Paul Freemont

• Year

  2022

• Program

  Biosciences

• Institution

  Imperial College London

• Location

  London, England

Professor Paul Freemont is Head of the Section of Structural and Synthetic Biology in the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College. The Section is based in South Kensington Sir Alexander Fleming Building and focuses on the molecular mechanisms of human disease and infection using the tools of integrated structural biology. In addition the Section also has research programs in synthetic biology focused on automation, cell free systems, microbiome engineering and printing.
Professor Freemont is the co-founder of the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation and co-founder and co-director of the National UK Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Synthetic Biology (SynbiCITE – since 2013). He is also director of the London BioFoundry (since 2016). His research interests are focused on developing synthetic biology foundational tools, automation and biofoundries and cell-free systems for specific applications including biosensing, metabolic and protein engineering and synthetic cells. He is author of over 300 scientific publications and is an elected member of European Molecular Biology Organisation and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Medicine and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art. He also co-chairs the newly formed UK governments Engineering Biology Steering Group and is also a member of the Biosecurity Leadership Council. Internationally, he is currently a council member of the US Engineering Biology Research Consortium and chairs of the EBRC Policy and International Engagement Working Group. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology and is currently leading a US-funded Task Force on Engineering Biology Metrics and Technical Standards for Global Bioeconomy. He also co-founded and was founding chair of the Global Biofoundry Alliance, an organisation comprising 36 institutions worldwide that have established public-funded biofoundries for synthetic/engineering biology. He is a passionate advocate for the commercialisation of engineering biology and is co-founder of the Imperial spin-out Solena Materials and also SynBioVen, an early-stage seed investment company for engineering biology start-ups in the UK.