PS photos are before and after. We all survived - we just couldn't locate everyone in the dramatic minutes before the race 😅

As promised, we run the town and gown 10k! In the photos are group members @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social Juliette Bucci, Brian Ng, Cathrine Fan, Sebastian Krauss and Lorenzo (the old one). Thanks to all who supported us with donations to @mdukcharity.bsky.social

Thanks @diantoniogroup.bsky.social

Thanks - will do!

Grazie!!!

@francolab.bsky.social @pcicuta.bsky.social

@lasergroup.bsky.social @diantoniogroup.bsky.social @oasaleh.bsky.social @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social

SportsGiving - Entry: Lorenzo Di Michele Lorenzo Di Michele is fundraising for charity. Visit their fundraising page to sponsor them online now!

Hey! Some group members and I are running a 10k race in Cambridge this Sunday, and raining some funds for @mdukcharity.bsky.social

Please donate and share!
@ceb.cam.ac.uk @pembroke1347.bsky.social

sportsgiving.co.uk/sponsorship/...

Check out this new @jacs.acspublications.org paper by @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social. Building cation responsive DNA receptors for synthetic cells!

Thanks @oasaleh.bsky.social, great suggestion!

Happy to have developed the theory here, linking sequence-dependent charge patterns to favourable electrostatic interactions between homologous dsDNA🧬🧬

Matching theory & expt suggests a physical basis for sequence recognition that may underpin aspects of recombination, DNA repair, and replication.

Thanks @floppleton.bsky.social Andy Stannard did that

Also - we still need to decide where to submit this. Let’s try an unofficial poll. Where do BlueSky DNA enthusiasts see manuscript?

Great collaboration with Alexei's team, ‪@diantoniogroup.bsky.social‬ and many others. Thanks @leverhulme.ac.uk ‪‪@royalsociety.org‬ @erc.europa.eu
‪@imperialchemistry.bsky.social‬ @ceb.cam.ac.uk

Detection and quantification of counterion-mediated homologous recognition in double-stranded DNA Stretches of double-stranded DNA sharing the same sequence can recognise each other in cells. This phenomenon, known as homologous recognition, is essential for DNA recombination and repair. Yet, its ...

It turns out sDNA 🧬 interacts selectively! Andy Stannard measured these interactions very (very) precisely, and Ehud Haimov, @drjonhedley.bsky.social‬, Alexei Kornyshev worked out how it all works. It has to do with charge correlation... Check it out here
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

My work on DNA condensates @dimichelelab1.bsky.social is now out! 🧬🎉🍬
A huge thank you to @francolab.bsky.social lab for their invaluable expertise and to everyone in our lab for their insights, feedback, and countless discussions along the way. I’ve learned so much from working with you all!

We believe that this simple but modular condensate design strategy, based on nanostars and linkers, is really powerful and flexible. Hopefully others will find it useful too. Thanks to @erc.europa.eu @royalsociety.org @ceb.cam.ac.uk for funding and support! n/n

Finally, we explore the effect on phase behaviour of changing annealing protocols, demonstrating that multicomponent DNA condensates equilibrate veeeeeeeeeeery slowly. Something to bear in mind if you plan to work with similar systems 5/n

Simulations by Dino Osmanovic @francolab.bsky.social, based on Flory-Huggins, map well onto the experimental trends and allowed us to establish a link between the experimental order parameter and the F-H interaction parameter. Experimental (top) and simulated (bottom) snapshots below 4/n

We can control phase behaviour by changing linker and nanostars concentrations, without having to re-design nanostructures. This is rather convenient, and allowed us to map a large phase diagram and identify an order parameter controlling the transition between 1- and 2-phase condensates 3/n

Condensates assemble from two populations of tetravalent DNA nanostars, and three types of divalent linkers that mediate nanostar-nanostar interactions, either within the same nanostar population or across populations 2/n

Internal Phase Separation in Synthetic DNA Condensates The modular, programmable system of DNA nanostructures developed provides programmatic control over multiphase condensate behavior, enabling mapping onto a predictive Flory-Huggins model. This combin...

Thrilled to share this new Adv. Sci. paper by @dianatanase.bsky.social with Dino Osmanovic @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social @laylamalouf.bsky.social @francolab.bsky.social. We demonstrate a modular approach to program internal phase separation in DNA condensates 1/n doi.org/10.1002/advs...

Grazie Otti!

Thanks @ceb.cam.ac.uk @erc.europa.eu @royalsociety.org and BBSRC n/n

The MLO platform is robust, inducible and modular and many design modifications can be applied to the nanostars to capture different proteins or change MLO properties. Hopefully you’ll find this useful, and we look forward to your feedback! 9/n

Finally, we show that condensation is thermally reversible. The MLOs melt upon heating and re-assemble upon cooling, releasing and re-capturing GFP in the process 8/n

The nanostar designs are modular and allow for embedding of protein binding aptamers. We show that GFP can be selectively captured by the MLOs when a GFP-binding aptamer is included 7/n

We can express two non-interacting nanostars within the same cell, creating two orthogonal MLOs. This is only possible thanks to the selectivity of base pairing. Also here, most cells will have both MLOs, located at or near the poles 6/n

MLOs are located at the cell poles but small RNA clusters may appear near the centre before moving towards the poles. MLOs also tend to appear in the central section as cells approach division. The new MLOs may end up in one of the daughter cells, or be split between both 5/n

We express RNA “nanostars” interacting with kissing loops (KL) in E. coli and show that these form MLOs located at the poles of the cell. Expression is inducible and very efficient. Making the nanostars non-sticky stops condensation, indicating specificity 4/n