Bryan Dickinson

@chembiobryan.bsky.social

chemical/synthetic biologist, Luddite trying to find better ways to make molecules that do important stuff, dad, @uchicago professor of chemistry http://www.dickinsonlab.uchicago.edu/

NEW: They Got the Best NIH Scores of Their Careers. A Year Later, They Still Don’t Have Funding. As the NIH bankrolls new research at a significantly slower-than-usual pace, I talked to scientists left in the lurch about the toll on their research and careers: www.chronicle.com/article/they...

They Got the Best NIH Scores of Their Careers. A Year Later, They Still Don’t Have Funding.

The NIH’s spending on new medical research is significantly slower than in previous years, leaving confused scientists in the lurch.

chronicle.com

Our more recent paper is hot off the press in @jacs.acspublications.org Great team effort and a preview of what the future looks like for our group.... pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

A Rapid Binder Discovery Workflow for Engineering Mini-Protein Degraders

Developing molecules that selectively bind targets of interest remains a critical bottleneck in biological research and biotechnology. Here, we present a workflow that leverages the Phage-Assisted Non-Continuous Selection for Binders (PANCS-Binders) technology for rapid de novo binder discovery. To directly assess the speed and utility of the approach, we pursued three cancer-related targets: NSD3, NMNAT2, and CSF1R. Within 26 days, the PANCS-Binders workflow yielded sequence- and function-verified binders for all three targets with nano-to-micromolar affinities. By incorporating an NSD3 binder into an engineered E3 ligase, RNF8, we developed an NSD3 degrader that potently depleted endogenous NSD3 and inhibited colorectal cancer cell proliferation. We then applied this degrader to reveal previously unknown NSD3 dependencies in ovarian cancer cell lines, uncovering new therapeutic vulnerabilities. Together, our work establishes a robust workflow for accelerated binder discovery and demonstrates how binders can expedite chemical biology discovery and biotechnology development.

pubs.acs.org

Bryan Dickinson@chembiobryan.bsky.social · 7mo ago

1/ Check out our newest paper where we ask: How fast can we experimentally discover binders from scratch? And we mean scratch: a blinded study. TLDR: 26 days. And the binders work…and led to new cancer biology. We’re coming for you AI…. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Excited to share our new work in @narjournal.bsky.social ! We engineered a human-based translational activator that rescued phenotypes in a Dravet syndrome mouse model by boosting protein expression from haploinsufficient genes. A thread on targeting translation 🧵 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Engineering a human-based translational activator for targeted protein expression restoration

Abstract. Therapeutic modalities to programmably increase protein production are in critical need to address diseases caused by deficient gene expression v

academic.oup.com

One more paper from our lab! This ACS Synthetic Biology paper reports bottom-up construction of eukaryotic-like synthetic cells with an artificial nucleus-like organelle, enabling on-demand protein localization control by a small molecule. 💊 pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Eukaryotic-like Synthetic Cells with Chemically Controlled Protein Localization

Compartmentalization by organelles and the dynamic control of protein localization within these compartmentalized spaces are key mechanisms for regulating biological processes in eukaryotic cells. Here, we present a bottom-up approach for constructing cell-sized liposomes (giant unilamellar vesicles, GUVs) encapsulating an artificial organelle with chemically controlled protein localization. In this system, proteins fused to Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase are rapidly recruited on demand from the inner solution to the interior of a DNA-droplet-based (“nucleus”-like) organelle within GUVs upon addition of a synthetic, DNA-binding trimethoprim derivative to the external solution. By coupling this system with a sequence-specific protease, we constructed a synthetic cell platform that enables chemically induced, multistep cascade reactions─including protein relocalization, organelle-specific enzymatic activity, and product release from the organelle─that culminate in the control of synthetic-cell phenotypes, such as pore formation in the GUV membrane. This work provides a versatile platform for the bottom-up creation of eukaryotic-like synthetic cells with sophisticated and programmable functions.

pubs.acs.org

While the White Paper gives many important recommendations, this sentence especially struck a cord with me: "We need selfless leaders who unite individuals towards creating a shared vision." I definitely felt the willingness of this great cohort of NextGen Leaders to put this into reality. (10/11)

Do you study lipids or lipidation, but don't know where to send your newest work? Send us your fat papers, phat papers, and even phatty acid papers. While the special issue is not saturated, it's filling up fast, and won't be unsaturated forever! Phase separate with us and build community!

Jeremy Baskin@jeremybaskin.bsky.social · 9mo ago

#ACSChemBio and #Biochemistry invite submissions to a special issue on Lipids and Lipidation guest edited by @chembiobryan.bsky.social and me! Find details in the #CallforPapers and submit your exciting findings to one of these journals by May 31, 2026. axial.acs.org/chemical-bio... #lipidtime