Team
The people behind this project
iDEC 2026, University of Edinburgh.
Chloe Muller
Wet lab
Emma Gregson
Wet lab
Esther Tulloch
Wet lab · Team lead
Chester Chan
Wet lab & dry lab
Alexander Gottel
Wet lab & dry lab
Tank Li
Wet lab & dry lab
Supervision
Supervisors
Heather Barker
Project Supervisor and Advisor
Chris French
Project Advisor
Contributions
Attribution by project stage
Self-reported contribution out of 5 for each stage of the project.
| Stage | Esther | Chloe | Emma | Alex | Chester | Tank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Culturing, Miniprep and Sequencing Prepare DNA and analyse the native sequence. Wet lab | 5/5 | 5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 |
| Enzyme Characterisation and Construct Validation Test native enzyme functionality and codon-optimised construct performance. Wet lab | 2/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 0/5 | 3/5 |
| Selection and Assay Validation Test selection methods and validate experimental controls. Wet lab | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| PCR Optimisation and Construct Assembly Troubleshoot high-GC PCR, perform ePCR and high-fidelity backbone PCR, and assemble native and codon-optimised constructs using Gibson Assembly. Wet lab | 4/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
| Mutant Library Generation and Screening Grow the mutant library and screen for promising variants. Wet lab | 5/5 | 5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Mutant Activity Characterisation Perform activity assays to evaluate the functionality of selected mutants. Wet lab | 5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 |
| Protein Structure Prediction and Validation Generate AlphaFold/ColabFold models of CxnA and its CenA and Cex domains, and compare predicted structures with known crystal structures to validate catalytic residues. Dry lab | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Integration of Computational Findings with Experimental Screening Use structural and computational predictions to guide experimental mutant selection, then compare predicted substrate interactions with the Congo red, X-gluc and MUC assay results and their respective DNA sequences. Dry lab | 1/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |