About the Project
Overview of Project:
A three-year PhD designing synthetic microbial communities to produce nutritious, functional food ingredients. The project will combine microbial community design at Imperial College London with pilot-scale fermentation and nutritional characterisation in Singapore.
Motivation:
Single-strain fermentation can limit the nutritional range of a microbial ingredient. Co-cultures offer a way to combine organisms with complementary properties, providing a broader balance of macronutrients and micronutrients. The challenge is to create communities that remain stable during cultivation while producing ingredients with suitable nutritional and functional properties.
Project Specifics:
- Select fungi, yeasts and bacteria recognised as safe and widely used in food to develop complementary microbial communities.
- Optimise culture conditions and media to support stable growth and target nutritional profiles, including protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals, informed by FAO recommendations.
- Develop and scale the best-performing co-culture processes to pilot scale, up to 200 litres.
- Characterise the resulting ingredients for functionality, digestibility and nutritional composition.
Lab & Location:
The research will be carried out across Imperial College London and A*STAR SIFBI in Singapore. The timing of the periods in London and Singapore is flexible and will be agreed with the student. The studentship forms part of the Singapore Research Attachment Programme (SRAP), with supervision across Imperial and the Singapore partners.
At Imperial, the student will join Professor Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro's group in the Department of Bioengineering. The lab specialises in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and microbial co-cultures for sustainable bioproduction. The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial brings together research and training to develop sustainable alternative proteins.
The Singapore partner is A*STAR's Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), which provides expertise in fermentation and downstream processing. The wider collaboration includes the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Technology, contributing expertise in food functionality and nutrition.
For informal enquiries, contact Naheed Khan n.khan2@imperial.ac.uk. Applicants must meet Imperial Bioengineering's doctoral admission requirements and SRAP eligibility conditions. SRAP applicants must not be Singapore citizens or permanent residents, or existing SRAP awardees.
Application Process:
How to Apply: To submit your application please email Naheed Khan (n.khan2@imperial.ac.uk). You should follow the following format;
- Email subject - 'A*STAR_IMPERIAL /Project No./ Your name'
- A single PDF document containing –
- CV
- Two academic referees within the last 6-9 months
- Transcript(s)
- Motivation letter max word limit 1500 words - (please refrain from using AI tools).
- Publications (if any)
- Please combine all files into 1 document.
Deadline:
31st October 2026
Funding Notes
PhD Studentship – UKRI-Rate Stipend and Home Tuition Fees Covered (International applicants are welcome to apply but must fund the difference between Home and Overseas tuition fees)
During the research attachment in Singapore, the funding package provides:
- Monthly stipend of S$3,600
- Monthly housing subsidy of S$300 for students living off campus
- One-time airfare grant of S$1,500
- One-time settling-in allowance of S$1,000
- One-time IT allowance of S$800
- Conference allowance