Very excited to share that our preprint on synthetic bacterial sponge RNAs is now out. This paper is for you if you're interested in RNA synthetic biology, quantitative gene circuit characterisation, resource competition, or post-transcriptional regulation. (1/11)

We invented “triplet tumbling microscopy” (TTM) to track protein-protein interactions in living cells! Tag your protein with GFP and see it interact with *untagged* binding partners www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

MagLOV 2 plasmid is (finally!) available on Addgene 🎉🧲🧫 Any GFP capable imaging setup + benchtop power supply + off the shelf electromagnet is all you need to get started - let us know if you need help of course. www.addgene.org/252303/ @andrewgyork.bsky.social @mariaingaramo.bsky.social 🧪

Meet MagLuc: a magnetically-controlled luminescent protein. This is a foundational tool for remote control of biological processes, also known as "magnetogenetics". Can you tell when the magnetic field turns on and off? From @mariaingaramo.bsky.social and the team at @nonfictionlabs.bsky.social

Quantum biological control, now in a multicellular organism! Super exciting to see this work from @scburd.bsky.social et al 🧪

Magnetic resonance control of spin-correlated radical pair dynamics in vivo - Nature

Magnetic resonance control of spin-correlated radical pairs alters red fluorescent protein emission in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans, demonstrating in vivo magnetic field modulation of biomolecula...

nature.com

Excited to be starting my group “Ecophotonics” with a Minerva FastTrack fellowship! Big thanks to @vignolinilab.bsky.social for your support! Also grateful to my PhD supervisor Malte Gather, and collaborators & students from marine biology to physics. 🧪👩🏼‍🔬💡https://www.mpikg.mpg.de/6920542/ecophotonics

“Ecophotonics”:Turning Nature’s Light Management Strategies into Sustainable Technology

mpikg.mpg.de

Magnetically sensitive proteins could lead to new imaging tools and remote-controlled drugs | Science | AAAS 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

Magnetically sensitive proteins could lead to new imaging tools and remote-controlled drugs

New study shows how engineered proteins can be tracked with an MRI-like approach

science.org

‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells

The discovery that some fluorescent proteins are sensitive to magnets could lead to the development of switchable drugs and biosensors.

nature.com

Our research on magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins and some of their applications has now been published! Huge thank you to the many many people involved in making this happen. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Quantum spin resonance in engineered proteins for multimodal sensing - Nature

A recently developed class of magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins are engineered to alter the properties of their response to magnetic fields and radio frequencies, enabling multimodal sensing of b...

nature.com

Our next student-led seminar is coming up! Organised by James Bridson (Oxford) & Sam Kemery (Bristol), we’re excited to welcome Assistant Professor Jennifer Brophy as our speaker. Jenn is a plant synthetic biologist at Stanford University. The lab's work explores how the form of a plant affects...

Great news! @mariaingaramo.bsky.social 's company (Nonfiction Labs) made a remote-controlled antibody. Its binding turns on and off with a magnet. This is a HUGE step towards our dream of magnetically controlled drugs. Imagine a cancer drug that ONLY attacks the tumor, not the rest of your body.

Oxford researchers will lead a new £6M BBSRC-funded project nature’s “quantum compass” to uncover, how animals sense Earth’s magnetic field and turn this knowledge into innovative biotechnologies. 🧭 #QuantumBiology #BBSRC #OxfordResearch Read more: eng.ox.ac.uk/news/new-pro...

1 week left to apply for a postdoctoral position in my group to lead the experimental component of a 5 year BBSRC project on synthetic microbial communities www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

ucl.ac.uk

Alex Fedorec@ajfedorec.bsky.social · 12mo ago

I'm going to be advertising for a few positions in my group in the next couple of months for a big project on synthetic microbial communities. I would love to hear from you if you are interested and I'd also appreciate if everyone could share this far and wide!

Generative design of synthetic gene circuits for functional and evolutionary properties https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678595v1

🚨 We’re hiring! The OPIG group is looking for multiple postdocs to join OpenBind, an open science initiative generating foundational structural biology data to power the next era of AI/ML for drug discovery. opig.stats.ox.ac.uk openbind.uk

www.sciencenews.org/article/biol...

