Communication Team
The Communication team focuses on empowering the European SynBio community by sharing relevant news via social media and the newsletter as well as share and disseminate inspiring SynBio stories.
Hi! I am Sonia, a second year PhD candidate at the Wageningen University (Netherlands) and I am the team leader of the Communication team of EUSynBioS. While mainly working on the development of microbial biosensors, I am fascinated by many aspects of SynBio and how it potentially could help us tackling some important issues, such as climate change. Science and education brought me to experience and live in 4 different counties, which allowed me to discover so many interesting cultures!
Sonia Mecacci - Team Leader
Aoife is a PhD student in Engineering Biology at the University of Oxford. She holds a BSc in Biochemistry from University College Dublin. She has previously conducted research at UC Berkeley, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Copenhagen. Her current research focuses on experimental and computational enzyme engineering for developing new methods for controlled biologics production. She is a member of the EUSynBioS communications team and contributes to the society’s blog. She is also a leader at Nucleate UK.
Aoife McLoughlin
Joana L Rodrigues (JLR) is an Assistant Professor at the Biological Engineering Department, University of Minho. JLR has 14+ years of experience in synthetic biology. She holds an MSc in Biological Engineering (2010) and a PhD in Bioengineering Systems (MIT-Portugal Program, 2014) from UM. During her PhD in collaboration with MIT, she spent 1 yr at the MIT Prather Lab. After the PhD, JLR worked at Centre of Biological Engineering (UM) as a Postdoc (2015-2018) and Junior Researcher (2019-2023). Her research interests include the use of synthetic biology tools to construct biosynthetic pathways for the production of therapeutic and industrially relevant compounds. JLR joined the EUSynBioS Steering Committee and collaborated with ValleyDAO and iGEM communities, engaging with academics, industry and entrepreneurs. These efforts culminated in co-founding SynBioLinkPT, an initiative to build the Portuguese SynBio community.
Joana Rodrigues
Daniela Filipa Correia Gomes is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB) at the University of Minho - Portugal. In May 2025, she obtained her PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Minho. She previously worked as a research fellow on several research projects.
Her research interests focus on synthetic biology, microbial biotechnology, and the development of innovative biological systems for health and biotechnology applications. Daniela is part of the EUSynBioS communication team, where she contributes as an Instagram manager, helping to share and promote synthetic biology initiatives with the broader community.
Daniela Gomes
Anchita is a PhD student at INRAE Jouy-en-Josas in collaboration with the University of Paris-Saclay and the University of Valencia. Her research focuses on engineering multicellular synthetic circuits, with a particular emphasis on CRISPR interference–based regulation. Previously, she has worked in areas spanning genetic engineering, bioprocessing, microfluidics, etc.
Alongside her research, Anchita contributes to the European Synthetic Biology Society (EuSynBioS) as a newsletter writer, where she helps communicate advances and community highlights to a global synbio audience. Her broader interests include science communication, emerging synthetic biology tools, and the design of programmable biological systems.
Anchita Sharma
Hey there. I am a blog writer for EUSynBioS. I hold a Master’s in Biology from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. My thesis focused on the characterisation of a plant carbohydrate receptor via expression in yeast and binding affinity assays using fluorescence microscopy.
I like writing and talking about science, particularly biology, to anyone who asks and/or will listen. I want to build myself as a science communicator, especially within the field. Outside of biology, I am an avid Pokémon fan and I love travelling.