Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | The sponsored work on the origin and evolution of photosynthesis is impacting how we understand the emergence of life on earth. This is already starting to influence how the evolution of life is taught and presented to the general public and students at A-level/undergraduate level. To give a couple of examples, I have contributed a new textbook targeted titled "Photosynthetic life: Origin, Evolution, and Future." that is proving popular, which has revisited perspectives on the history of life. The documentary "The Universe" produced by BBC Studios and hosted by Prof. Brian Cox presented concepts on the importance of photosynthesis for the evolution of life that were influenced by my work, as I was personally interviewed by the producer Poppy Pinnock. I have published a major paper in Annual Reviews of Plant Biology aimed at a broad redearship, which is likely to become seminal in the subject, and which offers perspectives on the utilization of hotosynthesis that has never been considered in the literature before, but which I believe had the potential to kick-start many novel research pathways that will benefit society. I have also promoted our work at major conferences and recently through a very popular podcast by the American Chemical Society that are likely to reach a major audiance. The sponsored work on "directed evolution" and "long-term genome evolution" are still at early stages since the research programme is new. However, it is highly likely that this will have a strong impact within the chemical, energy, environmental, biotech, and agricultural sector. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Creative Economy,Education,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
| Description | Consultancy for a start-up biotech company |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.cyanoskin.com/ |
| Description | Hosted an EDI session, "power hour", at the Gordon Photosynthesis Congress |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The session triggered a lot of interet and the room allocated was not big enough to host all participants. At the end, attendees commented on the importance and need for positive change within the community and in academic in general. |
| Description | Improving and promoting interest in plant biosciences, biotech, and evolution |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The textbook was published at the end of 2022. The five peer-reviewers, all senior academics, reported that they would be interested in teaching the content and rated it highly. After the publication I've recieved many personal messages from teachers and academics citing how excited they were about the subject. And since its release, I've noted an increase in request from UG and PG students to do research within my group in the plant sciences. |
| URL | https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/photosynthetic-life-9780198815723?cc=gb&lang=en& |
| Description | Directed And Adaptive Evolution Of Photosynthetic Systems |
| Amount | £741,592 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/Y011635/1 |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2024 |
| End | 04/2027 |
| Description | Directed evolution of photosystem I chimeras |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Chinese Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | China |
| Start | 08/2025 |
| End | 09/2029 |
| Description | EPSRC-DTP: Engineering photosystem I for light-driven biocatalysis |
| Amount | £80,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 04/2025 |
| Description | NERC SSCP DTP - Photosynthesis and genome evolution of cyanobacteria from polar environments |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2023 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Description | Principal's PhD Studentship |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 08/2027 |
| Title | CyDIVE: Cyanobacterial Directed In Vivo Evolution system |
| Description | An in vivo directed evolution system based on EvolvR system (developed for E. coli, Halperin et al., 2018), which employs Cas9 nickase fused to a error-prone polymerase. The fusion protein navigates to the target region by Cas9-sgRNA complex, and the error-prone polymerase introduces point mutations in the downstream up to 130 bp from the target sgRNA sequence. To work in cyanobacteria and also to enhance the system, multiplexed sgRNA array and rhamnose inducible promoter are introduced. All parts are designed using STEP golden gate syntax for modular assembly and modification. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This system enables directed evolution of proteins in targeted and focused manner while growing cells under selection pressure, which facilitates multiple rounds of rapid and broad exploration of evolutionary landscape without laborious transformation and selection procedure. This is the first of such system applied for cyanobacteria. |
| Title | Generation of new cyanobacterial strains of biotechnological interest by adaptive evolution experiments |
