Background

I have joined Newcastle University in 2014 as a Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering. I am a classically trained chemical engineer and a modeller of biological systems with a track record of work modelling the engineered biological processes at the level of the metabolism, the individual and the ecosystem. My research and professional ambitions lay at the intersection of (bio)chemical and environmental engineering. Engineered biological systems are the core of many available technologies, whilst biology has enormous and unfulfilled technological potential for inherently sustainable technologies. My vision is to use simulation-based design to predict and engineer the emergent properties of (open) microbial systems. Though primarily a modeller, I also have wet lab experience both “at the bench” and in a supervisory capacity.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2009 – 2014        Lecturer, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

2007 – 2009        Research Associate, Newcastle University, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences,

Marie Curie experienced researcher, ECOSERV project

2006 – 2009        Assistant professor, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

QUALIFICATIONS

2020 – 2022      MA, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology

Specialization: International Politics (Globalization, Poverty and Development)

2002 – 2006      PhD, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Thesis topic: Optimal control strategies for biochemical processes

2002 – 2003      MSc, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Specialization: Utilization of Computers in Biochemical & Chemical Engineering

1997 – 2002      MEng, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department

Specialization: Biochemical Engineering (valedictorian)

REVIEWER

Water Research (IWA); The ISME Journal; PlosOne; Chemosphere; Nature Communications; Biotechnology and Bioengineering; Environmental Microbiology and Environmental Microbiology Reports

GRANTS

• (PI) Unilever UK Ltd CASE award "Quantification of oral bacteria metabolism for mathematical prediction of abiotic effects on kinetics and microbiome interactions", 2023 - 2027
• (PI) UKRI/Universities UK International (UUKi) "PEACE-R2UK Programme to Enhance Academic Collaboration for Enabling Regenerative Reconstruction in Ukraine, 2023
• (PI) EPSRC Standard Grant "Engineering Microbial-Induced Carbonate Precipitation via Meso-Scale Simulations", EP/S013997/1, 2019 - 2022
• (Co-I) EPSRC Frontier Grant “Simulation of open engineered biologicalsystems”, led by Newcastle University, Grant ref EP/K038648 http://research.ncl.ac.uk/nufeb/, 2013 - 2019
• (PI) TE project UEFISCDI Romania, "Dynamics of Escherichia coli population transformed to express archeal heterologous protein S-layer", 2013 – 2016, (€150k)
• (PI) FLOMAS, Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant (FP7/2007-2013 no. 256440), 2010 – 2013, http://flomas.chim.upb.ro  
• (PI) PD project UEFISCSU Romania, PN II-RU 29/09.08.2010, 2010 – 2012, http://mostran.chim.upb.ro
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 GOOGLE SCHOLAR PROFILE

