Earlier this week, the Plant Cell Atlas SynBio Hackathon brought together early-career researchers at MIT for two days of collaboration and innovation in plant synthetic biology. Thanks to all the organizers, mentors, participants, and sponsors who made this inspiring event possible! 🌱🧬

🌱 The CSHL Frontiers & Techniques in Plant Science course has just kicked off! 14 students, 24 international lecturers, 3 weeks of intensive plant biology at Cold Spring Harbor. Thrilled to co-instruct alongside Aman Husbands & Sharon Kessler! 🌿 👉 meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx?course=C-PLAN

🌿 From cancer research to food allergies, Prof. Sattely and her team, which includes several Stanford Chemistry students, explore how plant chemistry can improve human health and food security. Learn more: bit.ly/4uFw2m9

Elizabeth Sattely reveals the hidden talents of plants

The Stanford researcher views plants as nature’s ultimate chemists. Her work has the potential to innovate everything from food allergies to cancer treatment.

bit.ly

For liverwort mavens, I've needed to shift our Marchantia resources to a new website (I've reached retirement from academia in Cambridge) - and the plant synthetic biology stuff has moved to https://www.haseloff-lab.info (Now have more time for DIY builds! Updates to come)

🌱 NEW PREPRINT & SPECIAL day! We unveil an advance for plant science, engineering, and synbio in first (of many) Khalil <> Gehring collabs, led by the one-and-only @willshaw.bsky.social. Thread below on principles + design of a new, single-integrating T-DNA vector for precision plant xformation! 👇

Will Shaw@willshaw.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New preprint out 🌱 We present a new T-DNA vector system for Arabidopsis that supports clean, genomically mapped, single-copy T-DNA insertion with predictable cell-type/conditional gene expression. @mokhalil.bsky.social + Gehring labs biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵1/16

New preprint out 🌱 We present a new T-DNA vector system for Arabidopsis that supports clean, genomically mapped, single-copy T-DNA insertion with predictable cell-type/conditional gene expression. @mokhalil.bsky.social + Gehring labs biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵1/16

Rational design of T-DNA vectors enables predictable, single-copy integration in Arabidopsis thaliana

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is the dominant method for plant transgenesis, yet it frequently produces multi-copy, structurally complex T-DNA insertions associated with transgene silencing, u...

biorxiv.org

5 days left now to apply for the postdoc opportunity in my lab at Imperial in London 🇬🇧 - there’s a chance that we can hire 2 people into the team on this synthetic biology and materials theme. Application link is here - www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Excited to share our new preprint "Genetic code expansion enables plant-directed control of bacterial activity", a fantastic collaboration with @kunjapur.bsky.social lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

So proud to share our latest publication @CellCellPress! Yue Rui reveals that the same enzyme that makes the wall, cellulose synthase complex (CESA), also tethers the plasma membrane to the wall during water-deficit stress, providing resilience. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

This is going to be so exciting! Reach out with ideas! And come find me at ICAR in Singapore to learn more.

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Call for Papers Submit your latest plant and multicellular algae #DevBio research to our upcoming special issue – Plant and Algae Development #DevSIPlantAlgae Editors: @stanfordstomata.bsky.social & Susana Coelho Deadline: 2 November 2026 journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pl...

If you work with R6K plasmids for transient DNA delivery, our latest SHARK strains might be of use! Work out at ACS Synthetic Biology led by Shivang Joshi and strains plus plasmids for their assembly will be available @addgene.bsky.social very soon! doi.org/10.1021/acss...

New review out: The Promise of Synthetic Biology for Redesigning Plant Architecture Great to have worked on this with @suruchiroy.bsky.social and Gerad dos Santos! doi.org/10.3390/ijms...

📣 We are now accepting applications for the second Plant Synthetic Biology Hackathon! 📣 Check out this unique opportunity to learn the newest tools and approaches in plant engineering! Hosted by Nicola Patron and myself as part of the Plant Cell Atlas RCN, July 12-13, 2026 at MIT.

Plant Cell Atlas@plantcellatlas.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Application deadline for the SynBio Hackathon has been EXTENDED until June 8, 2026! Apply Now Here: www.plantcellatlas.org/2026-synbio-... *Participants will be reimbursed up to $800 for travel and lodging costs.

The Application deadline for the SynBio Hackathon has been EXTENDED until June 8, 2026! Apply Now Here: www.plantcellatlas.org/2026-synbio-... *Participants will be reimbursed up to $800 for travel and lodging costs.

Cool new perspective paper: Alternative splicing: an underexplored layer in immune receptor regulation, systemic resistance and priming www.frontiersin.org/journals/pla...

