Gregory Rix

Gregory is a Senior Research Associate in the Murrell lab at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In 2017 he graduated from the UEA with a Masters (1st) in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry, MChem. After which, beginning his PhD with Professor Charles Brearley examining the Biodiversity of Phytate Cycling in Soils in a project funded by the EnvEast (NERC) Doctoral Training Partnership, in conjunction with AB Vista as a CASE partner.

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Isoprene is one of the most abundant biogenic volatile organic compounds that is emitted into the atmosphere at similar quantities to that of methane. As a climate agent, it is vitally important to understand the biogeochemical cycling of this compound which is currently poorly understood. 

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The primary focus of this project is in investigating the bacterial metabolism of isoprene, decoding the genes, proteins and expressional controls of this pathway. As a recent addition (Nov ’21) to the Murrell lab, Gregory is involved in developing techniques for deciphering the intermediates involved in the complete degradation pathway of isoprene using HPLC and LC-MS. 

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Funding: European Research Council Advanced Grant awarded to Professor Colin Murrell.

Techniques used: DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, RT-qPCR, Cloning, Gene knockouts, Protein Purification, HPLC, NMR, Gas chromatography.