Our research interests span synthetic biology, molecular detection/recognition and chemical biology. We are currently exploring a number of research areas including; i) the development and application of genetically encoded biosensors, to detect molecules of bio-medical and biotechnological interest, ii) the application of riboswitch-based gene expression tools in the context of developing of tuneable recombinant protein production systems, iii) cellular capacity matching for the optimisation of cellular protein production and secretion, iv) small molecule-RNA-protein interactions associated with allostery, molecular recognition and context engineering.
The driver of these applied research areas is the development of new chemical and synthetic biology tools to both i) help understand fundamental biological processes, ii) permit more efficient protein production process, and iii) optimise whole-cell bio-catalytic processes supporting the bio-based economy. Find out more about:
Dixon Lab 