| Description | This method involves serial culturing and exposure to a particular chemical/condition which in time will produce new strains tolerant the condition tested, and tracking of the genomic changes over time. This method is based on the E.coli long-term evolution experiment, by Richard Lensky and colleagues, however in our case a selection pressure is added from the beginning. 6 cultures of a species of cyanobacteria, derived from the same parental strain, are freshly inoculated into two conditions, the control condition and a selective pressure condition, in our case the presence of glucose in the media. The method involves weekly transfers and storing long-term culture back ups every 10 weeks (around 50 generations). Slow increase of the selective may be needed in the initial stages of the experiment. Cultures are grown in an incubator with a day and night cycle of 16h/8h respectively, light intensity of 50 µmol·m-2·s-1 and temperature of 25°C/20°C respectively. Weekly transfers: - 20ml cultures are freshly inoculated in BG-11 each week. - Firstly, the optical density (OD) of grown cultures is measure at 730nm and volume of inoculum calculated for a resulting OD of 0.05 in the new culture. OD is plotted to track growth. - New flasks are labelled and either BG-11 or BG-11 plus glucose is added to new flasks for a final 20ml volume of culture. - Inoculum is added and 1ml of the new culture is kept for subsequent steps. - 10ul of that 1ml sample is inoculated onto a BG-11plate supplemented with glucose and casaminoacids. This plate is then incubated in the dark and keeps track of any contaminant heterotrophic species arising. - 900ul is used to track OD of new culture. - Cultures are returned to the incubator and placed always in the same order. -Parental cultures are kept in low light conditions for a week as back ups. Long-term storing of back up cultures: Every 10 weeks samples are taking for genomic DNA (gDNA) extraction and long-term storing of evolved cultures. The samples taken are as follows: -3x 1ml aliquots for long-term back up cryostocks -1X 4ml aliquot for for gDNA sample back up cryostock -1x 5ml sample for gDNA extraction (see genomic DNA extraction protocol) For the preparation of cryostocks do as follows: 1. Add 50ul DMSO to all the 1ml cryotubes for a final 5% concentration. 2. Work out the numbers in the strain collection and label the tubes. Write down all numbers in the collection notebook. 3. Add 200ul DMSO to the 4ml cryotubes and label them with the TC numbers plus -glu #1 etc to identify them quicker. 4. On the day of the experiment, do the passes first as usual. 5. Then process the 1ml -80C back ups: Add 950ul from each culture to each 3X aliquots. 6. Vortex samples to mix. 7. Flash feeze in liquid nitrogen 8. Store in -80C in corresponding box Keep accurate records of frozen cultures and genomic samples in paper and digital inventories. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | N/A |
| Title | Genomic DNA extraction for short-read and long-read whole genome sequencing |
| Description | Genomic DNA for Illumina sequencing was prepared using the Quick-DNAâ„¢ Fungal/Bacterial Miniprep Kit from Zymo Research. 5ml of cells at OD 1-2 /Cells were harvested by centrifugation at 4000rpm for 15 minutes, resuspended in 1ml of sterile deionised water and transferred to 1.5ml microfuge tubes. Cells were spin again at 13000rpm for 4 minutes, supernatant removed and pellet resuspended in 100ul sterile deionised water. Manufacturer instructions were followed from this point. DNA was resuspended in EB buffer and analysed by nanodrop and Qubit. For High Molecular Weight genomic DNA isolation, the METIS protocol was used (Hept and Green, 2023) with some modifications: centrifugation was done at 3900rpm for 25-30 minutes, supernatant was then removed and 1ml of PBS/deionised water added. Resuspended pellet was transferred to a 1.5ml tube, washed again and resuspend in PBS plus lysozyme (60ul Lysozyme 10mg/ml +40 ul pbs), followed by an incubation at 30minutes at 37C. Then METIS protocol was followed. Concentration, purity and integrity of DNA was analysed with Qbit, Nanodrop and Tapestation. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | N/A |
| Title | In vitro gene diversification system for photosystem II in Synechocystis |
| Description | This system is developed to introduce random point mutations in the reaction centre subunit D1 to create variant photosystem II library for subsequent screening for desired functionalities. The randomisation is done by error-prone PCR and the variant D1 sequences are assembled into the integrative plasmid backbones. The constructed plasmid library is then introduced to Synechocystis by high-efficiency natural transformation facilitated by pre-methylation technique, and resulting cells with variant photosystem II are used for screenings. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This system is based on molecular biology techniques widely used in cyanobacterial research community which indicates its proven robustness in terms of applicability for other research, and is shown to create several hundreds of thousands high quality photosystem II variants. Together with its tunable mutational frequency, this system became one of our essential tools in the current project "Directed Evolution of Photosystem Chemistry". |
| Title | Methyltrasferase expression system for enhanced natural transformation in Synechocystis |
| Description | Creating large size of variant libraries and screening them in high throughput manner is an integral part of directed evolution. To create a library, a gene of interest can be diversified in vitro and introduced to Synechocystis, our model organism which is a unicellular cyanobacteria. Synechocystis is naturally transformable, but the efficiency is quite low and it was identified as one of the bottlenecks. In an attempt to overcome this issue, a native methyltransferase (MTase) in Synechocytis was cloned and expressed in E. coli to bypass restriction-modification (R-M) system, one of its innate protection systems from foreign DNA, by mimicking the native methylation pattern. The concept of using MTase in Synechocystis transfromation was introduced by Wang et al. (2015), and we constructed a new MTase expression vector pSK01 which is compact (3.6 kb), medium copy number plasmid (15-20) expressing SGL_RS13525 under J23119 promoter. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This system enhanced the transformation efficiency by almost two orders of magnitude, effectively creating large size library of 4,000 - 10,000 unique variants. |
