Team Members
Dr Simon Moore, Associate Professor (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London), 2025–Present
Simon is a synthetic biologist with a background in biochemistry. Simon enjoys leading the research group, teaching students, and developing collaborations with industry. In his spare time, he has two daughters to keep him busy, he enjoys running, playing cricket (Walmer Cricket Club) albeit at a concerningly declining rate of competitiveness, and sometimes can be spotted on the golf course once a year.
Dr Ming Him Tong, Postdoctoral Researcher (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London), BBSRC-funded, 2025–Present
Ming Him is a postdoctoral researcher in the group, funded by the BBSRC. His research applies synthetic biology and cell-free systems to biosynthetic pathway engineering and natural product discovery.
Alexandra Butulan, PhD Student (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London & Syngenta), 2023–Present
Alex is a third year PhD student working in collaboration with Syngenta and her research project focuses on using cell-free synthetic biology to discover novel peptides with potential applications in agriculture. Alex completed her undergraduate and master's degrees in Chemistry with Biomedicine at King's College London. Alex's research interests include cell-free protein synthesis and using synthetic biology to design and optimise pathways for natural product production. Beyond research, Alex enjoys cooking, live music, and exploring speciality coffee.
Charlotte Woolley, PhD Student (School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London), 2023–Present
Charlotte is a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency. Her research uses microbial genetics and synthetic biology to discover and engineer bacteriophage-derived protein complexes as novel antimicrobial strategies against Gram-negative infectious diseases. Beyond her doctoral work, she is interested in biotechnology translation and its role in addressing global health challenges.
Sahana Suthakaran, Research Technician (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London), Sanofi-funded, 2025–Present
Sahana is a research technician in the group, supported by funding from Sanofi. She completed her MSc at Queen Mary University of London in 2024, where she carried out her research project in the Moore lab. She supports the group's work in cell-free synthetic biology and antimicrobial research.
Linying Sun, MRes Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London), 2026–Present
Linying is an MRes student at Imperial College London. She is working on genome editing in Streptomyces bacteria, with a focus on understanding the regulation of megasynthase expression in Streptomyces rapamycinicus. Beyond research, Linying enjoys travelling and photography.
Mutia Khairunisa, MSc Student (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London), 2025–Present
Mutia is an MSc student at Imperial College London studying Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology. Her research focuses on investigating how codon usage variation influences gene expression in Streptomyces venezuelae cell-free protein synthesis systems to optimise translation efficiency for protein expression toolkit development in drug discovery applications. Beyond the laboratory, Mutia enjoys hiking, climbing, cinema, and the arts.
External Supervision
Dr Bethany Martin
Postdoctoral Researcher (Porton Down, UKHSA - Project Leader, Professor Mark J. Sutton)
2025–Present
Postdoctoral Researcher (Porton Down, UKHSA - Project Leader, Professor Mark J. Sutton)
2025–Present
Bethany is a microbiologist from UKHSA Porton Down, who recently received her PhD from the University of Southampton with UKHSA. Her PhD focused on single-cell microfluidic impedance cytometry to study antimicrobial susceptibility. She started her postdoc at UKHSA in August 2024 in collaboration with the Moore group as an external postdoc and is working closely with colleagues at Imperial to develop cell-free expression systems. Bethany is focusing on generating a K. pneumoniae resistome strain collection to study how specific resistance variants influence gene expression and metabolism within the cell-free reaction. Outside of scientific research Bethany enjoys country walks, cooking, and swimming.
Sebastián Bermudez Puga
PhD Student (Co-supervisor: Prof. Ricardo Oliveira, University of São Paulo)
2025–Present
PhD Student (Co-supervisor: Prof. Ricardo Oliveira, University of São Paulo)
2025–Present
Sebastián is from Ecuador and a biotechnologist who studied antimicrobial peptides from natural sources at Ikiam University, in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Currently, Sebastián is a PhD student at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), holding a FAPESP scholarship. Sebastián's research focuses on the broad-spectrum use of antimicrobial peptides in the food and aquaculture industries. In 2024, Sebastián joined the Moore lab at Queen Mary University of London as a visiting PhD student. We are harnessing cell-free synthetic biology to accelerate the development of peptide-based antimicrobial agents.
Visiting Researchers and Summer Students
Eleonora Moretti
Visiting PhD Student (University of Milano-Bicocca and the Marine Biotechnology Department, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn)
2026
Visiting PhD Student (University of Milano-Bicocca and the Marine Biotechnology Department, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn)
2026
Eleonora is a visiting PhD student from the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Marine Biotechnology Department at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. She joins the group to develop her research in synthetic biology and biosynthesis.
Brad Leung, BSc Student (Department of Life Sciences), 2023–2026
Brad recently graduated from Imperial College London, where his undergraduate thesis focused on the chromatin binding kinetics of the transcription factor NANOG in mouse embryonic stem cells. His current project involves optimizing the heterologous production of arcyriaflavin A via the acfODCP biosynthetic pathway in Streptomyces. This work intends to improve the teaching practicals for the final-year Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship module.
Hannah Lee
Summer Student (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London)
2026
Summer Student (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London)
2026
Hannah is a summer student in the group, funded by the Biochemical Society summer studentship scheme.
Alumni
- Dr Molly Bergum (Postdoctoral Researcher, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Yeon Jun Lee (MSc Student, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Hugo Katerbau (MSc Student, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Sanjna Mistry (MSc Student, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Sam McDowall (MSc Molecular Cell Biology, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Leah Duff-Gibson (MSc Molecular Plant and Microbial Sciences, Imperial College London, 2025)
- Dr Agata Kennedy (PhD Student, University of Kent, 2020–2025)
- Dr Emma Bartram (Postdoc, Queen Mary University of London, 2024) – Subsequent Position: Source Health Economics
- Dr Lewis Tanner (Postdoc, Queen Mary University of London, 2023–2024) – Subsequent Position: Wellcome Trust
- David Wong (MSc Student, Queen Mary University of London, 2023–2024)
- Dr Lakshmeesha Nagappa (Postdoc, University of Kent, 2021–2023) – Subsequent Position: Aurigene Oncology Limited
- Dr Kameshwari Chengan (PhD, University of Kent, 2020–2024) – Subsequent Position: Senior Scientist, Evolutor
- Thomas Chinnery (Research Assistant, University of Kent, 2022) – Subsequent Position: Technician, Buscaino lab (University of Kent)
- Dr Sarah Blackburn (Postdoc, University of Kent, 2019–2021) – Subsequent Position: Postdoc, Ezcurra lab (University of Kent)
- Harry Meades (MSc Student, University of Kent, 2021–2022) – Subsequent Position: PhD, Ezcurra lab (University of Kent)
- Josh Harman (MSc Student, University of Kent, 2020–2021) – Subsequent Position: Biomedical Scientist, NHS
- Seth Coode (MSc Student, University of Kent, 2019–2020) – Subsequent Position: Life Science Coordinator, Biocair
- Samuel Jones (MSc Student, University of Kent, 2019–2020) – Subsequent Position: PhD, Lawrence lab (University of Kent)
- Katie Latham (MSc Student, University of Kent, 2019–2020) – Subsequent Position: PhD, City St George's University of London