We recently discovered that our engineered lactobacilli are far more obedient when confined in a gel - doi.org/10.1016/j.jc... If you want the highlights of the story, check out the LinkedIN post image. @marcblanch.bsky.social @varunsays.bsky.social @leibnizinm.bsky.social

Just wrapped up an incredible six days at my first Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Lactic Acid Bacteria: Biology and Applications in Ventura, California 🌅

🧪 New study alert 🧬💥 Happy to share our latest work on Living Therapeutics and testing them in a refined in-vitro endotoxemia model using macrophages. 🧫🦠 If you like living therapeutics, inflammation, or science that vibes, the paper’s here: doi.org/10.1021/acsp...

Developing an In Vitro Model of Endotoxemia to Assess the Immunomodulatory Effects of Anti-Inflammatory Peptide-Secreting Living Therapeutics

Living therapeutics are attractive candidates to tackle the limitations of classically delivered therapeutic peptides, which are often poorly stable and require cost-intensive modifications. Their fun...

doi.org

New Paper!🧪 We developed an in vitro model of endotoxemia to investigate the antiinflammatory potential of living therapeutics. Check it out! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... @leibnizinm.bsky.social @pharmascihub.bsky.social @ketakideshpande.bsky.social @varunsays.bsky.social @shrikrishnans.bsky.social

Developing an In Vitro Model of Endotoxemia to Assess the Immunomodulatory Effects of Anti-Inflammatory Peptide-Secreting Living Therapeutics

Living therapeutics are attractive candidates to tackle the limitations of classically delivered therapeutic peptides, which are often poorly stable and require cost-intensive modifications. Their functional assessment is limited to animal experiments, which increase the complexity to evaluate the dynamic nature of these systems. Therefore, we developed an in vitro model of endotoxemia using macrophages to assess early-stage anti-inflammatory Living therapeutics. We refined the model based on three anti-inflammatory peptides (KCF-18, I6P7, and α-MSH) and identified suitable therapeutic concentrations and treatment durations. We applied the model to Lactiplantibacillus plantarum TF103, a probiotic engineered to secrete these peptides. The model revealed that Living therapeutics enhanced the effects of the peptides, requiring lower amounts of anti-inflammatory effects. This points to potential synergistic effects between peptides and bacteria. The model presented here allows the investigation of dynamic regimes, which could be useful in the development of complex systems such as the ones encountered in Living therapeutics.

pubs.acs.org

Last week our group engaged with the public in the @uni-saarland.de Open Day. We shared glowing bacteria, DNA candy, Bio-keychains & more. Yesterday, we celebrated with a sunny Grill-fest and fun games. Sandi from the group created this exciting video that captures the joy & energy of these events!

What happens when you trap probiotic bacteria inside gels? Turns out, not all bugs react the same way. We trapped gram-negative and gram-positive probiotic bacteria in gels with varying stiffnesses and saw what they did. Here's the study - tinyurl.com/Probiogel TLDR highlights in this thread 👇

Excited to share our latest work, published in a peer-reviewed journal. We studied how Gram +/- probiotic bacteria would adapt in mechanical confinements - key part in understanding the fundamentals of Engineered living materials. Read it here: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Adaptations of Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Probiotic Bacteria in Engineered Living Materials

Encapsulation of microbes in natural or synthetic matrices is a key aspect of engineered living materials, although the influence of such confinement on microbial behavior is poorly understood. A few ...

pubs.acs.org

Who knew stuffing engineered lactobacilli in a gel would make them better at secreting our engineered proteins? A pleasant surprise for us and a great outcome for engineered living materials - doi.org/10.1002/smll... @marcblanch.bsky.social @varunsays.bsky.social @leibnizinm.bsky.social

Looks like @springer1842.bsky.social was working till the end of the year to get our chapter with @varunsays.bsky.social on Optogenetic ELMS published! - link.springer.com/protocol/10.... That's a nice way to end the year 😁

Optogenetic Engineered Living Materials

Engineered living materials (ELM) is a new frontier in materials research that uses living microorganisms to augment nonliving materials with lifelike capabilities, such as responding to external stim...

link.springer.com

As a multi-cultural group, Christmas is all about having fun together. So, this year, we partied with a potluck lunch, Quiz by @varunsays.bsky.social, Secret Santa @anweshadecoded.bsky.social, Pictionary, Dinner in Saarlouis & late night visit to their magical Christmas Market! Memories were made!

Another great starter pack to find my people in bacterial synthetic biology: @varunsays.bsky.social - go.bsky.app/7biR6Ga

Hi All, I have noticed that there are several SynBio starter packs but none focused mainly on bacteria. I have created a bacterial synthetic biology starter pack to discuss and share some cool SynBio ideas. Looking forward to see some intriguing SynBio posts on the feed ! go.bsky.app/7biR6Ga

I thought it would be a good idea to create a starter pack for Engineered Living Materials so the community can grow and post in this platform. Please share and feel free to contact me or comment if you want to be added (or removed)! go.bsky.app/EKRq4zp