Proud of this conversation I helped produce for @scifri.bsky.social between Flora Lichtman and Nobel laureate @francesarnold.bsky.social. I think it's worth a listen. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/fra...

Nobel laureate Frances Arnold has had an extraordinary journey from teenage rebellion in Pittsburgh to harnessing AI to evolutionary biology to create new kinds of chemistry. I sat down with her for a Lunch with the FT in the bistro of Stockholm's Nobel Prize Museum. www.ft.com/content/9923...

New work in Nature Communications! Using generative AI, we designed TrpB enzymes that are not only functional, but outperform natural ones and rival top lab-evolved TrpBs. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Huge thanks to @francesarnold.bsky.social, @anima-anandkumar.bsky.social, and all co-authors!

An exciting collaboration with @francesarnold.bsky.social on AI+enzymes. This combines generative protein models with carefully tuned filters that resulted in functional and versatile enzymes beating natural and previously engineered enzymes.

Generated PLP-dependent Trp synthases are functional, stable, and exhibit usefully broad substrate scopes! fun collaboration with @anima-anandkumar.bsky.social @ramanathanlab.bsky.social Amin Takavoli. I love AI + #enzymes!

Enzyme Engineering Database (EnzEngDB): a platform for sharing and interpreting sequence–function relationships across protein engineering campaigns @francescazfl.bsky.social @jsunn-y.bsky.social @francesarnold.bsky.social @arianemora.bsky.social Paper: doi.org/10.1093/nar/... DB: enzengdb.org

Friday night at Adams pack station. 9 miles and a century from @caltech.

A new round of layoffs at Nasa’s jet propulsion lab will result in ‘an untold loss of scientific knowledge and expertise’ according to congresswoman Judy Chu.

Looking for PhD or postdoctoral opportunities in #AI+biology #proteinengineering? the brilliant @arianemora.bsky.social has joined @aithyra.bsky.social in beautiful #vienna. I wish I could start over again!

Our new paper on AI-generated TrpBs with @anima-anandkumar.bsky.social. GenSLM generated very useful promiscuous TrpB #enzymes, bypassing a lot of #directedevolution! great work by the whole team, especially Theophile Lambert. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A compelling review of how ML/AI could help in the quest to find an enzyme for every reaction. @jsunn-y.bsky.social @francescazfl.bsky.social Yueming Long @francesarnold.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-systems...

Private tour of the Louvre is a special treat. They were vacuuming the Sphinx. You may not have seen a Sphinx being brushed, so I am sharing.

On the beautiful @Caltech campus with two new professors @reisenbauerlab.bsky.social and @arianemora.bsky.social headed to start their careers in Vienna. Prospective graduate students take note! This is the future of #enzymes #proteinengineering. @caltechcce.bsky.social @caltech.edu

Loved seeing so many former #Arnoldgroup members at GRC #ProteinEngineering this week! Protein engineering is in good hands.

I'm really proud of this work by Jae Kennemur and Yueming Long. #Enzymes rock, with some help from #directed evolution to do chemistry not known in nature (and really hard for humans, too). @caltechcce.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

I saw it firsthand at the Lindau Nobel Laureates meeting--international young scientists welcomed and recruited in Germany and elsewhere. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

📅July 7-11 The 2025 Onassis Lectures in Biology and Chemistry will be held @forth-ite.bsky.social, Heraklion, Crete. This year’s Lectures are devoted to the advances, challenges, and future prospects of #Re-engineeringBiology through #DirectedEvolution and #Synthetic cellular pathways.

Join us! We are looking for a new team member (PhD student) with strong background in organic chemistry. 🙏 RETWEET (We want to recruit internationally) Organic chemistry meets #DirectedEvolution Highly interdisciplinary & passionate research group uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org/job/view/433...

