Microbiology

Contact Us Department of Microbiology
Moyne Institute of Preventive Medicine
School of Genetics and Microbiology
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

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Introduction

My research group focuses on understanding the evolution, genetics and molecular biology of industrial yeasts, specifically the lager yeasts Saccharomyces pastorianus. We use adaptive evolution, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches to expand the physiological and metabolicproperties of yeasts, to improve the fermentation process, generate novel taste profiles in beer and enable the single celled microorganism to carry out new tasks such as making bioethanol from biomass.

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Principal Investigator Profile

Associate Professor Ursula Bond

Leader of the Eukaryotic Gene Regulation research group

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Dr. Ursula Bond, a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, graduated from TCD with a degree in Biochemistry and was awarded a PhD in Molecular Biology by Washington University, St Louis, Missouri. As a PhD student, Dr. Bond was awarded the Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori prize for research excellence in Biochemistry. She conducted post-doctoral research at Yale University as an Anna Fuller Fellow before returning to Trinity College Dublin, taking up an academic role in the Department of Microbiology.

A world leader in the genetics of industrial yeasts, Dr. Bond has published seminal papers in the fields of yeast genetics and molecular biology. Key areas of research include the (i) Composition, Structure and Evolution of the genomes of the Lager Yeasts, Saccharomyces pastorianus, (ii) adaptive evolution and synthetic biology approaches to expand the metabolic and physiological capacities of industrial yeasts and (iii) fundamental molecular biological questions on the molecular mechanisms of RNA biogenesis in yeasts.

During her tenure at Trinity, Dr. Bond has been awarded 21 research grants, and was the lead PI on 19, with research funding of 15.67 million euro. She currently leads an International consortium of academic and industrial scientists studying the genetics of flavour production in industrial yeasts in a project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme.