Accelerated Evolution

Project Summary

Darwinian evolution has shaped all life on earth. As scientists, we would like to harness these principles to create new molecules in real time - for example, to rapidly create therapeutic molecules to tackle pandemics.

However, the timescales of Darwinian evolution in living organisms are long and thus incompatible with fast discovery of new functions in the laboratory.

To overcome this limitation, we have established a synthetic orthogonal replication system in E. coli (EcORep) that enables selective and rapid mutation and selection exclusively on the DNA of interest without increasing the host genome's mutation rate. This technology allows us to create proteins with new functions in a few days.

The lab aims to leverage the orthogonal replication system for the accelerated evolution of complex biological functions to i) advance fundamental scientific understanding of molecular and cellular evolution, ii) develop biomolecules to tackle challenges in human-health, agriculture, and industry, and iii) generate large-scale enzyme datasets for training next generation protein design models.

Potential Supervisors  

• Professor Jason Chin (Founding Director, GBI, EIT & Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford)
• Dr Rongzhen Tian (Group Leader, GBI, EIT)

Skills Recommended

• A Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g. Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Computer Science)
• Experience of hands-on research in a laboratory setting
• Proven ability to work independently, think creatively, and solve complex problems
• Experience with data analysis, automation platforms, or computational tools relevant to the field
• Experience preparing publications and delivering scientific presentations
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple parallel workstreams
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary teams
• A proactive mindset and enthusiasm for working in a fast-paced, high-growth research environment

University DPhil Courses 

• DPhil in Chemistry
• Other courses to be added as GBI grows its faculty

Relevant Literature

• Tian, R. et al. Establishing a synthetic orthogonal replication system enables accelerated evolution in E. coli. Science 383, 421–426 (2024).
• Rix, G. et al. Continuous evolution of user-defined genes at 1 million times the genomic mutation rate. Science 386, eadm9073 (2024).
• Molina, R. S. et al. In vivo hypermutation and continuous evolution. Nat. Rev. Methods Prim. 2, 36 (2022).