#SynCell2026 in London
22-24 April

Intro slide from syncell 2026

Great to be at the 2026 Synthetic Cell international conference in London!

Such a fantastic community to be in ❤️

Thanks to all the organisers @continiclau.bsky.social @syncelleu.bsky.social

Summer school on Synthetic Biology: students will explore biomolecular condensates as a bridge between natural cellular organisation and the design of synthetic and minimal cells

When: 24-28 August
Where: Santander, Spain
Organised by the UIMP in collaboration with the CSIC

edu.nl/e9gk4

#SynCell

Super exciting - we just started the SynCell Global Summit Delft 2026 - 45 world-leading scientists from Asia, the US and Europe that gather in Delft for a few days to connect and discuss future research towards building a synthetic cell from the bottom up!

#SynBYSS welcomes Prof Kerstin Göpfrich, Prof Dora Tang, Prof Alexander Grünberger, Prof Johan Rockberg, Dr Emily Leproust at Twist, Dr Amy Bernard at Kavli Foundation & Dr Deepti Tanjore at LBL as 291-7th pioneer speakers, thanks!
@twistbioscience.com @kavlifoundation.org @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Take a look at our lastest review: "Phase separation across membranes and condensates in cell organization and function," done together with @dimovalab.bsky.social now available in @nature.com Reviews Cell.Mol.Biol.

You can read the full review here:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

@mpici.bsky.social

In collaboration with #ComeInCell, MD.USE will host a workshop on April 20 at 14:00 CET, centered on the application of #moleculardynamics simulations to complex biological systems. The first 1h-lecture is open to the public!

👉 More details: www.comeincell.org/introduction...

#HorizonEurope #MSCA

Scientific publication in Nature Communications on condensate-membrane interactions

edu.nl/8mn3m

PhD position in the Niederholtmeyer Lab (Straubing Germany) on feedback control of dynamic condensate assembly and disassembly

edu.nl/7v364

Deadline: 26/04
@hniederho.bsky.social

#SynCell #SyntheticCell

New scientific publication by the group of Thomas Gorochowski on DNA synthesis

Register now at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... and join us next week!

Advancing Synthetic Cells: A More Flexible System to Replicate Cellular Functions A team at the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela has developed a more flexible chemical strategy to create

A flexible chemical platform for synthetic cells: dynamic covalent boronate chemistry enables in situ tuning of coacervate compartments and their functions.

🔗 www.usc.es/ciqus/en/new...

#RedeCIGUS #FondosEuropeos

Growth, Dissolution and Segregation of Genetically Encoded RNA Droplets by Ribozyme Catalysis Ribozymes enable sequence-encoded turnover of RNA droplet material, resulting in transiently active droplets that selectively segregate based on their genotype. This establishes a direct link between...

Recent highlights:
Received seed funding from the SynGen Center to explore synthetic genomes in bottom-up synthetic biology. 🚀
The first work of my PhD is now published:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Huge thanks to Franziska Gießler, Tobias Abele, Stefan Maurer, and @kgoepfrich.bsky.social

On April 13 at 16:00 CET (Berlin time), we host the online lecture by Prof. Andela Šarić on “Modeling” as part of our Interdisciplinary Lecture Series.
The first 1h of the lecture is open to the public!

👉 More details: www.comeincell.org/2026-04-13-a...

#MSCA #HorizonEurope

It is a pleasure to welcome another new #mattertolife Fellow to our Lecture Series!

On 15 April at 3 pm Laura Heinen from DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials will join us with an exciting talk on: Synthetic Cells - How to Stay "Alive?"

Register now: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Engineering synthetic cells with intramembrane domains possessing distinct bilayer asymmetries - Nature Communications Lipid bilayer asymmetry, phase separation, and encapsulation are long standing issues in the development of synthetic cells. Here the authors develop an inverted emulsion method that can produce synth...

New scientific publication by the Robinson Lab on biomimetic membranes.

They present a method to produce a membrane model that can accurately mimic cellular membrane asymmetry

edu.nl/u43be

#SynCell #SyntheticCell

Apply now! The 2026 call for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme is now open with a deadline of 1 April 12:00 midday CEST. 🧪

More info here:
www.embo.org/funding/fellowships-gran...
#LifeSciences #research #funding

Iva Tolić, a biophysicist specialising in cell division Iva heads the Laboratory of Cell Biophysics in Croatia, where she studies how certain aspects of cell division are orchestrated and regulated

Meet the community! We interviewed Iva Tolić @ivatolic.bsky.social, a cell division specialist who focuses on the mitotic spindle, an essential machine for cell division. We discussed her interest in #SyntheticCell research, her current projects, her latest achievements & more #syncell edu.nl/9u4vq

Life-like processes in synthetic protocells under external fields Synthetic protocells are self-assembled compartments designed to reproduce minimal features of prebiotic boundaries through bottom-up assembly. They o…

Perspective by Laura Alvarez and her colleagues:

Life-like processes in synthetic protocells under external fields

edu.nl/j3b9y

@lauraal.bsky.social

🚨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...

Three positions are available at the University of Oxford in the UK. The deadlines for applications are in April.

A robust method for on-chip production and manipulation of lipid vesicles by inverted emulsion Lipid vesicles are important as minimal model systems for cellular compartmentalization. They drive major advances in deciphering biological mechanism…

New publication by The Tang Lab: edu.nl/gchwm

Pre registration is open for the Master’s in Integrative Synthetic Biology (MISB)

The master’s programme offers advanced training in bottom-up #SyntheticCell engineering, top-down and computational synthetic biology, and applications in sustainability and health

Deadline: 29/05

#SynCell

Junior group leader position in Barcelona, Spain!

Application deadline: 2 May 2026

Recent scientific publications:

A synthetic cell with integrated DNA self-replication and lipid biosynthesis edu.nl/k6ayw

Compartment-guided assembly of large-scale molecular models with Bentopy edu.nl/9cyun

Bringing the genetically minimal cell to life on a computer in 4D edu.nl/u6cfk

Optimizing spatial organization of FtsZ rings for large-scale constriction in synthetic cells - Nature Communications Spatially regulated membrane constriction is an important milestone in reconstituting minimal cell division. Here the authors engineer a truncated system where the cytosolic domain of FtsN forms large...

Neat paper from Schwille lab. They demonstrate constriction of synthetic vesicles using important components of the bacterial cell division machinery, FtsZ and FtsN. They induce strong constriction of Z-rings in vesicles just by adding the cytoplasmic domain of FtsN www.nature.com/articles/s41...

For all PhD candidates interested in #syntheticbiology consider our #EMBOSynBio course! Applications open!

Opportunities! Four PhD positions focusing on "Synthetic cells (SynCells) as a smart-responsive healthcare technology"

at Imperial College London

Molecular recruitment and release using DNA host condensates Artificial biomolecular condensates are a promising tool to achieve spatial self-organization in active materials and synthetic cells. DNA branched motifs known as nanostars are a particularly versati...

Recent scientific publication in the journal Nanoscale Horizons:

Molecular recruitment and release using DNA host condensates

edu.nl/vyjgh

📢New on our blog!
#ListerFellow Yuval Elani at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social on programmable synthetic cells that respond to heat, magnetism and more... Great potential for biomedicine.

🤔Where could synthetic cells make the biggest difference?

lister-institute.org.uk/in-conversat...