Centre for Synthetic Biology and the Bioeconomy

Staff Profile

Dr Dana Ofiteru

Senior Lecturer

Background

I have joined Newcastle University in 2014 as a Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering. I am a classically trained chemical engineer and a modeller of biological systems with a track record of work modelling the engineered biological processes at the level of the metabolism, the individual and the ecosystem. My research and professional ambitions lay at the intersection of (bio)chemical and environmental engineering. Engineered biological systems are the core of many available technologies, whilst biology has enormous and unfulfilled technological potential for inherently sustainable technologies. My vision is to use simulation-based design to predict and engineer the emergent properties of (open) microbial systems. Though primarily a modeller, I also have wet lab experience both “at the bench” and in a supervisory capacity.


PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2009 – 2014        Lecturer, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

2007 – 2009        Research Associate, Newcastle University, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences,

Marie Curie experienced researcher, ECOSERV project

2006 – 2009        Assistant professor, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department


 

QUALIFICATIONS

2020 – 2022      MA, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology

Specialization: International Politics (Globalization, Poverty and Development)


2002 – 2006      PhD, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Thesis topic: Optimal control strategies for biochemical processes

 

2002 – 2003      MSc, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Specialization: Utilization of Computers in Biochemical & Chemical Engineering

 

1997 – 2002      MEng, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Specialization: Biochemical Engineering (valedictorian)

 

REVIEWER

Water Research (IWA); The ISME Journal; PlosOne; Chemosphere; Nature Communications; Biotechnology and Bioengineering; Environmental Microbiology and Environmental Microbiology Reports

 

GRANTS

  • (PI) Unilever UK Ltd CASE award "Quantification of oral bacteria metabolism for mathematical prediction of abiotic effects on kinetics and microbiome interactions", 2023 - 2027
  • (PI) UKRI/Universities UK International (UUKi) "PEACE-R2UK Programme to Enhance Academic Collaboration for Enabling Regenerative Reconstruction in Ukraine, 2023
  • (PI) EPSRC Standard Grant "Engineering Microbial-Induced Carbonate Precipitation via Meso-Scale Simulations", EP/S013997/1, 2019 - 2022
  • (Co-I) EPSRC Frontier Grant “Simulation of open engineered biologicalsystems”, led by Newcastle University, Grant ref EP/K038648 http://research.ncl.ac.uk/nufeb/, 2013 - 2019
  • (PI) TE project UEFISCDI Romania, "Dynamics of Escherichia coli population transformed to express archeal heterologous protein S-layer", 2013 – 2016, (€150k)
  • (PI) FLOMAS, Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant (FP7/2007-2013 no. 256440), 2010 – 2013, http://flomas.chim.upb.ro  
  • (PI) PD project UEFISCSU Romania, PN II-RU 29/09.08.2010, 2010 – 2012, http://mostran.chim.upb.ro

 GOOGLE SCHOLAR PROFILE

Research

Dana Ofiteru's profile can be viewed at Google Scholar

Teaching

CME2022 Separation Processes I

CME3034 Biosafety

CME3039 Plant Design

CME8120 Advanced Design

Publications