| Title | Photosystem I-chimeras |
| Description | We have genetically engineered photosystem I to be linked to reductive enzymes, including reductive dehalogenase and Cyt P450 for light-drive biocatalysis |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Impact yet to be realised |
| Title | Rhamnose inducible promoter with extra repression using riboswitch |
| Description | To prevent potential leaky expression of rhamnose promoter in Synechocystis, a theophylline responsive riboswitch is placed in between the transcription start site and the ribosome binding site. |
| Type Of Material | Biological samples |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This new promoter enables a tighter control on the expression of the protein of interest, which will be beneficial in controlling unwanted expression of potentially toxic genes in Synechocystis. |
| Title | Ancestral sequence reconstruction data for photosystem I core subunits |
| Description | A dataset of known core subunits of photosystem I from cyanobacteria; phylogenetic trees for these subunits, as well as ancestral sequence reconstruction data and associated metadata |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Better understanding of the evolution of photosystem I adapted to far-red light. Datasets provided might be key for the engeneering of better crops |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1289199 |
| Title | Ancestral sequence reconstruction data of photosystem II subunits |
| Description | This is a dataset of ancestral sequence reconstruction data of photosystem II produced from a comprehensive evolutionary analysis. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The dataset is if interest for plant biotechnology to build minimal model of photosystems adapted to unique light condtions, which may impact crop and algae photosynthetic enhancements. |
| URL | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/7/1270 |
| Title | Dataset for the article "Exploring the structural diversity and evolution of the D1 subunit of photosystem II using AlphaFold and Foldtree" |
| Description | The dataset supporting the article on the structural prediction of D1 protein in photosystem II and the structural phylogenetics. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The study was the first utilising Alphafold 2 to explore the structural diversity of D1 protein in large scale, and the dataset provides all the predicted structures of D1 and phylogenetic tree files, and alignment analysis results. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.14967328 |
| Title | Genome data of laboratory strains of cyanobacteria |
| Description | 100 genomes from 7 strains of cyanobacteria, from different labs, over different periods of time. Data is illumina sequencing reads. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Impact yet to be realised, as the data is still unpublished. Can impact culture collection and laboratory practices, as well as current understanding on the evolution of photosynthesis |
| Title | Structural modelling of various reaction centre protein D1 using AlphaFold2 and Foldtree |
| Description | 738 reaction centre protein D1 structures were predicted by AlphaFold2. These structures were then used for all-to-all structural alignment by mTM-Align and FoldSeek, and their divergence was visualised by structural phylogenetic tree by Foldtree program. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The set of the predicted structures can be used in various downstream structural analysis, e.g. the relationship between sequence and structural divergence and its impact on PS II evolution. |
| Description | Applying new inducible promoter to control expression of in vivo directed evolution system in Synechocystis |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Department | School of Life Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We are constructing an in vivo hypermutation system in Synechocystis to create in situ variant libraries for directed evolution. This system is being designed to be able to mutate multiple loci/regions of interest at the same time in living Synechocystis cells. Controlling expression of the hypermutation system and following mutational rate on the target region is important, because accumulation of too many detrimental mutations in short time could exhaust living cell populations before exploring available evolutionary landscape. Also, the hypermutation system should be silenced when we found desired variants for correct genotyping. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. John Heap and his lab provided two plasmids containing rhamnose inducible promoter as a candidate to control the expression of the hypermutation system in construction. |
| Impact | The system is in construction and the inducible promoter will be tested in coming months. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Biosensor and microfluidics for directed evolution of photosystem II |
| Organisation | ETH Zurich |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We provide insights on evolutionary potential of photosystem II towards novel photobiocatalysis, along with variant photosystem II libraries. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Sven Panke and Dr. Martin Held provide expertise in designing biosensor and microfluidics system, and Dr. Adrian Bunzel in photoenzyme engineering. |
