Professor Thomas Gorochowski
PhD(Bristol), MRes(Bristol), MEng(Warw.)
Expertise
Synthetic biologist developing experimental and computational approaches to enable the rational reprogramming of living cells and biological collectives.
Current positions
Professor of Biological Engineering
School of Biological Sciences
Contact
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Biography
Thomas Gorochowski is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Associate Professor based in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, UK. His lab focuses on better understanding the computational architecture of living systems to enable their effective reprogramming as a basis for adaptive living materials and cellular computers.
Prior to joining the University of Bristol, he was awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at DSM where he worked on large-scale automated strain development for precision gene expression in bacteria. He then joined the Synthetic Biology Centre at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA as a Postdoctoral Associate where he developed the initial sequencing analysis pipeline that forms part of the large-scale efforts at the MIT-Broad Foundry for Synthetic Biology and explored new ways that deep-sequencing could be harnessed for bioengineering. This led to the creation of the first sequencing-based ‘genetic debugger’ that enables the rapid diagnosis of faults in large circuits and simultaneous characterization of many genetic parts in situ. In 2016, he was awarded a BrisSynBio Fellowship to set up his own lab at the University of Bristol, and in 2017 received a prestigious 5-year Royal Society University Fellowship.
Since returning to Bristol he has rapidly established a group pioneering the application of novel sequencing methods for the rational engineering of biological systems. His research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and he provides leadership as Co-Director of the University of Bristol’s BioDesign Specialist Research Institute and as a Core Member of the UKRI-BBSRC ‘Transformative Technologies Strategy Advisory Panel’. He also has established innovative public engagement activities such as the ‘Become a Biological Engineer’ to bring bioengineering into the classroom.
Research interests
Biology computes... from individual cells deciding how to differentiate during development, to social insects coordinating their actions when scavenging for food; the ability to perform complex computations and process information enables life.
The Biocompute Lab explores the molecular-scale mechanisms that individual cells and groups of cells use to make sense of their world. We apply tools and methods from the field of synthetic biology to create new living systems from the ground-up. By studying these artificial systems using novel techniques we are developing based on sequencing, microfluidics and computational modelling, we aim to better understand the rules governing how biological parts are best pieced together to perform useful computations. Understanding the computational architecture of cells opens new ways of reprogramming them to tackle problems spanning the sustainable production of materials to novel therapeutics. It also provides key insights into how biology controls the complex processes and structures sustaining life.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
EEBio: Efficient Engineering and Control of Predictable and Reliable Biosystems
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/03/2024 to 28/02/2030
EEBio: Efficient Engineering and Control of Predictable and Reliable Biosystems
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/03/2024 to 28/02/2030
CYanoBacteria Engineering for Restoring environments (CYBER)
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
14/02/2024 to 13/01/2026
Royal Society URF Renewal - Extra 6k - 2023-24
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/10/2023 to 30/09/2024
8079 BrisEngBio Pilot Project: Nanopore-based physiological monitoring of yeast for bioprocess optimisation
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/08/2022 to 31/01/2024
Thesis supervisions
Investigating the Efficacy of Nanopore-Addressable Protein Tags as Reporters in Genetic Circuits
Supervisors
Tuneable Synthetic Genetic Devices
Supervisors
Comparison of the burden and basal performance of optogenetic expression systems
Supervisors
The dynamic optical micro-environment
Supervisors
Sequencing guided genetic part engineering
Supervisors
Recombinase-based cellular memory
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
25/06/2024Accelerating Genetic Sensor Development, Scale-up, and Deployment Using Synthetic Biology
BioDesign Research
Data hazards in synthetic biology
Synthetic Biology
Engineering is evolution: a perspective on design processes to engineer biology
Nature Communications
Long-term imaging and spatio-temporal control of living cells using targeted light based on closed-loop feedback
Micro-Bio Robotics
Optimization of periodic treatment strategies for bacterial biofilms using an agent-based in silico approach
Journal of the Royal Society Interface