Rate My Professor Jack Jeffries

Jack Jeffries is a Lecturer in Biocatalysis and Biocatalytic Engineering and undergraduate admissions tutor in the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London. He earned his BSc Honours in Biochemistry in 2010, MRes in Synthetic Biology in 2011, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology in 2016, all from UCL. His doctoral thesis, "Functional metagenomics: metagenome mining for industrial biocatalysis," utilized next-generation sequencing data from metagenomic samples to identify, clone, and assay novel enzymes for fine chemical production in industry collaboration.

Post-PhD, Jeffries served as Lead Scientist for two years at Axitan, a biotech startup spun out from UCL's Biochemical Engineering department, where he designed and implemented cloning and expression platforms. He returned to UCL as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biochemical Engineering from 2019 to 2022, developing expression systems for whole-cell glucuronidation of pharmaceutical compounds with an industrial sponsor. Appointed Lecturer in spring 2022, he delivers the first-year undergraduate core module in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and leads biocatalysis and sustainable bioprocess research at UCL East's Manufacturing Futures Laboratories.

Jeffries' research focuses on high-throughput discovery and assay of enzymes for industrial biocatalysis from metagenomic sources, combining enzyme discovery with expression system design for sustainable production of fine chemicals using renewable feedstocks. His interests encompass biocatalytic cascades, biodegradation of plastics including poly lactic acid and polyurethanes, and antimicrobial peptide-siderophore conjugates for Gram-negative bacteria. He contributes to the P3EB Mission Hub for preventing plastic pollution with engineering biology. With 19 publications garnering 231 citations, key works include "A transaminase-mediated aldol reaction and applications in cascades to styryl pyridines" (2024), "Functional Enrichment and Sequence-Based Discovery Identify Promiscuous and Efficient Poly Lactic Acid Degrading Enzymes" (2025), "Expanding the Enzymatic Toolbox for Carboligation: Increasing the Diversity of the ‘Split’ Transketolase Sequence Space" (2025), and "Discovery of New Carbonyl Reductases Using Functional Metagenomics and Applications in Biocatalysis" (2021).