Dr Jim Ajioka

Jim Ajioka is a University Senior Lecturer in Molecular Parasitology and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Academic interests

Jim Ajioka's academic interests include:

• Genome analysis of host-parasite interface
• Synthetic Biology applied to constructing virus diagnostics, arsenic biosensors and pigment production.

Degrees obtained

• PhD, SUNY Stony Brook University.

Biography

Jim Ajioka is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pathology and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

He received his PhD in drosophila population genetics from SUNY Stony Brook’s Department of Ecology and Evolution and helped establish the Drosophila Genome Project as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in Professor Dan Hartl’s lab at Washington University.

Jim's current research combines science and engineering, employing population genetic tools and large scale molecular biology to:

• Investigate host-intracellular pathogen interactions using Toxoplasma gondii as a model
• Implement Synthetic Biology methods for construction of genetic systems in microbes.

Jim has taken his Synthetic Biology research into industry by founding Colorifix Ltd., a company that engineers microbes to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles. 

Other interests

Family, walking, fly fishing, stone sculpture.