Jordan is a senior specialist in fungal biotechnology and microbial genomics at NIAB in Cambridge. His current work utilises functional and comparative genomics of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota species of fungi to facilitate strain optimisation for alternative protein production.
His previous postdoctoral work at the University of Kent with Prof Alessia Buscaino focused on understanding the genetic and genomic alterations underpinning the pathogenicity of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans.
Previously at NIAB, Jordan worked on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded ENSA (Enabling Nitrogen Fixation for Agriculture) project, employing comparative genomics to investigate the evolutionary underpinnings of actinorhizal nitrogen fixing symbiosis, both from the host plant and bacterial symbiont perspectives.
He currently leads a collaborative project between NIAB and Marlow Foods, that aims to characterise branching patterns in the Quorn mycoprotein fungus F. venenatum to provide insight into gene network function and regulation that underpin the highly branched C-variant trait. This will not only provide a fundamental understanding of the molecular mechanisms of hyphal branching of many filamentous fungi but will also help Marlow Foods to improve production efficiency and ensure that Quorn remains one of the most sustainable meat alternatives on the market.
Recent publications
Price RJ, Weindling E, Berman J, Buscaino A. Chromatin profiling of the repetitive and non-repetitive genomes of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. MBio. 2019 Jul 23;10(4).
Freire-Benéitez V, Price RJ, Buscaino A. The chromatin of Candida albicans pericentromeres bears features of both Euchromatin and Heterochromatin. Front Microbiol. 2016;7:759.
Freire-Benéitez V, Price RJ, Tarrant D, Berman J, Buscaino A. Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity. Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 14;6:22989.
Price RJ, Lillycrop KA, Burdge GC. Folic acid induces cell type-specific changes in the transcriptome of breast cancer cell lines: a proof-of-concept study. J Nutr Sci. 2016;5:e17.
Price RJ, Lillycrop KA, Burdge GC. Folic acid supplementation in vitro induces cell type-specific changes in BRCA1 and BRCA 2 mRNA expression, but does not alter DNA methylation of their promoters or DNA repair. Nutr Res. 2015 Jun;35(6):532-44.