Scientists made a biological quantum bit out of a fluorescent protein

Researchers could use quantum effects to develop new types of medical imaging inside cells themselves.

sciencenews.org

We’ve developed the first-ever method to control nucleic acid activity and gene-expressing synthetic cells with a deeply tissue penetrating alternating magnetic field 🧬 🧪 🧲!!! Published in *Nature Chemistry* Led by Ellen Parkes @syncelleu.bsky.social #chemsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Magnetic activation of spherical nucleic acids enables the remote control of synthetic cells - Nature Chemistry

The programmability of synthetic cells, comprising lipid vesicles that are capable of imitating the structure and function of living cells, facilitates their application as drug delivery devices. Now,...

nature.com

MagLOV quantum sensing update! Much improved imaging (>10% single cell ODMR contrast), detailed characterisation and simulation, and new experimental demonstrations taking us a step closer to applications. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... SI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now out in JACS. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... Grateful to thoughtful reviewers who found some errors in our model and encouraged us to make a better one! A renaissance in magnetobiology is coming...

Mechanism of Giant Magnetic Field Effect in a Red Fluorescent Protein

Several fluorescent proteins, when expressed in E. coli, are sensitive to weak magnetic fields. We found that mScarlet3 fluorescence in E. coli reversibly decreased by 21% in the presence of a 60 mT m...

pubs.acs.org

@adamezracohen.bsky.social · last yr.

How do tiny magnetic fields affect biochemistry? Overflowing with pride over Katherine Xiang's study on a giant magnetic field effect in a red fluorescent protein, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My lab at @ethzurich.bsky.social is looking for a motivated PhD student. We develop chemical tools for advanced fluorescence microscopy 🔬 and work at the interface of synthetic chemistry ⚗️ and protein engineering 🦠. Sharing with skilled Master students appreciated. More info at tinyurl.com/2dbjk5ty

NEW PREPRINT! Do you think we can do better when characterising resource competition properties of gene circuit modules? If no, think again; if yes, you’re in for a pitch how exactly we can do that – automated culturing, cybergenetic control and all! 1/ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

New spin resonance measurements with fluorescent proteins out this month from Burd et al., following the still mind-blowing result from @andrewgyork.bsky.social and @mariaingaramo.bsky.social that if you create a selection pressure for a quantum system, nature will oblige! 🧪

New preprint 🎇 We developed oligonucleotide PROTACs (OligoPROTACs), which show comparable activity to small molecule equivalents - but can be *switched off*, using DNA nanotech, to restore protein levels! Last of Disha's trilogy! #chemsky 🧪 @uclchemistry.bsky.social chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

DNA-programmable Protein Degradation: Dynamic Control of PROTAC Activity via DNA Hybridization and Strand Displacement

Targeted protein degradation is a powerful therapeutic approach: expanding the druggable proteome, providing enhanced selectivity, and having the ability to overcome conventional resistance mechanisms...

chemrxiv.org

How do tiny magnetic fields affect biochemistry? Overflowing with pride over Katherine Xiang's study on a giant magnetic field effect in a red fluorescent protein, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mechanism of giant magnetic field effect in fluorescence of mScarlet3, a red fluorescent protein

Several fluorescent proteins, when expressed in E. coli, are sensitive to weak magnetic fields1. We found that mScarlet3 fluorescence in E. coli reversibly decreased by 21% in the presence of a 60 mT ...

biorxiv.org

Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!

Fernando Rossine@fernpizza.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics! (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...

Bravo @plos.org! US exec orders "stand in direct conflict with our core values, our mission, edit policies" "PLOS will not compromise on issues of scientific rigor & editorial integrity... we seek diversity because more expert voices make for better science" theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos...

PLOS statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity - The Official PLOS Blog

Since its founding over twenty five years ago PLOS has been dedicated to advancing open science, ensuring that knowledge is accessible to…

theplosblog.plos.org

Experimental evolution of evolvability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Experimental evolution of evolvability

Evolvability—the capacity to generate adaptive variation—is a trait that can itself evolve through natural selection. However, the idea that mutation can become biased toward adaptive outcomes remains...

science.org

This Valentine's day I want to share the LOV2 with you! ❤️ Roses are red, the light is blue, stimuli are read by the domain LOV2.

My lab does cool stuff 👇

Kirill Sechkar@ksechkar.bsky.social · last yr.

Our paper on countering mutations in engineered cell populations has now been published with @royalsocietypublishing.org ! Come for our biomolecular controller that mitigates mutation spread, stay for resource-aware gene circuit design and modelling tools 1/10 doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2024.0602

Looking for a #PhD that is at the intersection of #biodesign, #synbio, #openendedness, #evolution? Look no further. Great supervisory team too 😉