About Us

Our Team

Meet our team of experts driving innovation in engineering biology through collaboration and research excellence

Our Team

Unparalleled expert team

At SynbiCITE our team combines unparalleled expertise in engineering biology with a passion for innovation.

Together, we work to accelerate the commercialisation of breakthrough technologies and support the growth of high-impact businesses. With decades of experience and a proven track record in building successful companies, we provide our partners with the expertise and network needed to drive innovation and scale transformative technologies.

Director

Richard Kitney

Co-Director
Richard Kitney

Co-Director
Bio

Key Appointments: – Co-Founder and Co-Director of the EPSRC National Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI). – Co-Founder and Co-Director of SynbiCITE – the Innovation and Knowledge Centre for the translation and commercialisation of synthetic biology. – Professor of BioMedical Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. Professor Kitney has been working at the forefront of synthetic biology and has been pivotal in shaping its development in the UK and internationally since 2003. He has championed synthetic biology to governments, industry, learned societies and the public. Kitney is globally recognised as pioneering in the field. Dick has been a leader of UK R&D and the translation of synthetic biology for more than a decade, promoting global synthetic biology developments. As Chair of The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Inquiry into Synthetic Biology and a member of the UK’s Ministerial Synthetic Biology Leadership Council, Dick has driven the UK’s approach to the field and the technology, its development and its translation into industrially useful products, tools, processes and services – alongside educating future synthetic biologists. In addition to The Royal Academy of Engineering Inquiry Report (Synthetic biology – Scope, Applications and Implications, 2009), he is one of the authors of the two, subsequent, UK roadmaps for synthetic biology (A Synthetic Biology Roadmap for the UK, 2012; and Bio Design for the Bio Economy, 2016). Dick Co-Directs – with Professor Paul Freemont – the UK’s first R&D centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI) and the UK’s National Industrial Translation Centre for Synthetic Biology (SynbiCITE). He gives many keynote presentations at public lectures and international conferences – recently the IET Kelvin Lecture and the City and Guilds Fellowship Lecture.
Director

Paul Freemont

Co-Director

Paul Freemont

Co-Director

Bio

Professor Paul 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) and Head of the Section of Structural and Synthetic Biology in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College. He was previously the Head of the Division of Molecular Biosciences and Centre for Structural Biology having joined Imperial from Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (now known as the Crick Research Institute) where he was Principal Investigator and Head of Group. His recent research is focused on developing automation and biofoundries and cell-free systems for specific synthetic biology applications 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 was a co-author of the British Government’s UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap and was a recent member of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on synthetic biology for the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity. He is a council member of the US Engineering Biology Research Consortium and co-chair of the newly formed UK Governments Ministerial Engineering Biology Advisory Panel and sits on the UK Governments Engineering Biology Responsible Innovation Advisory Panel. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology and recently led leading a US-funded Task Force on Engineering Biology Metrics and Technical Standards for Global Bioeconomy. He is also co-founder and founding chair of the Global Biofoundry Alliance. He is a passionate advocate for the commercialisation of engineering biology and is co-founder of the Imperial spin-out Solena Materials Ltd developing designer protein fibres and also of SynBioVen Ltd, an early-stage seed investment company for engineering biology start-ups in the UK.
Manager

Megha Prakash Bangalore

PoC Programme Manager
Megha Prakash Bangalore

PoC Programme Manager
Bio

Megha Prakash Bangalore is an experienced Programme Manager and bioscience innovator with over 14 years of research experience spanning academia and industry. Currently serving as the Proof of Concept (PoC) Programme Manager, she leads strategic initiatives to support early-stage engineering and synthetic biology projects across the UK, enabling innovation at the intersection of biology and technology. Megha has a proven track record in stem cell research and bioprocess simplification, with particular expertise in media optimization and bioprocess development to enhance yield and product quality. Her work focuses on identifying and resolving critical bottlenecks in biomanufacturing processes, where she has consistently delivered cost-effective solutions within budget and timelines. She brings significant hands-on experience in small-scale bioreactor set-up, operation, and optimization, playing a key role in translating lab-scale processes to scalable manufacturing systems. Megha is passionate about enabling science-led innovation, supporting the next generation of bioengineers through her leadership in early-stage programme development.