Biomolecular control group

Systems & Synthetic Biology at the University of Edinburgh

Our two locations: the Informatics Forum and the CH Waddington Building in Edinburgh.

what we do

Our team develops methods to study molecular processes in living cells. We use mathematics and computation to understand natural networks and to design novel systems for biotechnology and biomedicine. We employ a wide range of methods, such as machine learning, control theory, stochastic analysis and network theory. Large parts of our work are in collaboration with Systems and Synthetic Biology labs in the UK and abroad.

who we are

The group lead is Diego Oyarzún and includes research students and postdocs. Together we gather expertise in many disciplines like machine learning, mathematics, biochemistry and bioinformatics.

where we work

We are very lucky to be located at the School of Informatics and the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Edinburgh, in one of the most vibrant European capitals. We are members of the Edinburgh Centre for Engineering Biology.

our recent science

news

Jun 29, 2025 Yuxin’s paper on sequence optimization with active learning is out in preprint.
Jun 28, 2025 Congrats to our undergrad alumnus Andreas for his ezSTEP paper accepted at CIBB 2025!
Jun 20, 2025 Flux Cone Learning - our method to predict gene deletion phenotypes is out in preprint.
Jun 17, 2025 Charlotte’s algorithm for predicting host-pathway dynamics published in Metabolic Engineering.
Jun 15, 2025 Many team members have been speaking at various venues in Edinburgh and beyond, congrats to Lucas, Yuxin, Achille and Michal for great lectures across the board!
Jun 1, 2025 Our perspective on protein expression modelling appeared in Trends in Biotechnology - thanks to Align to Innovation for making this happen.
May 15, 2025 Many congratulations to Zuzanna for passing her PhD viva!
Mar 25, 2025 Vanessa’s paper on new drug candidates against brain cancer is out in preprint, great collaboration with Neil Carragher’s team!
Feb 10, 2025 Yuxin’s paper on generalization of sequence-to-expression models is out in Nucleic Acids Research, congrats!
Dec 1, 2024 Arin’s paper on single-cell metabolic oscillations is out in preprint - this is part of a great collaboration with the Swain lab.