Colin Ingham

I work with microorganisms that collectively have unexpected or emergent properties, that can achieve functionalities together that are not possible as single cells. Motility is a recurrent theme within the broader area of microbial organisation. I have the perspective that microorganisms are more sophisticated than is generally considered and that we should use them to approach otherwise complex problems in biological organisation. The methodology can be ecological/natural or synthetic/engineered and in both cases requires collaborations with bioinformaticians and biophysicists. In recent years, the work has focussed on bacterial structural colour as a sustainable dye-replacement using the gliding Flavobacterium IR1 model system.

I am particularly interested in:

• Using sustainable, bacterial, structurally colored materials as dye replacements
• Identification of genes and pathways for structural colour in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes and possible evolutionary connections between the three domains of life
• Building photonic structures into engineered living materials