Damian received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 2019. He studied under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Saá and Prof. Jesús A. Varela, and the focus of his thesis was on the development of new chemical transformations based on the catalytic generation of ruthenium vinyl carbenes. In 2017, he was awarded with a Barrié Foundation fellowship to  perform a short stay in the group of Prof. Amir H. Hoveyda (Boston College, USA) In April 2020, he joined the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa at the University of Groningen as a Marie Curie COFUND to explore many aspects related to chirality. Since November 2023, Damian has joined the lab as a research associate, where he is developing new biocatalytic transformations.

Chatura received his PhD in inorganic and polymer chemistry in 2023 from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) under the supervision of Prof. Parisa Mehrkhodavandi where he was supported by a UBC 4-year Doctoral Fellowship and an NSERC CREATE Scholarship. During his doctoral work, he designed new group 13 catalysts and studied their structure-function relationships in polymerization reactions to produce novel biodegradable materials. He aims to create and investigate new libraries of artificial metalloenzymes in new-to-nature reactions.

Alicia was awarded a PhD in Synthetic Biology from Imperial College London in 2024, supported by the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme. Her thesis centers on electrogenetic systems designed to regulate gene expression in bacterial cells. Alicia joined the lab as a research associate and is working in synthetic biology and protein engineering for neuroscience applications.

Nerea received her PhD in organic chemistry in 2023 from the University of Alicante (best thesis award) in the group of Diego J. Ramon, where she was funded by a predoctoral grant sponsored by the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). During this time, she did an internship in the group of Prof. Willis at the University of Oxford. Her thesis was focused on the design and use of deep eutectic mixtures for the development of new environmentally friendly synthetic methodologies. As she was eager to learn enzyme catalysis, she joined the lab as a research fellow with a Martin Escudero Fellowship. Currently, she is funded by the Generalitat Valenciana to keep working on biocatalysis. In her free time, she loves to read, spend time with their friends and kittens.

Ivan completed his PhD in the Bioprocess Laboratory at ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Sven Panke. His doctoral research focused on engineering Escherichia coli outer-membrane proteins to increase bacterial permeability, combining rational protein design, directed evolution and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). He previously obtained an MRes in Systems and Synthetic Biology from Imperial College London and a BSc in Biotechnology from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). Supported by an SNSF Postdoc.Mobility fellowship, Ivan joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher, where he is developing calcium-responsive molecular tools and engineered proteases for synthetic biology and neurobiology applications.

After receiving my degree in life sciences from the Leibniz University of Hanover (with an interlude at the Tokyo Institute of Technology), I continued my research at the FMP Berlin in the group of Janine Kirstein. I received my PhD in Biochemistry from Humboldt University doing research on protein homeostasis in February 2021. A fascination with synthetic biology led me to take up a postdoctoral role in the group of George Lu at Rice University (Houston), where I investigated the physiology and assembly of gas vesicles in native and heterologous hosts. Now, a follow-up focusing on the intricacies of building gas vesicles in non-native hosts has brought me to the group of Mateo Sanchez at the Department of Chemistry in Cambridge, where I work as a Research Fellow with support from the European Comission. In my spare time, I’m an enthusiastic baker and will happily share my newest creations with friends and colleagues!

Yuancheng is a Herchel Smith PhD student. He graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London in 2023. During his undergraduate studies, he was supervised by Prof. Mark Isalan and Prof. Geoff Baldwin on projects involving directed evolution, cell-free protein expression systems, genetic circuit design, and lab automation, which sparked his interest in synthetic biology. As the wet-lab lead of the Imperial iGEM Team 2022, the team was recognized as one of the Top 10 Undergraduate Teams worldwide. He joined the lab in 2024 and aims to develop new molecular probes for neuronal signals detection.

Ana obtained her BSc. in Chemistry Honours at the University of British Columbia before joining the Sánchez lab as a PhD student funded by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. During her undergraduate, she worked with Prof. Parisa Mehrkhodavandi in group 13 catalysed polymerizations and later joined the group of Prof. Eva Nichols for her honours thesis, where she studied PCET events in porphyrin electrocatalysis. In 2024, Ana completed an internship at the National Research Council of Canada working on PEM water electrolysis. Her thesis explores new-to-nature C-C bond forming reactions.

Rui joined the group as a PhD student in January 2026 supported by the Cambridge Trust. Before joining the group, Rui completed an MPhil in Biological Science (Genetics) at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Cahir O'Kane. His MPhil's research investigated the mechanisms governing molecular movement within the lumen of the axonal endoplasmic reticulum. Rui received his BEng in Bioengineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2024, where he conducted undergraduate research under the supervision of Dr Guangtong Wang and Professor Woo Jae Kim. His research focuses on engineering genetically encoded protein tools for investigating neuronal signalling.

Pepe holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, where he graduated in 2025. During his undergraduate studies, he specialised in synthetic biology and was involved in a range of projects, including the development of genome-engineered cells for improved cellular resource allocation; whole-cell systems for PET degradation; metabolic engineering approaches for the production of high-value chemicals such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) for plastic upcycling and riboflavin; and the development of cell platforms for the degradation and metabolism of complex carbohydrate substrates. He also completed an internship at the Institute of Functional Biology and Genomics (IBFG; CSIC–University of Salamanca), where he conducted high-throughput screening to investigate the effects of post-translational modifications on yeast signalling and meiosis. He is currently pursuing an MPhil in Biological Chemistry, focusing on protein and metabolic engineering to enable challenging chemical transformations for the synthesis of valuable molecules, ranging from synthetic building blocks to natural products.

Jason received his BA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from the University of Cambridge in 2025 and joined the Sanchez lab that same year. His MPhil project focuses on engineering photoswitchable proteins for light-controlled permeabilization of the bacterial outer membrane.