Chris Howe

Chris Howe is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on photosynthetic organisms and their biological applications, including biophotovoltaics and coral bleaching mechanisms. He leads the Howe Group, which explores topics such as dinoflagellate chloroplast genomics, malaria parasite chloroplast transcriptomics, and evolutionary analysis of non-biological data like literary texts.

Research Interests:

• Photosynthetic stress responses and energy conversion
• Biotechnological exploitation of algae and cyanobacteria
• Coral-algal symbiosis and bleaching mechanisms
• Evolutionary analysis of chloroplast genomes in Plasmodium and dinoflagellates
• Phylomemetics applied to music and literary texts

Recent Articles: Highlighted work includes studies on thiol redox regulation in cyanobacteria, 3D-printed bioelectrodes, and evolutionary analyses of Bach’s music. His lab has pioneered genetic tools for dinoflagellate chloroplasts and demonstrated moss-powered devices.

Advising & Grants: Advises graduate students (e.g., Jack Hervey, Elfadil Osman) and postdocs. Collaborates on projects funded by grants in biophotovoltaics and coral symbiosis.

Labs/Teams: The Howe Group operates in the Hopkins Building, Cambridge, with partnerships in biotechnology (e.g., Anaero Technology, LEITAT) and academic networks like BEST (Biophotovoltaics Energy Storage Technology).