Mark Isalan

Mark Isalan is a Professor of Engineering Biology at Imperial College London’s Department of Life Sciences, part of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. He leads research in synthetic biology, focusing on designing predictable biological systems for therapeutic applications. His work spans protein engineering, gene circuit design, and gene therapy strategies, with notable contributions to zinc finger nucleases and synthetic gene networks.

Education: PhD in Engineering Zinc Fingers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (University of Cambridge, 1996–2000). Postdoctoral training at Gendaq Ltd (2000–2002) and EMBL Heidelberg (2002–2006). Group leader at EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Unit (2006–2013) before joining Imperial College London.

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, gene therapy, molecular evolution, and biomedical engineering. Specific focuses include:

• Engineering synthetic gene networks for spatial patterning and therapeutic delivery
• Development of minimal transcription factors via directed evolution
• Applications of CRISPR and zinc finger technologies in disease modeling

Grants & Projects: ERC Starting Grant (MycoSynVac project), leading a consortium on synthetic biology for vaccines and therapies. Collaborations include the UKRI Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Biology Consortium.

Labs & Affiliations: Deputy Head of the Department of Life Sciences. Active in the Centre for Synthetic Biology, Centre for Advanced Therapeutics, and Integrative Systems Biology initiatives. His lab develops tools for precision gene regulation and synthetic biology-driven medical solutions.