Really enjoying #Repartzymes Repurposed and Artificial Enzymes meeting organized by #TomWard of Uni. Basel. Many former group members are here! rep.artzymes.info

I'm honored to be involved in the SDSS @stanforddoerr.bsky.social --we need it now more than ever. Let's continue to be bold about building the future.

Steered generation for protein optimization: On datasets with ~10^2 measurements, steering a discrete diffusion model outperforms RL on a protein language model for generating improved variants. @jsunn-y.bsky.social @francesarnold.bsky.social @yisongyue.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2505.15093

Took a walk in the woods this weekend. So good for the soul.

Such a pleasure to gather with current and former Arnold group members in San Diego! Thank you one and all. #ACSSpring2025

My @acs.org Priestley award address can be found here fhalab.caltech.edu/wp-content/u...

I got to tell some stories I don't usually include in science talks. Thank you for coming. I will post the address on my website soon.

Before you meet @francesarnold.bsky.social at #ACSSpring2025, read my profile of her in @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/people/award...

Meet @francesarnold.bsky.social, 2025 Priestley Medalist, at #ACSSpring2025. Stop by the ACS Booth Theater in the Expo Hall to hear about her contributions to #chemistry and pick up a signed copy of her C&EN feature issue. RSVP: connect.discoveracs.org/cen-priestle... #chemsky

Also remember that the National Archives maintains prior administrations' websites, e.g., bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov. I spent a lot of time unnecessarily downloading the Obama-era OSTP archive in 2017.

The White House website has been wiped clean, but thanks to @erichorvitz.bsky.social , all the Biden #PCAST reports are available below. I want to thank the #PCAST members, all of whom donated their time and expertise to helping policy be science-based. tinyurl.com/2acnv2nh

Happy to share that our work on Active Learning-Assisted Directed Evolution is now published in @naturecomms.bsky.social! Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Check out the original thread here: x.com/jsunn_y/stat...

Hell continues in #LosAngeles with the #LAfires. I live next to #Altadena, which is pretty much destroyed. My power finally came on after three cold nights. So many have lost their homes, and danger not over since big winds are coming back starting tomorrow. Views at my house Wednesday early am.

#eatonfire near me. So many have lost their homes. Power is out and I am drinking the best wine.

Many congratulations to #PCAST members Paula Hammond and John Dabiri for #NMS National Medal of Science and #NMTI National Medal of Technology and Innovation. These fabulous scientists are using #science and #technology in service of the nation and the world. www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

Please join us in welcoming our newest Professor of Chemistry, Sandeep Sharma! 👋 His group's research efforts are directed towards developing algorithms that solve the problem of electronic structure theory. He loves to spend time with his family and enjoys playing racket sports. Welcome, Sandeep!

Just listened to a fantastic talk on harnessing evolution to do new #chemistry by @francesarnold.bsky.social at the Bowei Research Conference in Taiwan. Loved her advice: “Nature does not care about your calculations.”

My grandson did not enjoy this juice. But he loved the vending machine.

Happy 2025 to all! Crazy to watch a whole building erupt...

This #cat has some teeth! #lion

Merry Christmas!

A pride of lions with seven cubs and three lionesses in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, with Anne & @francesarnold.bsky.social

Wishing you a Merry Christmas. I am spending mine with my three #cheetah brothers. The world is a wonderful place, full of quirks and treasures of #evolution.

The #mountaingorillas in #Rwanda's #VolcanoesNationalPark are extraordinary!

Incredible experience in #rwanda!!

Great opportunity! Want to work with enzymes and AI automation?

Went bicycling all over #Kigali this morning with @pswnano.bsky.social and Anne Andrews. A remarkably clean, green city.

Not a scrap of trash in #kigali #rwanda. People like it that way. So do

Today’s biking in #kigali. Beautiful city!

The President of Rwanda Paul Kagame took the time to meet with us yesterday in #Kigali (African MRS). He spoke to us about working together to face challenges and not giving up. #Rwanda is a great model.

Off to more adventures in #kigali!