Ángel Goñi-Moreno (Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics, CBGP‑UPM/INIA) has obtained an ERC Consolidator Grant 2021. During his project ECCO (Evolutionary Cellular Computing for Environmental Synthetic Biology) , he will design and implement novel biological circuits in microbes to allow them to act as bioremediation and biocontrol agents.
Ángel studied Computer Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Spain. In 2010 he earned a PhD in Computer Engineering, in the field of Synthetic Biology. He also held an MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence (UPM). After UPM, he joined Martyn Amos’ Novel Computation Group at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) as a postdoc. Afterwards, in early 2013, he went back to Madrid to join Victor de Lorenzo’s lab, which is part of the Systems Biology Program at CNB-CSIC (National Center for Biotechnology). During the summer of 2016, he moved to Newcastle University (UK) to join the ICOS group at the School of Computing as a PI in Synthetic Biology. In September 2020, he returned to UPM to establish the Biocomputation Lab, an interdisciplinary group that researches the interface of computing and biology, using synthetic biology as a tool.
Which are the main objectives of ECCO?
We will design and implement novel biological circuits—which are synthetic gene regulatory networks—in microbes to allow them to act as bioremediation and biocontrol agents. The starting point here is that synthetic biological networks do not perform great at evolutionary times. There are highly sophisticated circuits already that perform great at short timescales where evolutionary dynamics are negligible. But applications such as bioremediation need genetic circuits whose function is stable in the long run. ECCO will consider evolutionary dynamics for the rational design of circuits. This involves the use of mathematics to model and predict the performance of novel circuits, as well as molecular biology and microbiology methods to build and test them.
Why did you decide to carry out your research at the CBGP?
The CBGP has world-leading activity in plant biotechnology—essential for proof-testing ECCO—and is investing hard in synthetic biology and microbiology. Those are the features I need. In fact, the new synthetic biology and bioengineering department (which I am part of) is living a great scientific momentum at this time (both in terms of facilities and staff).
How do you expect this grant will affect your professional career?
It will definitely help stabilise my career. Also, five years is long enough to plan for ambitious experiments and developments. Starting a line of research—ECCO—is exciting, and having five years of funding and good career prospects really makes it a game-changer.
Are you planning to open research positions in your group?
Yes, I will open positions. Both theoreticians (biophysics, computer science) and experimentalists (molecular biology, microbiology) will be involved in ECCO. Also, people with expertise in laboratory automation, since we really want to go for automating protocols and methods.
Are you planning any collaborations?
I’ve always been collaborating a lot with different people. I have been working in the UK for 7 years or so, and I have collaborators over there that share my interest in interfacing computing and biology (Newcastle University, University of Bristol, University of Edinburgh, ICL, UCL…). I also collaborate with people from other synthetic biology hotspots around Europe like DTU (Denmark) or CSIC (Spain).
Where can we learn more about you and your project?
Website: www.angelgm.com
Twitter: @AngelGMoreno
Selected publications
Pathways to cellular supremacy in biocomputing. Grozinger, L., Amos, M., Gorochowski, T.E. et al. Nat Commun 10, 5250 (2019)
Contextual dependencies expand the re-usability of genetic inverters. Tas, H., Grozinger, L., Stoof, R. et al. Nat Commun 12, 355 (2021)
During the following weeks, we will be presenting those researchers working at Spanish institutions that have obtained an ERC Starting or Consolidator Grant 2021 and their projects. You can check their profiles HERE.
