People

Jiorgos Kourelis is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Assistant Professor in Plant Sciences and Food Security at Imperial College London. The lab engineers plant immune receptors to recognise pathogen molecules they cannot detect in nature, combining structure-informed protein engineering with experimental validation in Nicotiana benthamiana. Before Imperial, Jiorgos worked at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich with Sophien Kamoun (2019–2023), and completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford with Renier van der Hoorn (2014–2019).

Originally from Brazil. PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology at the State University of Londrina and Embrapa Soybean, Brazil. Postdoctoral researcher with the 2Blades group at The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, from 2021. Works on immune receptor bioengineering.

The lab welcomes postdoctoral researchers who want to apply for a fellowship with us, including Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships and comparable schemes. Get in touch via the Contact page with a CV and a short note on your research interests, and we plan the application together. More funded positions will open in the near future.

Originally from Milan, Italy and Geneva, Switzerland. BSc in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London; MRes in Molecular Plant and Microbial Sciences at Imperial College London; MA in Musical Theatre Acting and Performance at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Works on synthetic immune signalling.

Originally from Bratislava, Slovakia. BSc in Biology with Placement Year at the University of Sheffield; MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at Imperial College London. Works on host-pathogen protein interactions at scale.

Originally from Lishui, China. BSc in Horticulture at Shanghai Normal University; MSc in Biomedical Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Works on scalable immune-receptor engineering.

Originally from Birmingham. BA in Natural Sciences at University of Cambridge. Works on modular plant immunity.

Originally from London, England. BSc in Biological Sciences (Molecular and Cellular Biology) at the University of Exeter, First Class Honours and Dean’s List. Works on tools for plant-immunity research.

The lab expects to advertise a research assistant position soon. Keep an eye on this page and on the Contact page for the formal posting.

Originally from Frankfurt, Germany. BSc in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London, First Class Honours and Dean’s List all years. Worked on computational approaches to plant immunity. Continues to a PhD in Tolga Bozkurt’s lab at Imperial College London, funded by an Imperial President’s PhD Scholarship.

Originally from London, England. MRes in Molecular Plant and Microbial Science at Imperial College London. Worked on immune receptor networks. Continues to a Corteva-funded research position in Tolga Bozkurt’s lab at Imperial College London.

Originally from Auckland, New Zealand. BSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London, First Class Honours and Dean’s List all years. Worked on immune signalling and receptor discovery.

Originally from China. BSc Biological Sciences student at Imperial College London. Worked with Cecilia Longoni on synthetic immune signalling over a six-week UROP placement.

Originally from China. BSc in Biotechnology at Jinan University (Guangzhou). Worked on synthetic biology tools for plant biology.

Originally from Manila, the Philippines. BA in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Worked on cell-surface and intracellular immune signalling.

Originally from London, England. Currently completing a BSc in Biological Sciences with a Year in Research at Imperial College London. Worked on synthetic biology tools for plant biology.

Originally from South Korea and Czech Republic. BSc in Biochemistry and MRes in Molecular Plant and Microbial Science at Imperial College London. Worked on bioreporters for immune activation.