Dr Jose Munoz-Munoz
Dr. Munoz-Munoz is a Lecturer in the Department of BioSciences at Durham University (UK) with more than 25 years' experience investigating bacterial enzymology and microbe-microbe interactions in gut microbiota environments and agricultural ecosystems.
He has a strong background in enzyme characterization of plant-glycan degrading bacteria; microbial systematic; structural biology; functional and comparative genomics ((meta)genome analysis and (meta)transcriptomics). His research interests and trajectory are focused on agroindustrial plant glycan metabolism by human gut microbiota, microbe-microbe interactions, discovery of new prebiotics, characterization of biotechnological enzymes and management of agro-industrial waste materials and employment of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria for the bioenergy conversion.
His international career has fostered the authorship of scientific publications on the enzymes degrading food waste polysaccharides and the protein engineering of those enzymes to enhance the activity/affinity through structure-guided directed evolution.
Molly Hall
Molly started her project titled: AmadoriZyme: Enzymatic targeting of Amadori compounds in laundry and dish soils. She is going to develop novel strategies to tackle amadori products using bacterial and fungal flavo-enzymes.
Amadori products are stable intermediates formed from reducing sugars and amino groups during glycation and the Maillard reaction. They are an early marker of hyperglycemia in diabetes and can contribute to diabetic complications.
During her PhD, Molly will try to discover novel Amadoriases that are able to degrade amadori products using Molecular Biology, Protein Engineering and Structural Biology but also proteomics and microbiology to understand how new microbes can metabolize these products as carbon source.
Before joining the lab, Molly did her MBiol in Biotechnology and Microbiology at University of York. She is based at Durham University.
2024-2028.
Rosanna Rostron
Rosanna started recently her PhD project titled: Enzymatic surface Engineering with Glycoside Hydrolases. Rossana is going to use multi-domain enzymes with the aim to modify the surface of fabrics and enzymatically functionalyze it for biological applications. She will target cellulose but also other biopolymers. She is based at Durham University.
2025-2029.
Other Students
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Ellie Ashcroft. Northumbria University. 2022-2026.
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Alice Stephen. Northumbria University. 2023-2027.
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Ariadna Vidal. Newcastle University. 2024-2029.
Alumni
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Pedro Fernandez. PhD student
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Jonathon Woods. PhD student
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Dr Melissa Poma. PhD student
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Maria Garcia-Canovas. PhD student
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Pedro Rivero. PhD student.
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Victor Okoro. PhD student.
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Mingaile Jackson. PhD student
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Dominic Farsi. PhD student.
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Megan Grey. PhD student
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Dr Migkena Zoupali. Postdoc.
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Dr Nicola Brown. Postdoc.