Research

Teaching

CME2022 Separation Processes I

CME3034 Biosafety

CME3039 Plant Design

CME8120 Advanced Design

Publications

• Articles

  • Sangha JS, Barrett P, Curtis TP, Métris A, Jakubovics NS, Ofiteru ID. Effects of glucose and lactate on Streptococcus mutans abundance in a novel multispecies oral biofilm model. Microbiology Spectrum 2024, 12(4), e03713-23.
  • Allen B, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Ofiteru ID, Ovreas L, Sloan WT, Swan D, Curtis T. Diversity and metabolic energy in bacteria. FEMS Microbiology Letters 2023, 370, fnad043.
  • Bashiri R, Curtis TP, Ofiteru ID. The limitations of the current protein classification tools in identifying lipolytic features in putative bacterial lipase sequences. Journal of Biotechnology 2022, 351, 30-37.
  • Bashiri R, Allen B, Shamurad B, Pabst M, Curtis TP, Ofiteru ID. Looking for lipases and lipolytic organisms in low-temperature anaerobic reactors treating domestic wastewater. Water Research 2022, 212, 118115.
  • Zemouri C, Ofiteru ID, Jakubovics NS. Future directions for studying resilience of the oral ecosystem. British Dental Journal 2020, 229(12), 769-773.
  • Brown B, Bartley B, Beal J, Bird JE, Goni-Moreno A, McLaughlin JA, Misirli G, Roehner N, Skelton DJ, Poh CL, Ofiteru ID, James K, Wipat A. Capturing Multicellular System Designs Using Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL). ACS Synthetic Biology 2020, 9(9), 2410-2417.
  • Li B, Taniguchi D, Pahala- Gedara J, Gogulancea V, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Chen J, McGough AS, Ofiteru ID, Curtis TP, Zuliani P. NUFEB: A Massively Parallel Simulator for Individual-based Modelling of Microbial Communities. PLoS Computational Biology 2019, 15(2), e1007125.
  • Gogulancea V, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Li B, Taniguchi D, Jayathilake PG, Chen J, Wilkinson D, Swailes D, McGough S, Zuliani P, Ofiteru ID, Curtis T. Individual based model links thermodynamics, chemical speciation and environmental conditions to microbial growth. Frontiers in Microbiology 2019, 10, 1871.
  • Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Curtis TP, Ofiteru ID. Bioenergetics analysis of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and the estimation of their maximum growth yield. Water Research 2019, 154, 238-245.
  • McLaughlin JA, Myers CJ, Zundel Z, Misirli G, Zhang M, Ofiteru ID, Goni-Moreno A, Wipat A. SynBioHub: A Standards-Enabled Design Repository for Synthetic Biology. ACS Synthetic Biology 2018, 7(2), 682-688.
  • Liu Z, Cichocki N, Hubschmann T, Suring C, Ofiteru ID, Sloan WT, Grimm V, Muller S. Neutral mechanisms and niche differentiation in steady-state insular microbial communities revealed by single cell analysis. Environmental Microbiology 2018, 21(1), 164-181.
  • Regueira A, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Ofiteru ID, Rodriguez J, Lema JM. Electron bifurcation mechanism and homoacetogenesis explain products yields in mixed culture anaerobic fermentations. Water Research 2018, 141, 349 - 356.
  • Jayathilake PG, Gupta P, Li B, Madsen C, Oyebamiji O, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Rushton S, Bridgens B, Swailes D, Allen B, McGough AS, Zuliani P, Ofiteru ID, Wilkinson DJ, Chen J, Curtis TP. A mechanistic individual-based model of microbial communities. PLoS One 2017, 12(8), e0181965.
  • González-Cabaleiro R, Ofiteru ID, Lema JM, Rodríguez J. Microbial catabolic activities are naturally selected by metabolic energy harvest rate. ISME Journal 2015, 9(12), 2630-2641.
  • Bellucci M, Ofiţeru ID, Beneduce L, Graham DW, Head IM, Curtis TP. A preliminary and qualitative study of resource ratio theory to nitrifying lab-scale bioreactors. Microbial Biotechnology 2015, 8(3), 590-603.
  • Ofiţeru ID, Bellucci M, Picioreanu C, Lavric V, Curtis TP. Multi-scale modelling of bioreactor - separator system for wastewater treatment with two-dimensional activated sludge floc dynamics. Water Research 2014, 50, 382-395.
  • Bellucci M, Ofiteru ID, Head IM, Curtis TP, Graham DW. Nitrification in hybrid bioreactors treating simulated domestic wastewater. Journal of Applied Microbiology 2013, 115(2), 621-630.
  • Ofiteru ID, Ferdes M, Knapp CW, Graham DW, Lavric V. Conditional confined oscillatory dynamics of Escherichia coli strain K12-MG1655 in chemostat systems. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2012, 94(1), 185-192.
  • Bellucci M, Ofiteru ID, Graham DW, Head IM, Curtis TP. Low Dissolved Oxygen Nitrifying Systems Exploit Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria With Unusually High Yield. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2011, 77(21), 7787-7796.
  • Ofiteru ID, Lunn M, Curtis TP, Wells GF, Criddle CS, Francis CA, Sloan WT. Combined niche and neutral effects in a microbial wastewater treatment community. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2010, 107(35), 15345-15350.
  • Ofiteru ID, Curtis TP. Modeling Risk of Failure in Nitrification: Simple Model Incorporating Abundance and Diversity. Journal of Environmental Engineering 2009, 135(8), 660-665.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Ofiteru ID, Masoero E, Taniguchi D, Gebhard S, Mihai I, Jefferson A, Paine K. Engineering Microbial-Induced Carbonate Precipitation via Meso-Scale Simulations. In: ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute International Conference 2020. 2020, Durham UK: ASCE.
  • Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Curtis TP, Ofiteru ID. New individual-based model links microbial growth to the energy available in the environment. In: FICWTM 2017: Frontiers in Wastewater Treatment and Modelling. 2017, Palermo, Italy: Springer.

• Reviews

  • Bagga M, Hamley-Bennett C, Alex A, Freeman BL, Justo-Reinoso I, Mihai IC, Gebhard S, Paine K, Jefferson AD, Masoero E, Ofiteru ID. Advancements in bacteria based self-healing concrete and the promise of modelling. Construction and Building Materials 2022, 358, 129412.
  • Bunce JT, Ndam E, Ofiteru ID, Moore A, Graham DW. A Review of Phosphorus Removal Technologies and Their Applicability to Small-Scale Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems. Frontiers in Environmental Science 2018, 6, 8.
  • Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Mitchell AM, Smith W, Wipat A, Ofiteru ID. Heterogeneity in pure microbial systems: Experimental measurements and modeling. Frontiers in Microbiology 2017, 8, 1813.