Daniel’s research is aimed at improving the efficiency of photosynthesis by enhancing energy capture in underutilised regions of the solar spectrum. He uses molecular/synthetic biology approaches to manipulate pigment biosynthetic pathways for the production of non-native or novel (bacterio)chlorophyll and carotenoid compounds, and to engineer new combinations of these pigments in bacterial protein complexes, with the long-term aim of creating new organisms for harvesting and trapping solar energy.
He received an undergraduate Master's degree in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of Sheffield, where he stayed to study for a Ph.D. with Prof. C. Neil Hunter FRS. He received a Marie Curie Global Fellowship to work with Prof. Donald A. Bryant at Penn State University, and joined the Institute of Systems, Molecular &Integrative Biology as a Tenure-Track Fellow in 2019.