Marcos Valenzuela Ortega

I arrived in the UK in 2013, after completing a BSc in Biotechnology at the Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona. After spending a year in Birmingham, I moved to Scotland to work in the small biotech company Ingenza. In 2016, I joined the University of Edinburgh to start a PhD, where I am currently a postdoctoral researcher. After attending several SRUK/CERU events, I joined the Scottish Constituency Board of Directors in 2022 to take a more active role supporting this network.

My research aims at finding greener ways of producing chemicals through microbial biotechnology and synthetic biology. This involves using different sources such as plastic or agricultural waste and the use of microbes capable of generating useful chemicals. Outside the lab, most of the time you will find me enjoying nature and music (listening to or playing), or having a drink (or two) with friends.