This will be amazing. And free!!

Now published! doi.org/10.1093/plce...

“wait… it parses the history too??”

yep 😄 OpenCloning now imports SnapGene files with the full cloning workflow, not just the final construct.

🎬 sound on

opencloning.org

Interested in synthetic biology & microbiomes? 🧬🧫
We are recruiting a PhD student to develop biosensors to study microbe–microbe & microbe–host interactions.
In beautiful Lausanne, Switzerland🏔️⛵
@dmf-unil.bsky.social @fbm-unil.bsky.social
Apply by 24.05.2026 👇
shorturl.at/6X7M4
Boosts appreciated!

🚨 New opportunity! 🚨

We’re looking to recruit a Lecturer in Engineering Biology at the University of Bristol Faculty of Science and Engineering.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a vibrant, interdisciplinary research environment at a time of significant institutional investment and growth.

This is an early and strong contender for my favourite paper of the year, just after a quick glance. Direct conversion of Arabidopsis tissue to regeneration without callus and normal CIM due to loss of DNA demethylation 🤯

Of course moss does that by default 😉

Phages communicate across species to shape microbial ecosystems Gallego-del-Sol et al. show that arbitrium-coding phages can sense non-cognate peptide signals from other phages to regulate lysis-lysogeny decisions. This crosstalk affects lysis-lysogeny outcomes of...

This paper started as an idea @albertomarina.bsky.social had many years ago… which of course means he was right all along 😄. Some of us just needed a few years (and a lot of experiments) to catch up.
Grateful (and slightly humbled) to be part of this. Thanks Alberto!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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...

Quantum biological control, now in a multicellular organism!

Super exciting to see this work from @scburd.bsky.social et al 🧪

Curious about the origin of development during the transition to multicellularity?

A very belated preprint alert: bit.ly/4rr2mHU
Reproduction emerges from ecological interactions at the onset of multicellularity.

A short 🧵 with lots of videos...

And it’s not just this outcome.

From the same ingredients, we get a whole zoo of possible solutions: unicellular life cycles, single-cell and multicellular propagules (in the video), and large groups that split by tearing themselves apart.

we talk about carcinization, but never about the many, many times plants have invented the “tree.”

Tree is not a kind of plant, it is a thing plats do, and they are by and large unrelated.

The OpenPlant kit is finally available from Addgene as... a kit :)
www.addgene.org/kits/haselof...
@addgene.bsky.social #marchantia #synbio

Welcome to the world, little spark. You are loved. 💚

In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨

Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)

Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇

doi.org/10.1093/fems...

🚀 Excited to launch the #OpenCloning Assembler!

🧬 Built to demystify Golden Gate for beginners and save time for experts -> MoClo assembly blazing fast ⚡

✍️ Use existing syntaxes or design your own!

#SynBio #GoldenGate #MoClo #OpenSource #Biotech

👉 Try it: app.opencloning.org

Feedback welcome!

Integrase-On-Demand: bioprospecting integrases for targeted genomic insertion of genetic cargo Abstract. Integrases serve as powerful biotechnology tools that catalyze recombination at specific DNA sequences (att sites) and facilitate chromosomal int

Integrase-On-Demand: bioprospecting integrases for targeted genomic insertion of genetic cargo Open Access
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Next Monday, 9 February at 2:30 pm (UK time), we’re excited to hear from Alex Bisson @archaeon-alex.bsky.social from Indiana University.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive the Zoom link!

Working on a tool to define Golden Gate syntaxes for #OpenCloning. You define your syntax, and then you can drag-and-drop your plasmids in OpenCloning, they will be sorted into the right categories, and you can do combinatorial assembly. Reach out if you'd like to contribute:

syntax.opencloning.org

New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve.

‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Inspired by the story, I created a petunia with 5 differently colored petals using new genes I made, AMBER & GOLD that I just published here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Similar to RUBY, these polycistronic genes encode yellow, fluorescent betaxanthins 💛🧡

If you are looking to integrate your latest genetic creation into the genome of your favourite bug, you might find our latest review now out in OUP Synthetic Biology useful. 🧬⚒️ Work led by Riesa Rohmat with input from Thea Irvine and Shivang Joshi. #genome #synbio doi.org/10.1093/synb...

@peterfineran.bsky.social and colleagues develop Tn-seq for phages by leveraging anti-CRISPR (Acr) as a positive
selectable marker in the presence of CRISPR-Cas counter-selection, and identify essential genes in phage from non model orgs
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It's been a great experience to start a team here, I highly recommend applying!

A couple new #PhD opportunities to join my lab at the intersection of #synbio, #plantsci and #biotech as part of the Plant BioDesign doctoral programme spanning the University of York, University of Cambridge, University of Bristol and John Innes Centre. 1/4

What is the best strategy to win any contest?

Eliminate your opponents of course.

Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A cloning strategy as depicted in the OpenCloning website

#OpenCloning is a an Open Source alternative to SnapGene/Benchling that supports automation and integration with other software

✅ Free
🔓 Open Source
🧬 More cloning methods than SnapGene
🤖 Can be automated with python
👨‍🔬 Built by a researcher — for researchers!

👉 Check it out at opencloning.org

A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.

Early morning today in the Anza Borrego desert

Moments like this, a sunrise in the desert, remind me that science begins with wonder.
Discovery starts when we pause long enough to notice. Isn't it amazing how life always finds a way to adapt and persist? And how are Plants so good at this?
#Science #Discovery #Nature #AnzaBorrego #PlantScience

I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication.
I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026.
Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1
drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...

Emergence of population-level feedback control by transposon-plasmid coevolution
doi.org/10.1101/2025...