Victoria Haritos

Broadly my research brings together biology and engineering to address sustainable manufacturing.

I am interested in discovering and designing enzymes for specific and fast reactions and applied as biocatalysts. Also I research the metabolic and systems biology of yeast and bacterial cells in culture, examining the production of lipids and alcohols and investigating heterogeneity among cells using our high throughput culture and single cell analysis facility.

I use biocatalysts at different scales; the simplest scale being the isolated enzyme to the most complex such as a self-replicating cell. The easiest to implement is an isolated enzymes (biocatalysts) for application in cellulose and food processing. At the other extreme, whole cells have complex biochemical pathways to consider and require approaches like metabolic engineering or synthetic biology to streamline and improve production of selected metabolites.

Also, I have an active research program in food processing with particular interest in polyphenol antioxidants, dietary fibres and valorising food byproducts.

Enzyme discovery and design; metabolic engineering of yeast and bacteria; systems biology of cultured cells; food byproduct valorisation

Application areas: biocatalysis; bioprocessing; energy

• CHE1010 Grand Challenges in Chemical Engineering: delivering sustainable water, food and energy
• CHE4180 Research project
• CHE4171 Biochemical engineering
• CHE5882 Biomass and biorefineries

Final year (CHE4180) students; PhD students interested in these research areas are welcome to apply