MissMaria Portela

I am a PhD student in the Microbiome-Microscopy and Microfluidics Lab, funded by the President’s PhD Scholarship and aligned with the Institute of Chemical Biology CDT.


Background
Before starting my PhD I obtained an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering with a Year in Industry from Imperial College London. My master's project, with the Synthetic Biology for Metabolic Engineering lab, focused on cloning and characterising ATP and cAMP sensors, as part of an effort to create a modular library of genetically encoded metabolite sensors for the study of metabolic heterogeneity in yeast. My year placement was in the Genomic Sciences department at GSK, where I was part of a team delivering high-throughput CRISPR screening experiments for drug target identification.

Before that, I completed various summer projects, including an artistic residency where I encoded music into DNA and simulated its change under various laboratory evolution techniques, culminating in a gallery exhibition open to the general public; and a research internship where I designed a user interface for a trial eczema monitoring app.

Extracurriculars
I am a keen science communicator and regularly collaborate with Outreach events. In my free time, I love to sing and compose choral music, hiking, and spending time in nature.