Mood in Brixton. Everyone waiting for the return of Ulysses Bellingham
Jose Jimenez
@jjimenez.bsky.social
Associate Professor in Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London #synbio and evolution for health, the environment and the circular economy josejimenezlab.com
Absolutely over the moon to see our work of whole-cell PET plastic bioremediation with engineered bacteria published in its final form!!! authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... This is a World-Cup-worth 🏆 effort of an amazing team led by Alice Banks, Umar Abdulmutalib and Brooke Wain.
Engineering environmental bacteria for whole-cell PET hydrolysis and assimilation
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is one of the most widely used plastics in food and textile applications, yet post-consumer PET waste persists and …
authors.elsevier.com
New paper out!! Really enjoyed working with Juhyun Kim from Kyungpook National University thinking about how microbial cell factories, minicells and microbial communities can be harnessed for safe and precise food production. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Safe and resource-aware microbial design for food production
Precision fermentation is redefining microbial food manufacturing by enabling programmable biosynthesis of nutrients and functional ingredients. Despi…
sciencedirect.com
Our work characterizing how mutational bias is influenced by the local sequence context beyond trinucleotides is out now @pnas.org! We also showed which motifs are most prone to mutations caused by strand misalignment, revealing several new hotspots! 🧬 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Really exciting to see this paper out! This is a massive effort from clinicians, bioinformaticians and microbiologists investigating links between pancreatic and bile microbiota in healthy individuals and cancer patients. journals.lww.com/internationa...
The bile microbiome is a surrogate for the intratumoral... : International Journal of Surgery
pared to benign and malignant pancreatico–biliary disease, as well as correlate our findings with the pancreatic intratumoral and neighboring adjacent tissue (NAT) microbiome. Methods: Prospective ...
journals.lww.com
My super department @warwicklifesci.bsky.social is hiring 6 assistant profs in the wake of recent retirements. We're looking for people in microbiology/infection, cellular disease / immunity; environmental biology; and plant/crop science. #MicroSky warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...
Assistant Professor x6 (111522-0426) - University of Warwick
Title: Assistant Professor x6 (111522-0426). Application Deadline: . Position Type: Permanent
warwick-careers.tal.net
🔈Paper out! We turned the most fascinating phage host-switch mechanism, diversity-generating retroelements, into a programmable mutagenesis tool, DGRec. You can perform targeted hypermutation of any 50-200bp sequence directly in vivo in E. coli www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Diversity-generating retroelements for programmable targeted hypermutagenesis - Nature Biotechnology
Diversity-generating retroelements are engineered for directed evolution in E.coli.
nature.com
Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak “This country has given me endless opportunities…: The America we inhabit today bears almost no resemblance to the country I chose all those years ago” newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...
I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country.
Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
🚨 Please share this fully-funded #PhD #opportunity within your network!👇 👇 Only two weeks are left to apply! @imperiallifesci.bsky.social @imperialsci.bsky.social @imperial-edu.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Claudia Contini@continiclau.bsky.social · 5mo ago🚨new #PhD #opportunity open in our group! In collaboration with John Tregoning,we are recruiting for a project focused on #engineering #synthetic #vesicle platforms for programmable #immune #training and #vaccine #delivery. 📅 Application deadline: 16th April www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/stu...
As scientists, asking ourselves if our direction of travel is the right one is the responsible thing to do. This is why I'm really pleased to share this article summarising our reflections on the current state of biobased approaches to manage #plastic waste. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reflections on bio-based PET and plastic waste management: a responsible research and innovation approach - Nature Communications
Bio-based approaches to plastic degradation have been an intense area of research in recent years, and although they show great promise, they also raise societal, ethical and regulatory questions. Her...
nature.com
Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you! 1/n
Job Details
my.corehr.com
Fully endorse this view at least in prokaryotes. Someone once told me that "cells are bags of ribosomes making more ribosomes". It may be worth considering that at some point in multicellular evolution (of eukaryotes?) this was abandoned by a more organism-centric strategy
Mart Krupovic@mkrupovic.bsky.social · 5mo agoWith Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
🚨🚨🚨LAST CHANCE!! - Closing tomorrow!!! 🚨🚨🚨
Jose Jimenez@jjimenez.bsky.social · 6mo agoOne week left to apply to this PhD studentship!! Do not miss this opportunity! 💷 Fully paid tuition and stipend for 3.5 years 📅 Deadline 27th February 🇬🇧 Home fees (UK national / settled status) 🧫 ⚗️ ⚛️ Interdisciplinary team
🚨JOB alert🚨 We have three (yes, THREE) 🌟lectureships🌟 advertised in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. Broad remit, including #AnimalBehaviour & #GlobalChangeBiology ⏱️Deadline: 8th March 2026 🙏Please circulate widely 😊Come join us! Full #job details: tinyurl.com/y3us95rc
Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol
bristol.ac.uk
One week left to apply to this PhD studentship!! Do not miss this opportunity! 💷 Fully paid tuition and stipend for 3.5 years 📅 Deadline 27th February 🇬🇧 Home fees (UK national / settled status) 🧫 ⚗️ ⚛️ Interdisciplinary team
Jose Jimenez@jjimenez.bsky.social · 6mo agoJoin us in our crusade to make materials sustainable! We are recruiting a PhD student (home fees) to work on an exciting project to decarbonise the nylon industry and create new biodegradable materials. Info on how to apply here: www.imperial.ac.uk/school-of-co... (deadline 27th of February!)
