I am a passionate Masters student with a keen interest in genetic transformation techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 and their many applications; it is however during the internships I did as part of my Bachelor’s Degree that I caught the Synthetic Biology bug. I found the elegance of its solutions as well as the incredible potential of the discipline fascinating, and I hope to pursue a long career of academic research in this field. I am excited to be working on the development of tools for the genetic engineering of Komagataeibacter for production of cellulose in the Abdel-Mawgoud Synthetic Biology Lab! Bacterial cellulose is a material with a plethora of promising applications, but cellulose-producing bacteria possess characteristics limiting their use at the industrial level ; the engineering of tools for these non-model microorganisms will allow us to bypass these limitations.