About
I’m a Synthetic Biologist in the Biological Computation group at Microsoft Research, Cambridge. I’m an experimental biologist with training in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and am interested in understanding how organisms build themselves and how we can learn the design rules for engineering biological self-organization.
My approach is a very collaborative one, aiming to tightly integrate the generation of experimental data with computational modelling to develop understanding about synthetic gene regulatory networks and improve their performance. By building these synthetic genetic circuits based on developmental biological mechanisms we can build a toolkit for engineering multicellular behaviours and gain insight into how those mechanisms function in natural systems.
Publications
2016
2015
The identification of QTL controlling ergot sclerotia size in hexaploid wheat implicates a role for the Rht dwarfing alleles
Anna Gordon, Ryan Basler, Pauline Bansept-Basler, Vicky Fanstone, Lakshmi Harinarayan, Paul Grant, Richard Birchmore, Rosemary A. Bayles, Leslie A. Boyd, Donal M. O'Sullivan, Springer, September 4, 2015, View abstract, Download PDF, View external link2011
Planar polarity pathway and Nance-Horan syndrome-like 1b have essential cell-autonomous functions in neuronal migration
Gregory S. Walsh, Paul Grant, John A. Morgan, The Company of Biologists, July 1, 2011, View abstract, Download PDF, View external link2010
The neuroepithelial basement membrane serves as a boundary and a substrate for neuron migration in the zebrafish hindbrain
Paul Grant, Cecilia Moens, BioMedCentral, March 29, 2010, View abstract, Download PDF, View external link2003
Alternative splicing of lola generates 19 transcription factors controlling axon guidance in Drosophila.
Scott Goeke, Elizabeth A. Greene, Paul Grant, Michael A. Gates, Daniel Crowner, Toshiro Aigaki, Edward Giniger, Springer Nature, August 3, 2003, View abstract, View external linkOther
I did my undergraduate work at Harvard, receiving a BA in Biology in 2000. While at Harvard I worked in the labs of Robert Pruitt and Andrew McMahon on Arabidopsis and mouse development, respectively. I got my PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington in 2009 after working with Edward Giniger on axon guidance in Drosophila and with Cecilia Moens on neuron migration in zebrafish. I brought all of this training in developmental biology to bear on synthetic biology during a postdoc with Jim Haseloff at the University of Cambridge. During this time I collaborated with the biological computation group at MSR on building and understanding synthetic gene regulatory circuits that mimic developmental processes. I joined MSR full time in July, 2016.