| Impact | Potential genetic systems are in discussion for custom biosensors for photosystem II activity, as well as a microfluidics system accommodating requirements specific to cyanobacteria (e.g. slower growth, illumination). |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Design of chimeric photosystem II fused with red fluorescent proteins |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I hosted for 6 months a joing postdoctoral researcher working in a collaborative project between my team and the partner at U. of Cambridge. The postdoc is a MSCA fellow. We provided training in synthetic biology of cyanobacteria and photosystems and photosynthesis research methods. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner will be taking charge of electrochemical and biophysical characterisation of the chimeric photosystems designed in my lab. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary proposal involving synthetic biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and electrochemistry. We've developed a series of strains and photosystems as proof-of-concept that may have future biotechnological applications, although this is still unpublished. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Direct substrate screening of variant photosystem II in Synechocystis colonies by DiBT-MS |
| Organisation | University of Manchester |
| Department | Manchester Institute of Biotechnology MIB |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We are in the process of developing solid agar-based substrate screening methods to test novel biocatalytic potential of our photosystem II variant library in Synechocystis. Obtained variant colonies will be screened in Prof. Perdita Barran's lab to identify the products of potentially novel biocatalysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Perdita Barran and her group will provide DESI-MS platform in her laboratory in The Michael Barber Centre for Collaborative Mass Spectrometry along with technical expertise in colony screening and data analysis. |
| Impact | Interests of both parties on this project are confirmed and productive collaboration is agreed. Prof. Barran provided guideline for preparation of samples and pilot experiments, Dr. Cardona's group is working on developing substrate screening methods. This collaboration is empowered by different expertise of both groups including synthetic biology, biochemistry, chemical biology and analytical chemistry. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Directed evolution of photosystem II for arsenic and small alocohol oxidations |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have associated with a new academic at QMUL, Dr. Elena De Vita, to start a project to develop a photosystem II towards arsenic oxidation and small alcohol oxidation for biotech applications. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Will provide co-supervision of my PhD student. Has purchased a new state-of-the-art plate reader that will come in handy for this project. Partner will provoide expertise in biocatalysis and high throughput screening methods |
| Impact | It is a multidisciplinary project. Involving, chemistry/catalysis in combination with genetic engineering of photosystems in cyanobacteria, using molecular evolution methods. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Evolution and characterisation of variant photosystems in cyanobacteria and other phototrophs |
| Organisation | Yale University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have contributed expertise on the structure, function and evolution of the photosystems. We are currently working towards the possibility of producing cryo-EM structures of our evolved photosystems. I will be contributing photosystem sample, and the collaborator, Dr. Christopher Gisriel will be doing the structures. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We started our collaboration by writing a paper together highlighting the state of the art on the elucidation of the structure and function of the photosystems. We're currently working on resolving the evolution of photosystems that are used in the far-red light acclimation response in cyanobacteria and are writing a paper on this. Biological samples for characterization are planned to be send to Dr. Gisriel towards the end of the year. |
| Impact | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-021-00857-9 This is a multi-disciplinary |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Exploring the structural diversity and evolution photosystem II |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We lead this collaboration on applying state-of-the-art protein prediction tools to photosynthesis. We have carried out the structure prediction of photosystem subunits and the structure-based evolutionary studies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaborators aided with the initial set up and calculations of the study and in the interpretation of data and writing of a manucript for publication |
| Impact | A paper has been submitted for publication and is undergoing peer-review. The data has been presented at various conferences. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Imperial's Ocean Worlds Network |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Chemistry |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have set up an interdepartmental network, involving Physics, Chemistry and Lifesciences, within the topic of studying the habitability of Ocean Worlds (confirmed moons in the outer solar system with liquid oceans in their interiors at Jupiter and Saturn). The expertise of my life in deep-time molecular evolution and directed evolution makes us valuable partners. Currently, my team and I have contributed key perspectives, expertise, biological materials and methods for interdisciplinary research projects towards putting together a grant proposal for a Leverhulme's Doctoral Training Centre. I am the leader for Life Sciences in the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners have also contributed other perspectives from their respective feels in addition to specialized equipment towards performing experiments that simulate Ocean World conditions. |
