Nicola Patron
Head of Group, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
I completed a PhD in plant molecular biotechnology and then did post-doctoral research at the John Innes Centre and the University of British Columbia on plastid evolution and metabolism.  in May 2016, relocating to the University of Cambridge in February 2024.  I am also a co-founder of Black in Plant Science. I also enjoy mountain sports, kayaking and cycling.

 

Konstantina Beritza
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Biological Synthesis of Bioactives for Sustainable Agriculture
In the past, I had the opportunity to work with various species in different labs, promoting the production of high-value products. I completed my PhD and bridging Postdoc at the Plant Chemetics Lab in Oxford, optimising Nicotiana benthamiana as a chassis for protein production through protease depletion, protein engineering and subcellular compartmentation. My current project focuses on engineering biosynthetic pathways, developing detection methods for key intermediates, and optimising yields using synthetic biology tools to enable the discovery and production of novel bioactive compounds for plant resilience. When I am not in the lab, you will probably find me at a dance studio.

 

Diego Pinheiro Brito
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Reprogramming plant responses to nitrate
I have joined the Patron Lab after completing my PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology. During my PhD I investigated the role of a family of RNA-binding Proteins as m5C-RNA readers with impacts in development and stress responses. Before that, I completed my MSc at the University of São Paulo working with a network involving microRNAs, transcription factors and phytohormones in the regulation of shoot branching in tomato. Outside of the lab I’m interested in cycling, Arts and learning different languages.

 

Rhiannon Crewe-Dagger
Research Technician
Prior to my role in the Patron Lab, I completed a BSc in Genetics and Evolution, and an MSc in Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis. During my BSc, my interest in plants began as I was writing my dissertation, assessing whether the coevolutionary relationship between fig wasps and figs was truly mutualistic. Following completion of my MSc, I worked as Scientist for Hematogenix, processing blood samples from patients who were trialling new cancer treatments. I have a wide range of hobbies and interests, such as painting, baking, arthropods, and plants, and I am looking forward to applying my scientific experience to my interest in plants whilst assisting with projects within the Patron Lab.

 

Zhengao Di
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Regulatory networks across cell-types
I did my PhD and a short postdoc in Prof. Julian Hibberd’s lab at the University of Cambridge during 2017-2023, focusing on the engineering of C4 photosynthetic pathway in C3 Arabidopsis. I joined the lab as a postdoc in 2023. I am studying the transcriptional network in the roots of Arabidopsis and tomato in response to changing nitrogen (N) conditions using scRNA-seq. We are interested in how the N-responsive transcription factor networks are distributed and coordinated across multiple cell types of the root. Knowledge from scRNA-seq will be used to inform cell-type-specific engineering of the N-responsive network to improve plant growth under N-limiting conditions.

 

Caroline Faessler
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Engineering gene regulation in plants to yield predictable expression
I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2023, where I studied metabolic engineering and transsgene silencing in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. After my PhD, I worked in biodiversity conservation as a data analysis, focusing on trade-related deforestation. My current project explores how DNA shape, torsional stress, and nucleosome occupancy influence the expression of synthetic genes in Nicotiana benthamiana. Beyond the lab, I enjoy playing volleyball and learning about animal clicker training.

 

Giovanni Gendarini
PhD Student
Project: Project: Reprogramming plant responses to nitrate

 

Connor Tansley
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Environmentally sustainable production of bioactive triterpenes
I carried out my PhD at the University of East Anglia working on the decoding of calcium signals in Marchantia polymorpha. The focus of my PhD work was on subsets of decoders involved in decoding salt-induced calcium signalling to characterise if the evolution of the calcium decoding toolkit was key in the emergence of plants onto land and to see if these decoders could be used to increase crop productivity in saline areas. My current project focuses on using molecular biology to explore plant natural products  and develop synthetic biology tools to increase the production of these compounds in heterologous systems. 

 

Juanjuan Wang
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Project: Model-informed engineering of plant gene regulatory networks
I received my M.S. degree from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) in 2019 and pursued my Ph.D. and short-term postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) from 2019-2024. I studied flower morphogenesis and the establishment of a transient transformation system of protoplasts in my master’s degree, and in my PhD, I studied the regulation of flowering  time in the globally important oilseed crop Brassica napus. My current project focuses on gene regulatory networks that coordinate plant disease resistance. We hope to improve the resistance of lettuce to fungal pathogens.

 

ALUMNI

 

Catarina Almeida 2024-2026
Research Technician
Catarina contributed to our projects to improve disease resistance and to produce natural products in plants, while also keeping our plants healthy and the lab stocked with equipment and consumables. Catarina is now a PhD student at Queen Mary University, London.

Honghao Su 2021-2026
PhD Student
Project: The evolution and function of triterpenoids in Asteraceae
Hong investigated the function, evolution, regulation and engineering of triterpenoid synthase enzymes in the Asteraceae. He defended his thesis in December 2025 and is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bristol, working on protein design.

Daria Golubova 2021-2025
PhD Student
Thesis title: Identification and biosynthesis of bioactive triterpenes from Calendula officinalis
Dasha investigated the biosynthetic pathways of plant metabolites and collaborated with the O’Connell lab to investigate their therapeutic properties. She defended her thesis in April 2025 and is now a postdoctoral research associate at the Earlham Institute working on synthetic genomes.

Melissa Salmon, 2019-2025
Postdoctoral Scientist
Mel worked on terpene biosynthesis in medicinal plants. She is now a postdoctoral research associate at the Earlham Institute working in the biofoundry.

Sarah Guiziou,  2023-2024
Career Development Fellow
Sarah joined the lab in 2023 with the goal of obtaining an independent fellowship to develop a research program focusing on using integrases to engineer plants, microbes, and their interactions. She is now a UKRI Future Leader Fellow and a group leader.

Mahima 2023-2024
Postdoctoral Scientist
Mahima worked on engineering nucleosome positioning as a tool to alter gene expression in plants. We are continuing to understand her discoveries in a new collaborative grant.

Sam Witham, 2018-2023
PhD Student
Thesis title: Understanding and engineering cis-regulatory functions in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Sam’s PhD research investigated the function of cis-regulatory elements in plants, focusing on promoters in a nitrate-responsive gene regulatory circuit. He contributed to new techniques for assessing protein-DNA interactions and elucidating plant genetic circuits.  Sam also completed an internship with the Open Bioeconomy Lab in Ghana. Heis now a Data Scientist at Macomics, Cambridge.

Yaomin Cai, 2018-2023
Postdoctoral Scientist
Yaomin led the computational design of minimal synthetic regulatory elements for plants. He also developed techniques for assessing protein-DNA interactions and contributed to our work on nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits. Yaomin left the lab in 2023 to take up a position as the Head of Research and Development at Ningbo J&S Botanics.

Rachel Shen, 2022
Intern
Rachel was an intern who joined the lab via the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) MISTI program. She completed her BSc in Biology with a microfluidic engineering certificate, and joined the lab to learn more about plant synthetic biology. She contributed to our work on nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits. She is now a PhD student at MIT.

Tufan Oz, 2019-2022
Postdoctoral Scientist
Tufan led the work in our lab on nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits. He also organised many essential systems in our lab, that we still rely on. Tufan is now a member of the Demirer Lab at Caltech, USA.

Kalyani Kallam, 2018 – 2021
Postdoctoral Scientist
Kalyani led our worked on engineering the production of insect sex pheromones for pest control in agriculture. She also contributed to the development of synthetic promoters and cell-free biosynthesis of plant proteins. Kalyani went on to work at Moa Technology, Oxford and Rothamsted Research.

Quentin Dudley, 2017-2021
Postdoctoral Scientist
Quentin worked on a collaborative project with the O’Connor lab  to produce mono-terpene indole alkaloids in Nicotiana benthamiana. To support this work, Quentin developed new tools for cell-free protein biosynthesis and optimised methods for genotyping with ddPCR. He also collaborated with the Geu-Flores lab to apply gene editing approaches to improve Nicotiana benthamiana as a production chassis and understand nicotine biosynthesis. Quentin is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Jason (Jeonghwan) Ahn, 2020
MSc. Student (UEA Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement)
Jason worked with Tufan to investigate nitrogen-responsive genes in Arabidopsis.

Giovanni Gendarini 2019-20
Undergraduate Student (University of York)
Gio joined us for a year in 2019-20 to work on incorporating unnatural amino acids into proteins expressed in plants. He also contributed to our work on synthetic regulatory elements.  Gio taught us about Muay Thai and mixed martial arts, and made amazing chocolate cake. He returned to the University of York to complete his undergraduate degree in genetics and then pursued an MSc at DTU Technical University of Denmark. In 2025, he returned to the lab to start a PhD.

Hubert Debreyne, 2019
ERASMUS Intern (MSc Biotechnology, University of Lille, France)
Hubert worked with Quentin, contributing to the cell-free expression of plant enzymes and engineering plants as improved bioproduction systems. He is now a researcher at Novaptech, Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

Jenny (Seohyun) Jo, 2019
Rotation Student
Jenny worked with Quentin, contributing to engineering monoterpene-indole alkaloids. She went on to pursue a PhD at the John Innes Centre, UK and is now a post-doc there.

Henry Tidd, 2018
MSc. Student (UEA Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement)
Henry worked with Yaomin to develop and test synthetic programmable transcription factors and cognate promoters. Henry went on to study plant protection as a PhD student at Rothamsted Research, UK and followed by a post-doc at the John Innes Centre, UK.

Oleg Raitskin, 2016-2019
Open Plant Postdoctoral Scientist
Project: Genome Engineering in Plants
Oleg worked on quantifying and optimising tools for CRISPR-based genome engineering in plants. Oleg is now Principal Scientist at Pencil Biosciences, Alderley Park, UK.

Amanda Salzman, 2017
MSc. Student (UEA Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement)
Amanda worked with Yaomin, contracting to the development of methods for quantitative assessment of synthetic regulatory elements for controlling relative gene expression.

Anthony West, 2017
Automation Specialist
Project: Automated, nanoscale DNA Assembly
Tony automated several protocols from our lab in the Earlham Biofoundry. He also contributed to the development of the LOOP system and Marchantia toolkit in collaboration with the Haseloff lab at the University of Cambridge.

VISITORS

Maruša Pompe Novak, 2019
Visiting Scientist (ERASMUS+ fellow), National Institute of Biology, Slovenia
Project: New technologies for investigating plant transcriptional regulatory networks
Maruša spent the summer in our lab learning about cell-free protein expression before returning to Slovenia where she used this to investigate potato transcription factors.

Ting Yang, 2017  
Visiting Scientist, Geu-Flores Lab, University of Copenhagen
Project: Improving the plant production chassis
Ting spent a month with us collaborating with Quentin to engineer alkaloid biosynthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana. 

Nathalia Volpi e Silva, 2016-2017
FAPESP Fellow, Mazzafera Lab, University of Campinas, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Project: Genome engineering to elucidate carbon flux in the lignin biosynthetic pathway
Nathalia spent six months in our lab learning all about CRISPR gene editing and contributing her knowledge to a review. She returned to the University of Campinas to complete her PhD, graduating in 2019.