Patrik Jones

Patrik R. Jones, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Biotechnology at the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London. He was educated as a winemaker (B. Ag. Sci. Oenology) but moved into academic work including a PhD in plant biochemistry (2001), followed by post-doctoral research in plant biochemistry, wine chemistry/sensory perception, and since 2005, metabolic engineering.

In 2011 he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant and at the end of 2013 he commenced his first academic position at ICL. He has coordinated two research networks, the EU FP7 collaborative project DirectFuel (http://www.directfuel.eu) and the Nordic Energy Research project AquaFEED, and is currently a partner in the EU FP7 projects DEMA and PHOTO.COMM and H2020 projects PHOTOFUEL and FUTUREAGRICULTURE.

A common theme throughout his entire career is the reconstitution or construction of metabolic pathways, from native to synthetic. The current group focus is placed on engineering heterotrophic and photoautotrophic microorganisms for the conversion of renewable substrates (sugar or light and CO2) into chemicals.