Frontiers | Alternative splicing: an underexplored layer in immune receptor regulation, systemic resistance and priming

Plant immunity relies on precise regulation of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) and nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs). Beyond trigg...

frontiersin.org

My poster on flower bioengineering at the #AIEBaB26 conference in Bristol last week 🌹 🧬 ✨

#plantsynbio peeps, has anyone played around with cell penetrating peptides? some of the papers look fairly convincing for delivery of DNA e.g. 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b00323. but am curious why not used more widely. Viruses and agro are just easier for most applications?

Nominations are now open for awards to be presented at the 2026 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Annual Conference. This is a great opportunity to recognize our outstanding colleague’s contributions to plant phenotyping research and innovation. mailchi.mp/ce99f293f3f6...

Interested in learning about the latest and greatest research in how plants respond to excess salt, too little or too much water? Come to the GRC in Salt and Water Stress in Switzerland. Lots of opportunities for all career levels. www.grc.org/salt-and-wat.... Please repost!

Very excited to finally share my PhD paper, about advancing #chloroplast #synbio through high-throughput plastome engineering of #Chlamydomonas. Huge thanks to the whole team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A modular high-throughput approach for advancing synthetic biology in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas - Nature Plants

This study reports a modular-cloning-based platform for high-throughput chloroplast engineering in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that allows large-scale characterization of genetic parts and prototyping o...

nature.com

Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology@mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Turbo platform for plant research 🚀🪴 Extreme weather events due to #climatechange reduce crop yields. @reneinckemann.bsky.social & team led by Tobias Erb @synmikro.bsky.social has now developed a microalgae platform for fast and efficient tests of chloroplast gene variants s.gwdg.de/hznfNe

The @plantcv.bsky.social team is hosting a workshop at the @nappn.bsky.social 2026 conference in Feb. at Michigan State and is able to support the travel of up to 20 participants. Please apply for the workshop and submit an abstract to the conference if you are interested: mailchi.mp/3afecdddf6de...

The UGA Plant Biology Department is hiring! Please help spread the word. We have an opening for an Assistant Professor in Plant Synthetic Biology for Strategic Resources Research. See ad for details – and join us here in Athens, GA!

Looking to host a fellow to explore regulation of duplicate genes in plant development & adaptation using single-cell & spatial transcriptomics. Ideal for candidates with backgrounds in genomics, evolution, or computational science moving to Plant Biology. Reach out if interested and eligible!

Applications for Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology Now Open

Applications for Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology Now Open on Simons Foundation

simonsfoundation.org

Congratulations to 2025 #MacFellow William Tarpeh! The Stanford chemical engineer is working on sustainable and practical solutions to treat wastewater and recover valuable mineral resources. 🗞️: stanford.io/3IZIBqF

Out First Release in @science.org this week: The development of a directed evolution strategy with proof of concept in plant immune protein engineering. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution

Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...

science.org

Wonderful to see this beautiful image on the cover of Science this week highlighting a paper that uses high resolution imaging to show the spatial patterns of bacterial attraction to glutamine from roots. Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Perspective here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization

Plant roots release exudates to encourage microbiome assembly, which influences the function and stress resilience of plants. How specific exudates drive spatial colonization patterns remains largely ...

science.org

Science Magazine@science.org · 10mo ago

Using precise spatial and temporal analysis, researchers in Science provide insight into how bacteria around the root interact both with the plant and with each other. Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/3WgNajk

Come join us at @stanford-chemh.bsky.social! I feel incredibly lucky to have launched my career here -- it is a fantastic place to do bold interdisciplinary science surrounded by creative & supportive colleagues. Applications are due 10/15/2025 -- DM me if you have questions about the search!

Sarafan ChEM-H@stanford-chemh.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Open faculty position! We're seeking applicants for a tenure-track faculty position at the junior level (Assistant or untenured Associate Professor) with research programs that exist at the interface between molecular science and computation. Apply here: stanford.io/45MF3Qa

Game changer for cell-based plant genetics: the labs of Caixia Gao & Jin-Long Qiu have developed very efficient self-replicating vectors and they just published a very nice proof-of-concept paper. #plantscience www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It was our pleasure to write the perspective for such a beautiful piece of work on bacterial colonization of plant roots! 🌱❤️

@nikogeldner.bsky.social · 10mo ago

A long road to the Cover of Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks also to the great perspective on our article written by @katekozaeva.bsky.social and @jennbrophy.bsky.social and our team @fbm-unil.bsky.social and @unil.bsky.social for their communications !