Meet The Team

Teo has over 5 years of experience managing research projects, focusing on the synthesis and application of carbon nanodots. During his PhD at the University of Bristol, he participated in entrepreneurial training and a business consultancy program. Teo has experience in pitching, pitch readiness, and developing research into investments.

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He believes in the impact of tech innovations to transform current practices in Agriculture to overcome the challenges of the climate change panorama. Teo is committed to developing the technology for sustainable and resilient Agriculture, freeing biotech companies, wholesalers, and other stakeholders throughout the agricultural supply chain from environmental, reputational, and financial risks commonly associated with GMO and gene editing.

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Dr Heather Whitney (School of Biology, University of Bristol) is currently Reader in Plant Interactions. Has 20+ years experience in Plant Science Research investigating nanostructures in plants and their biological impacts, including the development of nanomaterials systems for plant-based applications.

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Experience in initiating, funding and managing large multi-institute projects that have brought in over £6 million in research funding, and in initiating industrial collaborations. Co-inventor of the carbon dot technology. 2012 winner of the SEB Presidents medal awarded annually to ‘young scientists of outstanding merit’.

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Prof. M. Carmen Galan (School of Chemistry, University of Bristol) is currently Professor of Organic and Biological Chemistry. Her  research focuses on development of synthetic probes and novel nanoplatforms for biological applications in the areas of plant biology, cancer and bacterial infections.

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In 2017, she was awarded the RSC Dextra Carbohydrate Chemistry award in recognition of her research into new synthetic methodologies for oligosaccharide synthesis and the development of novel glycoconjugate probes.

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In 2021 she received the RSC Jeremy Knowles award for the development of bioinspired synthetic probes for the targeting and regulation of cellular processes and in 2022 she was awarded the SRUK Merit award for her contributions to science and the impact of her work to the wider community

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Rosalind Darby is a Senior Research Commercialisation Manager at University of Bristol with 20 years’ experience in higher education technology transfer covering a wide range of technologies and sectors.

 

She has a track record in evaluating technologies and markets, protecting and managing intellectual property, business planning, engaging commercial partners, negotiating licenses and other contracts and establishing new spin out companies, including companies that have gone on to IPO or trade sale.

 

Rosalind is a director of a technology-based pharma company and has sat on the board of a number of other University spin out companies.

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Diego graduated from his undergraduate degree with a major in Nanotechnology at ITESO (Mexico) in 2020, when he had the opportunity to participate in several industry internships at CIATEJ, CIMAV, and CINVESTAV. He graduated top of his class from his MSc in Nanoscience at University of Bristol. His MSc project focused on developing novel delivery nanocarriers for biomedical applications.

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Diego believes in powering reaserch to innovative technologies and envisions to optimise carbon nanoparticles based plant transformation systems to allow: universal usage across plant species, increased speed of obtaining successful transformants, increased efficiency of transformation and increased transformation possibilities.

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Dr Fran Robson has 20+ years experience as Senior Postdoctoral Scientist in plant molecular genetics. She has worked in a wide range of research areas including plant-environment, plant-symbiont, and plant-pathogen interactions. She also managed a plant genetics service for six years at The John Innes Centre in Norwich, delivering targeted gene knock-out germplasm of legumes and brassicas for clients in both academia and industry worldwide.

 

Fran has an RHS Diploma (with Commendation) in the Principals and Practices of Horticulture gained while studying at Bristol Botanic Gardens. More recently, she has worked on the devastating plant pathogen Cassava Brown Streak Virus which decimates the important staple cassava crop in sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently developing a high throughput system of cassava vegetative propagation using aeroponics to produce multiple uniform cassava plantlets for virus infection studies. 

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Dr. Tom Swift is an expert in carbon nanodots and their applications in biological systems. During his PhD, post-doc and fellowship, his research focused on the applications of carbon nanodots in plants. This research has lead to several journal articles and patent applications. Tom is experienced strategist for start-ups and SMEs. Tom is now a patent scientist at an international law firm.

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