| Impact | It is early days , but we're working towards putting together a doctoral training centre. Our first proposal includes 18 PhD positions to be hosted across the three departments. It is indeed interdisciplinary, involving physics, chemistry and biological approaches. All proposed PhD places are associated with specific interdisciplinary subjects involving at least two supervisors each from a different department. The proposal has been put forward to college review by Physics and we're awaiting a green light. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Imperial's Ocean Worlds Network |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have set up an interdepartmental network, involving Physics, Chemistry and Lifesciences, within the topic of studying the habitability of Ocean Worlds (confirmed moons in the outer solar system with liquid oceans in their interiors at Jupiter and Saturn). The expertise of my life in deep-time molecular evolution and directed evolution makes us valuable partners. Currently, my team and I have contributed key perspectives, expertise, biological materials and methods for interdisciplinary research projects towards putting together a grant proposal for a Leverhulme's Doctoral Training Centre. I am the leader for Life Sciences in the partnership. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners have also contributed other perspectives from their respective feels in addition to specialized equipment towards performing experiments that simulate Ocean World conditions. |
| Impact | It is early days , but we're working towards putting together a doctoral training centre. Our first proposal includes 18 PhD positions to be hosted across the three departments. It is indeed interdisciplinary, involving physics, chemistry and biological approaches. All proposed PhD places are associated with specific interdisciplinary subjects involving at least two supervisors each from a different department. The proposal has been put forward to college review by Physics and we're awaiting a green light. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Long-term genome evolution in cyanobacteria |
| Organisation | George Washington University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have contributed with data analysis of a current sequencing project by Dr. Jimmy Saw (Assistant Professor). Dr. Jimmy Saw is a named collaborator in my fellowship and he is providing expertise in genomics pipeline and data assembly. I have a trip scheduled for June to GWU to work on our genomic data from the long-term evolution experiment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The collaborator has contributed de novo genome sequence data and expertise in genomics. |
| Impact | https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evab264 This collaboration is multidisciplinary, merging genomics, geobiology, and biochemistry/biophysics of photosynthesis. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Origin and evolution of photosynthesis |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is an ongoing collaboration with the group of Dr. Patricia Sánchez-Baracaldo at the School of Geographical Sciences. I have contributed expertise in the evolution of photosynthetic systems and genes. Dr. Sánchez-Baracaldo is a named collaborator on my UKRI FLF. |
| Collaborator Contribution | My collaborator has contributed expertise on the evolution and genomics of cyanobacteria and the application of computational methods. |
| Impact | This collaboration has resulted in three published papers. The latest of these is directly associated with my UKRI FLF: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbabio.2021.148400. Other outputs include an invitation to participate of the Bristol Geobiology Online Seminars, which attracted a broad audience. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Revealing a novel regulatory mechanism in oxygenic photosynthesis |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Expertise on photosystem II photochemistry, structure and function, bioinformatics, and evolution |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partner will provide genetic engineered model plant strains, and material for biophysical and biochemical analysis |
| Impact | Together with Prof. Alex Ruban and Dr. Guy Hanke at QMUL we have started a project together to characterise a potential new mode of regulation of plant photoprotection. We've joined forces to write a grant application, which is now under consideration. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Structure and evolution of Photosystem I in the early-branching cyanobacterium Anthocerotibacter panamensis |
| Organisation | National Taiwan University |
| Country | Taiwan, Province of China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My carried out the molecular evolution part of the study, which included extensive phylogenetic analysis. We also contributed to the preparation of the paper and data analysis and interpretation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners did the biochemical characterisation of the system and solver the CryoEM structure of photosystem I from the named organism. |
| Impact | A paper is nearly accepted for publication in PNAS. This is a multidisciplinary collaboration including, microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics, computational biology, and evolutionary biology |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Structure and evolution of Photosystem I in the early-branching cyanobacterium Anthocerotibacter panamensis |
