Susan Rosser

Professor Susan Rosser is a leading figure in synthetic biology, holding a joint appointment between the School of Biological Sciences and School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. As Director of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology and Co-Director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry, she leads multi-million-pound research programs focused on engineering biology for personalized medicine and climate solutions. Her work includes developing implantable 'surveillance cells' to detect diseases and produce therapeutic responses, as well as enhancing biomanufacturing processes for biologics.

Education: BSc Microbiology and Genetics (University of Dundee), PhD in Microbial Genetics. Career highlights include postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge and University of Glasgow, where she pioneered projects on antibiotic resistance and bioremediation using transposons. She currently holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies (2018–2028).

Research Interests: Engineering mammalian cells for disease detection, synthetic biology tools for genome editing, and improving biopharmaceutical production using CHO cells. Collaborations include FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies and the Edinburgh Innovations Prosperity Partnership.

Awards: 2022 Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, 2018 Royal Academy of Engineering Chair. Grants include £6M from EPSRC and Prosperity Partnership funding.

Labs/Teams: Rosser Lab (focusing on synthetic biology tools and mammalian cell engineering), Edinburgh Genome Foundry (DNA synthesis and assembly).