Steven Houghton
PIPS Host Organisation: Biocleave
Project Title: Constructing and Testing Recombinant Protein Expression Strains within a Commercial Pipeline

During his placement with Biocleave, Steven Houghton had the opportunity to join their commercial pipeline in generating plasmid vectors for the expression of target proteins in Clostridium. This involved general cloning methods, including PCR, gel electrophoresis, restriction digestion, and E. coli transformation to generate vectors suitable for Clostridial transformation. Clostridial transformants were then screened for the presence of the expression construct and resulting target protein before protein expression and purification were upscaled.

Steven’s competency increased in several molecular biology research skills as a result of working with Biocleave, in addition to learning novel techniques such as overlapping PCR and Clostridial transformation. These skills will not only benefit him during the remainder of his PhD but also increase his employability following its completion. Besides research skills, Steven’s time and project management skills and organisation also benefited from working within an industry setting with a high level of professionalism.

One of the most important aspects Steven will take from his placement is insight into working in the industry, in terms of work culture, the environment of an SME, and career opportunities and pathways. He is proud to have worked alongside the other employees of Biocleave within the company pipeline and contributed to pushing several projects forward in their individual timelines. Additionally, Steven is proud to have had the opportunity to trial some alternative methods within the pipeline that may help overcome a few hurdles, giving him the feeling that he is leaving a small legacy behind after he leaves.