| Organisation | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My carried out the molecular evolution part of the study, which included extensive phylogenetic analysis. We also contributed to the preparation of the paper and data analysis and interpretation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners did the biochemical characterisation of the system and solver the CryoEM structure of photosystem I from the named organism. |
| Impact | A paper is nearly accepted for publication in PNAS. This is a multidisciplinary collaboration including, microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics, computational biology, and evolutionary biology |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Structure and evolution of Photosystem I in the early-branching cyanobacterium Anthocerotibacter panamensis |
| Organisation | Yale University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My carried out the molecular evolution part of the study, which included extensive phylogenetic analysis. We also contributed to the preparation of the paper and data analysis and interpretation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners did the biochemical characterisation of the system and solver the CryoEM structure of photosystem I from the named organism. |
| Impact | A paper is nearly accepted for publication in PNAS. This is a multidisciplinary collaboration including, microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics, computational biology, and evolutionary biology |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | A selected talk at 2nd European Congress on Photosynthesis Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented my work to the international academics and researchers in photosynthesis research field, and invited to contribute to a special issue in a Journal called "Physiologia Plantarum". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | A spectrum of possibilities: insights into the evolution of far-red light photosynthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A press release for the dissemination of a piece of research. The press released was picked up by the media, which made the paper #2 out of 600 for attention score in that journal for papers of a similar age. It was widely retwitted. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2023/se/a-spectrum-of-possibilities-insights-into-the-evolution-of... |
| Description | Discussion Leader, Photosynthesis Gordon Research Conference, Maine, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to be discussion leader for a session at the prestigious Gordon Conference in Photosynthesis. I gave an introduction to the subject and led the session and discussion for an audience of 200-300 attendees. There was a great scientific discussion, and many of the participants mentioned it had been an exciting sesison, even their favourite of the entire conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Engaging audiences through Twitter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I maintain an active twitter account, @Tanai_Cardona, with 1300 followers (as of 8-MAr-2022). Although I started the account as a personal one, I use it now to engage with the public, the academic community and beyond. I use it as a tool to disseminate my group's research and accomplishment, and in addition to share recent science news or articles relevant to my subject, to share content important for diversity and inclusion in academia, to share job opportunities, and other forms of engagement. A popular twit could accumulate over 15k engagements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/Tanai_Cardona |
| Description | Evolutionary molecular clock experiment to reveal origins of photosynthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A press release and photoshoot on our long-term genome evolution experiment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/227154/evolutionary-molecular-clock-experiment-reveal-origins/ |
| Description | Flash talk and poster presentation at 10th International Congress on Biocatalysis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster on the progresses made (e.g. pre-methylation system, in vitro gene diversification system) and future approach (in vivo directed evolution system), and selected for 5 minute flash talk in the main venue. The poster and the talk attracted wide audience and sparked discussions on novel catalytic potential of photosystems and future approach, along with possible collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Flash talk and poster presentation at Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis 2023, Maine, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave 3 min flash talk on the project during Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis 2023. After the session, a few academics and students came to my poster and asked great questions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Imperial Lates Online: the Sun - Ask Me Anything Reddit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I led an "Ask Me Anything" Reddit for the Imperial Lates Online: the Sun, during lockdown. This evebnt enable the wider public to interact with experts on a subject asking questions and discussing a particular topic. In this case, it was about biotechnologies to enhance photosynthesis and about the evolution of photosynthesis. It had over 150 "upvotes" and over 50 questions were asked and discussed during a two hour session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Interview BBC Studios - Documentary pre-production |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Consulted for BBC Studios on the production of the NOVA documentary series, "The Universe". Interviewed by Poppy Pinock, BBC Story Producer |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Interview during pre-production of a documentary by BBC studios |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Consulted for BBC Studios during the production "Wonders of the Sun" documentary with Dara Ó Briain for Channel 5 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.channel5.com/show/wonders-of-the-sun-with-dara-o-briain/season-1 |
