Candice Jones is the New Head of the MaxGENESYS Biofoundry
MaxGENESYS supports researchers with automated workflows for individual projects
Dr Candice Jones is the new Head of the MaxGENESYS Biofoundry at the Max-Planck-Insitute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. The biofoundry, which was established in 2020, aims to advance the possibilities of synthetic biology projects by employing standardised, automated workflows to increase experimental throughput. The biofoundry offers knowledge and technical expertise to facilitate high-throughput synthetic biology and customisable workflows. Candice Jones has a background in plant molecular biology and previously worked at the CSIRO Biofoundry in Australia.
Candice, we are delighted to welcome you as the new Head of the MPG-wide Biofoundry MaxGENESYS. What inspired you to join the MPI-TM? While working as a Bioengineer at the CSIRO Biofoundry in Australia I developed a real love for laboratory automation and possibilities that it creates. When I saw this position at MPI-TM advertised, I thought, 'This is exactly what I want to do next!'. Throughout the interview process it became clear that we share the same passion and vision to use laboratory automation and high-throughput workflows to enable excellent scientific research.
How would you describe a biofoundry? It is a collaborative core facility with centralised staff, equipment and workflows to automate parts of the research process. This means that researchers can bring their research projects to the facility and work together with the specialised biofoundry team to develop high-throughput solutions that will accelerate their research projects.
You also develop tailored solutions? Yes, while we have a core set of established methods we also offer tailored solutions to individual projects. Additionally, we provide specialised equipment training to emerging researchers to enable them to conduct their own experiments.
So, you like working with robots? Yes, I really enjoy working with robots! Lab automation robotics is so beautiful and efficient when it is done well. It takes time to get things right at first, but once you have a good system, you can achieve things that would be impossible by hand.
What impact do biofoundries have, especially in synthetic biology? Producing high-quality DNA, microbial strains and data is essential to the field. An effective way to do this is with standardised automated methods. Research moves so fast that it is very difficult to keep up by using traditional methods alone. High-throughput automated laboratory workflows really open up opportunities for researchers to work differently and rapidly reach new discoveries.
In terms of applications, are there any research areas that you're particularly excited about? Personally, I am very interested in research that contributes to environmental sustainability, or human health and well-being. I am excited to hear that the scientists here at the MPI-TM are doing lots of research in these areas. I am so excited to support these projects and contribute to new developments.
Dr. Candice Jones completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Plant Science and a PhD at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her PhD research at the Integrative Legume Research Group focused on characterising small-signalling peptides that regulate root development and plant-microbe interactions. She then began working as a bioengineer at the CSIRO biofoundry where she played a key role in developing customised high-throughput workflows to support a wide variety of research projects at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.
