ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Contact

• workRoom B55 Biodiscovery Institute
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Benedict.ClaxtonStevens1@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

2025-Present - Synthetic Biology Research Center / Biodiscovery Institute

• Returning to PhD Work to assist a proto-spinout
• Methanotroph production of polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastics
• Responsibility for process optimization and scale up from 750ml to 10L Scale.
• Weeks with Collaborators at the Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Recent Publications

• CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., RUMAH, BASHIR L., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E. and ZHANG, YING, 2023. Microbiology Resource Announcements. 12(4),
• RUMAH, BASHIR L., CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., YEBOAH, JAKE E., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E., HARDING, EMILY L., MINTON, NIGEL P. and ZHANG, YING, 2023. ACS Synthetic Biology. 12(2), 544-554
• RUMAH, BASHIR L., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E., CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., MINTON, NIGEL P., GROSSE-HONEBRINK, ALEXANDER and ZHANG, YING, 2021. AMB EXPRESS. 11(1),
• CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H.,, 2020. Microbiology Society. Available at: <https://microbiologysociety.org/why-microbiology-matters/our-history/75th-anniversary-a-sustainable-future/circular-economy/circular-economy-case-studies/phb-bioplastic-production-from-waste-methane.html>

• View all publications

Past Research

2024-2025 - ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ - Environmental and Chemical Engineering

• Part of the €1.5 million proto-spinout Materi-8 project taking plastics, textiles and lignocellulose to platform chemicals using two stages of fermentation.
• Responsibilities in analytics (HPLC and LC-MS data analysis), feedstock pre-processing and fermentation of bacteria and algae from 1-140L scale from 90 days to 6 months

2023 - ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ - Synthetic Biology Research Center / Biodiscovery Institute

• Process design, validation and completion of nanopore metagenomic sequencing of trout, mealworm and feed stuffs sourced from single cell protein feed experiments.
• Development of associated Bioinformatics protocols.

PhD: "Methylocystis parvus: Genomics, Engineering and Sustainable PHB Production" - Prof. Ying Zhang

• Gas fermentation of methanotrophs for coproduction of biomass and PHB based Bioplastics
• Validation of anaerobic digestor gas as a methane source for gas fermentation
• Scale up from 35ml Serum Bottle to 1L fermenters.
• Separation analysis of product to conserve biomass for Single Cell Protein and Bioplastic.
• CRISPR and CRISPRi development in methanotrophs
• Development of a Nanopore 16S method for monitoring constituents of mixed culture fermentations.

Future Research

Interests:

• Industrial Biotechnology
• Industrial Products from Fermentation
• Genome Engineering
• Metagenomics
• Cave Microbiology

• CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., RUMAH, BASHIR L., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E. and ZHANG, YING, 2023. Microbiology Resource Announcements. 12(4),
• RUMAH, BASHIR L., CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., YEBOAH, JAKE E., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E., HARDING, EMILY L., MINTON, NIGEL P. and ZHANG, YING, 2023. ACS Synthetic Biology. 12(2), 544-554
• RUMAH, BASHIR L., STEAD, CHRISTOPHER E., CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H., MINTON, NIGEL P., GROSSE-HONEBRINK, ALEXANDER and ZHANG, YING, 2021. AMB EXPRESS. 11(1),
• CLAXTON STEVENS, BENEDICT H.,, 2020. Microbiology Society. Available at: <https://microbiologysociety.org/why-microbiology-matters/our-history/75th-anniversary-a-sustainable-future/circular-economy/circular-economy-case-studies/phb-bioplastic-production-from-waste-methane.html>