| Description | Interview for Tiny Matters Podcast by the American Chemical Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | "Algae transformed Earth: next stop Mars?" Interview for Tiny Matters Podcast by the American Chemical Society. Hosted and produced by Dr. Sam Jones and Dr. Deboki Chakravarti, April 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aPTJW6nyz7fWy2oMZQXHk?si=KQFFaodhRZ-BDw8G412_Mw |
| Description | Interview for Tiny Matters Podcast from the American Chemical Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to participate in an interview for the popular podcast by the Americal Chemical Society, Tiny Matters. This was for episode 31: How algae shaped our world (and maybe others in the future). The episde was link to Earth's week, which this year celebrated Algae. The podcast was released 5 April 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://open.spotify.com/show/5bfRJU0XPaGKJ7Os4vJQFk |
| Description | Interviewed for "Jax & Phoebe's Make a Planet" podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed for a podcast on the topic of the evolutionary history of the planet. The host of the podcast reported being very excited about our research. At this stage, I'm not sure how big is the audience of the podcast, but it was sponsored through a crowd-sourced mechanism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://www.makeaplanetpod.earth/ |
| Description | Invited Plenary -18th Int. Congress on Photosynthesis Research, Dunedin, New Zealan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I presented the fellowship work at the main photosynthesis congress, with an audience of several hundreds. There was substantial interest in the possibilities that our research offers within the topic. It triggered many questions and a rewarding discussion. It also highlighted the work of Dr. Tom Kim, the postdoc associated to the fellowship. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited Seminar, Photosynthesis and Plant Biochemistry Institute, Seville University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An invited talk at a photosynthesis insitute in Seville. About 50-10 scientist attending, including PG students. A great Q&A and discussion followed after. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Invited departmental Seminar at Free University of Berlin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited departmental talk at the Physics Department of Free University of Berlin. It involved mostly postgraduate students, research staff and senior scientists. It led to the establishment of a new collaboration with the group led by of Dr. Dennis Nurnberg (no outputs yet from this collaboration). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited departmental talk - Swedish Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a research talk for the Swedish Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited online departamental talk at George Washington University, Washington DC. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited departmental online seminar at the Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University. It uncluded audiences from undergraduate students to professors. There was a lively discussion at the end. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited plenary - 21st European Bioenergetics Conference, Aix-en-Provence, France |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an invted talk at the premier bioenergetics conference in Europe. I presented some of my fellowship work. I was also invited to participate on a special debate session, which gathered a lot of interest. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited speech for the General Assembly of the European Astrobiology Institute |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a talk at the General Assembly of the EAI. While the audience was primarily scientist, the EAI has a strong public engagement programme, and my participation of the GA is likely to make an impact on this |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://europeanastrobiology.eu/the-eai-2024-general-assembly/ |
| Description | Invited talk -- Photoredesign Consortium, University of Munich, Germany |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The work of my FLF programme has raised a lot of attention globably, and so I recieved an invitation to present our research for a large EU consortium that has an interest on our approaches. The talk involved a range of audiences ranging from UG to PG students, to senior scientists and triggered a nice discussion about the possibilities for the field that our work could enable. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Keynote Speech - 31st Western Photosynthesis Congress, California |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give the keynote talk of this annual conference on photosynthesis research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://wpc-2022.org/program/ |
| Description | Keynote Speech - Goldschmidt 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was nominated and invited to give a keynote speech at the Goldschmidt 2021 conference. One of the top conferences in the Earth Sciences |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://2021.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/6298 |
