Eriko Takano is a professor of synthetic biology and a director of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM) at the University of Manchester.[1][2] She develops antibiotics and other high-value chemicals using microbial synthetic biology tools.
In 2012 Takano was made Professor of Synthetic Biology at the University of Manchester. She leads the biotechnology theme in the Faculty of Life Sciences. Her research considers synthetic biology for the production of antibiotics, as well as the development of software for bioinformatics that can design natural products.[3][6][7] Her software contributions includes antiSMASH[8] and MultiGeneBlast.[9] These can include the secondary biosynthetic pathways that have been identified from any genome sequence.[10] Genome sequencing offers new opportunities to find production pathways for antibiotics.[11] Takano is developing robotic systems to explore the potential biosynthetic pathways, testing thousands of new compounds every year.[11][12]
Takano is a director of the European Centre of Excellence Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM).[13] In 2015 Vince Cable announced a £10 million investment into Synthetic Biology to the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester.[14]
Awards and honours
Her awards and honours include;
1993 Italian Society for General Microbiology Lepetit Award[3]
1994 Natio Foundation Naito Kinen Kaigai Ryigaku Jyoseikin[3]
^Takano, Eriko (1993). ppGpp and antibiotic production in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) (PhD thesis). University of East Anglia. OCLC557313992. EThOSuk.bl.ethos.359366.