Join us Feb. 26 at Imperial! 🧬 PromoterAtlas: decoding regulatory sequences across Gammaproteobacteria using a transformer model Lucas Coppens (Biofoundry) 🌾 Resurrecting plant defence mechanisms to avoid crop pathogens Imogen Binnian (Resurrect Bio) tinyurl.com/2d52z38h
London SynBio Network 14
London SynBio afterwork talks and networking event on Thursday 26th of January
tinyurl.com
How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n
A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand
The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...
science.org
Join us in our crusade to make materials sustainable! We are recruiting a PhD student (home fees) to work on an exciting project to decarbonise the nylon industry and create new biodegradable materials. Info on how to apply here: www.imperial.ac.uk/school-of-co... (deadline 27th of February!)
Reposting this paper now with a working link! 😅 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Engineering whole-cell catalysts to use plastic waste as a feedstock
The extensive production, durability, and waste mismanagement of plastic polymers have led to a highly concerning environmental problem. Recycling met…
sciencedirect.com
Jose Jimenez@jjimenez.bsky.social · 6mo ago"Are you not worried that engineered microbes can be released into the environment and eat all the plastic?" The answer is not really. Pleased to share our latest piece addressing this question by evaluating the current status of whole-cell plastic degradation: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Feel like doing a SynBio PhD in Spain? Check this offer, many fellowships available 👉🏻 lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/
"Are you not worried that engineered microbes can be released into the environment and eat all the plastic?" The answer is not really. Pleased to share our latest piece addressing this question by evaluating the current status of whole-cell plastic degradation: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
What happens when you suddenly remove half of an essential enzyme from cells? 🤔 We watched in real-time as cells deploy multiple backup strategies to buffer against changes in RNA Pol II abundance. Our lab's new preprint 👇 bit.ly/4pyPgax
Hierarchical buffering of cellular RNA polymerase II pools maintains transcriptional homeostasis
RNA polymerase II (Pol II) abundance and transcriptional output are coordinated across diverse conditions to maintain mRNA homeostasis. To determine whether Pol II acts as a limiting factor for transc...
bit.ly
#CIBpapers Researchers at the @cib-csic.bsky.social present a new bacterium capable of transforming plastic waste into high-value bioproducts More info 🔗https://cib.csic.es/news/research/researchers-cib-margarita-salas-present-new-bacterium-capable-transforming-plastic
New year resolution: develop the strength and technique to do ONE bloody muscle-up. Not a lot to ask. That at the back is the Bay of Cadiz. Not a bad place to start 2026. Happy New Year!!
Really happy to see this paper out. It looks like Santa had us on the nice list!! Congrats to all authors, it's been such a joy to be involved!
Microsys CIB@microsys.bsky.social · 7mo ago🚀 Now published! The study was led by Francisco Javier Molpeceres García under the supervision of @jorgebarriuso.bsky.social It also marks the start of a great collaboration with @jjimenez.bsky.social lab at Imperial College London. 🔗 Article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Manchester Institute of Biotechnology is looking for a new Professor. There are a few priority areas including microbial engineering (broadly defined, from pathways to cells to microbiomes). Closing 12 Jan. Join us in the best city in the UK 😜 www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
Professorial Appointment within the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology:Manchester Institute of Biotechnology
Applications are invited for a professorial appointment to be based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) at the University of Manchester (UoM). The successful candidate will join a dynamic research environment at an exciting time and will help shape the institute research priorities and national/international profile. We are open to high quality applications from across the broad engineering biology and biotechnology landscape. Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to chemical biology of disease related proteins, natural product biosynthesis and enzyme discovery; structural biology and mechanistic enzymology; and microbial engineering.
jobs.manchester.ac.uk
So you think your mammalian plasmids have nothing to fear from cloning and propagation in E.coli? Quantitative profiling of millions of nucleotides by Tom Copeman will prove you wrong! Supervised with the amazing @proftomellis.bsky.social and AZ, now on BioRxiv: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Quantitative profiling of millions of nucleotides reveals sequence-encoded interactions that govern plasmid propagation
Plasmids are central to modern biotechnology, especially therapeutic development, yet their propagation in Escherichia coli remains difficult to predict. Although expression-induced burden is well und...
doi.org
- Using novel genomic tools to understand the evolution of Acinetobacter baumannii pathogenicity in clinical environments Supervisors: David Grainger, Katie Hopkins, Jessica Blair, Willem van Schaik www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (4/7)
Using novel genomic tools to understand the evolution of Acinetobacter baumannii pathogenicity in clinical environments at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Using novel genomic tools to understand the evolution of Acinetobacter baumannii pathogenicity in clinical environments at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com
findaphd.com
As the year comes close to an end, just wanted to thank all team members for making my everyday better. Really proud of this talented and selfless group of scientists!!