| Description | Online seminar - Bristol Geobiology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a talk at the Bristol Geobiology online seminar series, organized by U. of Bristol School of Geographical Sciences and the School of Earth Sciences. This was streamed life to a broad audience. The live audiance included over 100 attendees at all education levels from high-school students to professor level. The was a lot of engagement from the audience who reported being mind-blown and a changed view or perspective of the field through social media feedback. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbhDLM3fgBs |
| Description | Panel discussion on opportunities between biotech industry, policy and academia, and SBBS at SBBS PDRA Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | I organised a panel discussion session on the opportunities and experiences in between academia and industry, with a focus on biotech and policy periphery. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Personal Science Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I keep an active science blog that I use to share some unpublished data from minor projects, and to comment on recent research activities of my group or others. It is written for an audience that already have some level of expertise but the content is freely and easily acessible online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| URL | https://cardonalab.uk/blog |
| Description | Photosynthesis could be as old as life itself |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Press release on our paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbabio.2021.148400. It was picked up widely by the media. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/217553/photosynthesis-could-life-itself/ |
| Description | Poster presentation at International Congress on Photosynthesis Research 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster on the progress and future approach on directed evolution of photosystem II, which brought discussions on evolvability and new catalytic potential of photosystem II. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Poster presentation at NextGenBiocat 22 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster on progresses made in the project (e.g. pre-methylation system and in vitro gene diversification system), and attracted discussions on future plans and possible collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Poster presentation at SynBio UK 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster describing our approach and plan for directed evolution of photosystem II, and it led to discussions about suggestions and potential collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Selected talk, Gordon Research Seminar on Photosynthesis, Maine, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | My abstract was selected for a talk in Gordon Research Seminar on Photosynthesis 2023. Recent results on in vitro directed evolution of Photosystem II and structural modelling of D1 were presented, and a lively discussion was followed after the talk on the use of AlphaFold2 and the future perspective on the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk, expert panel, and visit invitation to Novogene Europe HQ. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Novogene, a world-leading genomics company, invited me and my research technician, associated with the fellowship, Dr. Cordon-Preciado to attend their Open Day at Cambridge Science Park. I was invited to give a talk highlighting our research. This was attended by the president of the company and the Director of Cambridge Science Park, and other seniors. There was huge interest in our work and it is likely that a future partnership with the company may result not only in greater visibility, but also financial contributions that could make some of our research costs better value for money. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://web.novogene.com/Novogene-Open-Day-2023 |
| Description | The Brilliant Club Scholars Program autumn term participation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The Brilliant Club is a charity focuses on narrowing the gap between underprivileged but bright pupils and highly competitive universities. I was a tutor of 16 pupils at London Nautical School, and I introduced my daily life as a researcher on the current project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | The Molecular Evolution Lab talk series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I organized and hosted the Molecular Evolution Lab Lockdown talk series as a celebratory event for the award of my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. The talks had engagement from undergraduate and postgraduate students and involved lively discussion sessions, at Imperial. This series also helped consolidate several collaborations that have been are will continue to be fruitful. This activity raised my visibility internally, which have resulted in student requests for final-year projects, tutored dissertations or UROP summer placements. It involved the following speakers: 27 May, Dr. Patricia Sánchez-Baracaldo, Royal Society URF and Reader, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. 24 June, Dr. Martin Homann, Lecturer in Sedimentology, University College London Earth Sciences. 29 July, Dr. Jimmy Saw, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University. 26 August, Dr. Christopher Gisriel, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Chemistry, Yale University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |