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Harnessing microbiology to tackle global challenges

Professional headshot photo of Dr Sarah Guiziou

Dr Sarah Guiziou

Group Leader

Research themes:
Engineering Microbial Interactions
Plant-Microbe Interactions
Contact details:
sarah.guiziou@earlham.ac.uk
Part of

Biography

The research project of my group is on engineering plant roots and associated microbiomes for sustainable agriculture, using integrase-based technology.

I did my Ph.D. in synthetic biology working at the Centre de Biochimie Structurale of Montpellier under the supervision of Dr. Jerome Bonnet working on the engineering of logic circuits in bacteria. Interested in applying this work to the understanding of the development of multicellular organisms, I joined the plant synthetic biology lab of Prof. Jennifer Nemhauser from 2019 to 2022 as an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington. I developed integrase tools to record gene expression during plant development. I moved to the Earlham Institute in 2023 to develop my independent research project, and I got awarded a Future Leader Fellowship in 2024. I am now a group leader at the Earlham Institute.

One of my research focus is on plant-beneficial bacteria and their interaction with plants. The first objective is to develop synthetic biology tools for plant-benefical bacteria (such as integrase tools and imaging technologies). The second objective is to engineer root-microbe interaction, such as: the colonisation of the root by plant-beneficial microbe and bi-directionnal interaction between plants and rhizobacteria.