Chris Howe

Chris Howe

Biochemistry of photosynthetic organisms and their non-photosynthetic relatives.

The Howe Group works on several topics to do with photosynthetic organisms and their relatives. Projects include how photosynthetic organisms protect themselves against stressful light levels – absorbing light energy is important for photosynthesis, but is dangerous in excess! We are also interested in the exploitation of photosynthetic organisms for biotechnological purposes. This includes using plants and algae for direct electricity production, and we recently described the world's first moss-powered radio receiver.

We are particularly interested in dinoflagellates, the algae that form symbioses with corals. Breakdown of the symbiosis leads to coral bleaching, and may be due to disturbances in dinoflagellate photosynthesis. Dinoflagellates have a very unusual chloroplast genome, and we have characterised this in detail. This led to our developing methods for genetic modification of dinoflagellates, and new ways of studying the breakdown of the alga-coral symbiosis in bleaching.

We are also interested in novel applications of evolutionary (phylogenetic) analysis to non-biological data, including literary texts.

Research objectives

  • What are the biochemical pathways that allow photosynthetic organisms do deal with stressful light intensities? Does the recently discovered protein cytochrome c6A have a role in this?
  • How and why do photosynthetic microorganisms generate extracellular electric currents and can we harness these for renewable energy production?
  • How can we use photosynthetic microorganisms for waste remediation and production of novel compounds?
  • Why does the dinoflagellate-coral symbiosis break down in coral bleaching?
  • How is the remnant chloroplast genome expressed in the malaria parasite Plasmodium and its relatives?

Key publications

“Carbon nanograss and osmium redox polymer enhance biophotovoltaic current generation from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 forty-fold”. Urbankova J, Pankratova G, Rezaei B, Bombelli P, Leech D, Howe CJ, Emneus J & Keller S (2026) Journal of Power Sources 676:239928 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2026.239928

“Spontaneous evolution of heterotrophy in cultured dinoflagellate algae” Barbrook AC, Royen E, Barbour F, Cardol F, Nisbet RER, Howe CJ (2025) Curr Biol. 35:5594-5602 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.10.029

“Dissecting bioelectrical networks in photosynthetic membranes with electrochemistry” Lawrence JM, Egan RM, Wey LT, Bali K, Chen X, Kosmützky D, Eyres M, Nan L, Wood MH, Nowaczyk MM, Howe CJ*, Zhang JZ* (2025) JACS 147:26907-26916. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c08519

“Polyploid cyanobacterial genomes provide a reservoir of mutations allowing rapid evolution of herbicide resistance” Scarampi A, Lawrence JM, Bombelli P, Kosmützky D, Zhang JZ, Howe CJ. (2025) Current Biology 35:1549-1561 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.044

“Algal biomusic generation” Lawrence JM, Albertini E, Scarampi A, Bombelli P, Giron LB, Kuzmich L, Howe CJ (2025) Applied Phycology, 6:9-20  https://doi.org/10.1080/26388081.2024.2434476 

“Fourfold increase in photocurrent generation of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 by exopolysaccharide deprivation.” Wey LT, Wroe E, Sadilek V, Shang L, Chen X, Zhang JZ, Howe, CJ. (2024) Electrochimica Acta 497:144555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2024.144555

“Photosynthesis rewired on the picosecond timescale” Baikie T, Wey LT, Lawrence JM, Medipally H, Reisner E, Nowaczyk MM, Friend RH, Howe CJ, Schnedermann C, Rao A, Zhang JZ. (2023) Nature 615:836-840 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05763-9

“Is it realistic to use microbial photosynthesis to produce electricity directly?” Howe CJ, Bombelli P. (2023) PLoS Biology 21:e3001970 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001970

“A phylogenetic analysis of two preludes from J.S. Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier Book II.” Windram HF, Charlston T, Tomita Y, Howe CJ. (2022) Early Music 50:373-393 https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caac027