Dr. Nicola Patron

Biography

Nicola Patron is a plant molecular and synthetic biologist interested in using engineering approaches to understand biological complexity and advance plant biotechnology. After completing her PhD in plant molecular biology, she undertook post-doctoral research in plastid metabolism at the John Innes Centre and the University of British Columbia. As a SynBioLEAP fellow, she was recognized as an emerging leader in synthetic biology. In 2016, she established her lab at the Earlham Institute and became the Director of the Earlham Biofoundry, focusing on developing resources for the UK’s biology and biotechnology communities to undertake large-scale projects. Her research aims to develop and apply engineering approaches to understand biological complexity and advance plant biotechnology, particularly by understanding phenotypes that emerge from network functions and exploring metabolic diversity. Her lab investigates the genetic basis of plant natural products using genomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics to enable the understanding of mechanisms behind metabolic diversification and to explore biomanufacturing methods. Projects include developing plants as photosynthetic biomanufacturing platforms and engineering synthetic genetic circuits to optimize production in plants.

Research Interests