Hudson Lab

In 2013 I helped to start research on cyanobacteria at KTH, on a project to produce butanol. That project evolved into this group. In 2014 I became a SciLifeLab Fellow, and moved to Science for Life Laboratory. As group leader, I direct our ongoing projects so that they complement one another. As an advisor, I want students to learn to look for how research projects fit together. I also want for students to develop technical skills in instrumentation and data processing. It is their success in this that has allowed our research to expand into new areas.

I did my PhD in Uppsala University doing metabolic engineering on cyanobacteria for terpenoid production. After that I was a Post-doc researcher at the Joint Bioenergy Institute in Berkeley USA from 2018-2021 working on high throughput polyketide synthase engineering. In the fall of 2021, I joined the Hudson lab. Here I will continue my research interest of applying modern methods for metabolic engineering by developing and applying methods for high throughput engineering of cyanobacteria.

During my PhD I tried to unravel the secrets of a central ribonuclease in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. To do so, I combined both experimental wet lab work and bioinformatic analyses. I am enthusiastic to now use this knowledge to change gear towards more applied research on cyanobacteria and help to investigate the potential use of cyanobacteria and their enzymes to create more sustainable solutions.

During my PhD, I studied the regulation of enzymes from carbon metabolism in plants using biochemical and biotechnological approaches. Also, during that period I worked in the genetic modification of different plant species to improve agronomic traits. Later, I worked for a company managing biotechnology projects to improve sustainability within the agroindustry. Driven by my passion for sustainability, I joined the Hudson lab to develop my expertise in synthetic biology and to devise strategies to enhance growth and carbon fixation in both plants and cyanobacteria

I completed my PhD in the Applied Biocatalysis group at the UFZ in Leipzig, where I focused on engineering cyanobacteria for hydrogen production. Following my doctoral studies, I joined the Hudson Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in autumn 2023. My current research focuses on optimizing CO2 fixation in cyanobacteria and exploiting carbon fixation for bioproduction of target compounds. My work aims to contribute to the development of sustainable solutions for carbon utilization and bio-based production processes.

I hold a PhD in Food Science from the University of Helsinki and joined the Hudson Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in Fall 2024. My research focuses on precision fermentation for alternative protein production. During my PhD, I investigated texture perception and physicochemical properties of plant-based yogurts, including experiments conducted at UMass Amherst, MA, USA. I also have industry experience from Valio R&D and a Berlin-based start-up, where I studied the functional properties of plant-based ingredients for vegan foods. My research contributes to more sustainable food production.

In February 2024, I completed a dual-degree PhD from Ruhr University Bochum and Wageningen University & Research, specializing in Photobiocatalysis with a focus on cofactor regeneration. During this time, I also served as a research assistant at the Technical University of Graz, where I deepened my expertise by working on the immobilization of cyanobacteria for continuous chemical synthesis. In October 2024, I joined the group as a postdoc with Elias Englund, to work on a project dedicated to establishing hydrogen metabolism in Cyanobacteria.

I joined the group during the Spring of 2020 for my MSc thesis degree project. After graduation, I stayed with the group to work on interaction proteomics in autotrophic bacteria. The focus of the project is to explore post-translational regulation of carbon fixation in multiple bacteria to enable a future increase in carbon flux through the cycle. I am also eager and curious to explore other topics, and develop both wet and dry lab skills, in particular mass-spectrometry based proteomics.

I joined the lab in 2021. I am interested in metabolism in all of its varieties. In my master's thesis at KTH I studied the puzzle of amino acid secretion by anaerobic Clostridia. In this group I will work to develop and apply new proteomics methods for cyanobacteria and plant. Our hope is to uncover new types of regulation in carbon fixation. Alteration of these regulations could lead to cells with faster carbon uptake or altered product secretion.

My time in the group started in the beginning of 2022 as a masters student. During the thesis I worked with evaluating cyanobacteria enzyme libraries in vivo. As a PhD student I am now working on synthetic biology of cyanobacteria, where I am to find and produce alterations in central metabolism and carbon uptake cycle. The methods of choice for this are primarily proteomics, metabolomics, and mutagenesis. My hope is to produce a strain with a deregulated carbon uptake, and to also harness this increased uptake towards specific products.

I joined the group in Fall 2023. Here is some additional background about me! From 2018 to 2023 I was a Student in Biological Sciences at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. I was a participant at the EPFL School of Life Sciences Summer Research Program in 2022, Lausanne. I was part of the Max Planck Summer Internship Program in 2021, in Munich. I also attended the 29th International Biology Olympiad, 2018, Tehran. As a Ph.D. student I am working on different platforms for Adaptive Laboratory Evolution of Photoautotrophs.

I first joined the group as a Master's student in the MTLS degree program and in Fall 2024 as a PhD student. My passion lies at the intersection of computer science and molecular biology where I strive to unlock an integrative understanding of cellular mechanisms to develop modular, predictable, and programmable biological systems. I am developing computational pipelines for protein design in various applications from carbon fixation to novel food proteins, as well as metabolic modeling. I am also interested in helping the group implement laboratory automation to improve the throughput and impact of synthetic biology projects.

I was isolated for research around 1970 from a lake near Berkeley, California. I was the first photosynthetic organism to have a genome sequenced. My main interests are light and CO2. I exist in thousands of tubes and flasks around the world. Through this distributed existence I silently and relentlessly sample genetic mutation. In some of my many permutations, I can consume glucose. In others I move toward the light, in others still I retract from it. I joined this group in 2011, was discarded after a contamination was discovered, but returned again in 2012.