Stracquadanio Lab

AI and engineering biology for rare diseases

We are a multi-disciplinary research group based at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh interested in engineering and manufacturing highly effective therapies using two of the most disruptive technologies of the last 20 years: AI and engineering biology.

Our group is currently focusing on developing new therapies for the treatment of a class of rare diseases known as Lysosomal Storage Disease (LSDs). We are primarily focusing on Fabry disease, with the aim of bringing to the clinic a treatment that is both effective and sustainable to use.

Three stages left to right. AI-driven design: a protein language model and a Dirichlet latent space of proteins feed Bayesian optimisation to propose sequences. Engineered enzymes: variants of the enzyme alpha-Gal A. Therapeutic impact: the enzyme is delivered to the lysosome, substrate is degraded, and the cell is healthy with restored function. — From computational design to molecular repair — generative models propose α-Gal A variants, which are engineered, delivered to the lysosome, and restore substrate degradation in the cell.

Recent selected publications

Construction and iterative redesign of synXVI a 903 kb synthetic Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome Nature Communications · 2025
APEX: Automated Protein EXpression in Escherichia coli ACS Synthetic Biology · 2025
Biofoundry-Scale DNA Assembly Validation Using Cost-Effective High-Throughput Long-Read Sequencing ACS Synthetic Biology · 2024
Beyond the marrow: insights from comprehensive next-generation sequencing of extramedullary multiple myeloma tumors Leukemia · 2024
Synthetic genome modules designed for programmable silencing of functions and chromosomes bioRxiv · 2024

All publications →

Latest news

01 Nov 2025
Matthias awarded the Young Investigator Award from the WORLD Symposium panel. Congratulations!
01 Nov 2025
Alexandra Guckel joins the lab as PhD student of the Engineering Biology for Advanced Therapeutics Hub. Welcome!
01 Oct 2025
Assunta Sansone joins the lab as a PhD student of the EastBIO CDT. Welcome!
26 Sep 2025
Matthias awarded the School of Biological Sciences Postdoc Award for Research. Congratulations!
02 Sep 2025
Martyna's work on automated protein expression in E. coli published in ACS synthetic biology.
20 Jul 2025
Ginevra to present at the Gordon Conference on Synthetic Biology.