Rate My Professor Susan Rosser

Professor Susan Rosser is the Chair of Synthetic Biology at the University of Edinburgh, with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Engineering. She studied microbiology and genetics at the University of Edinburgh before completing her PhD at the University of Dundee. After her doctorate, she undertook a postdoctoral position at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Biotechnology. At Edinburgh, she holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies, awarded in 2018. She serves as Director of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology, Co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry, and leads the UKRI-funded Engineering Biology for Advanced Therapeutics Hub, a £14 million initiative launched in 2024 to develop gene therapies for cardiac and vascular diseases. Her research focuses on mammalian synthetic biology, including engineering cells for combined diagnostics and therapeutics (theranostics), CRISPR-based tools, CHO cell engineering for biomanufacturing, precision viral immunotherapy, and sustainable biomanufacturing processes. Rosser's lab develops synthetic super-enhancers and genetic control systems to enable targeted treatments, addressing limitations in one-size-fits-all therapies.

Professor Rosser has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022 and holds fellowships including FRSB and FLSW. She leads major grants from EPSRC, UKRI, and Wellcome Trust, such as the Carbon-Loop Sustainable Biomanufacturing Hub and the Hidden Cell Discovery Research Platform. Key publications include 'Synthetic super-enhancers enable precision viral immunotherapy' (Nature, 2026), 'Abstraction hierarchy to define biofoundry workflows and operations for interoperable synthetic biology research and applications' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'Gene therapy in cardiac and vascular diseases' (Cardiovascular Research, 2025), 'Flux Sampling Suggests Metabolic Signatures of High Antibody-Producing CHO Cells' (Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2025), and 'Cyclodextrins sequester glycosylated triterpenoid saponins from engineered yeast' (Bioresource Technology Reports, 2025). Her work advances engineering biology for personalised medicine and has fostered industry collaborations and spinouts like Concinnity Genetics.