Background
Hi all! My name is Bartek (he/him) and I am a master's student (MPhil), co-supervised by Prof. Christopher Howe (biochemistry) and Dr. Jenny Zhang (chemistry), interested in understanding the photo-electrochemistry of cyanobacteria. I completed my undergraduate bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in my final year in part II Biochemistry, but also studied some physical sceinces in my previous years. I am currently applying for PhDs, looking to continue working with cyanobacterial.
Research
My current research involves synthetic biology approaches to engineer mixed species biofilms, to study microbial interactions and for use in biophotoelectrochemical systems. Moving forwards, my work will investigate the evolution of structure, decorators and protein associations of peptidoglycan in photosynthetic organisms. Through this, we hope to gain further insight into plastid evolution, its role in the electrogenic activity of cyanobacteria to find new ways to engineer cyanobacteria for bioelectricity generation, and move closer to understanding the mechanisms of endogenous mediation in cyanobacteria.
Funding
Self-funded master’s (MPhil)
Algae UK summer internship (2022, Howe group, University of Cambridge)
BBSRC REP summer internship (2021, Dr Ben Miller, UEA)
Contact details
e-mail: bw437@cam.ac.uk
lab phone: +44 (0)1223 333 684
twitter: @bartosz_witek
Publications
- ‘CIPK-B is essential for salt stress signalling in Marchantia polymorpha’ https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18633