Single-molecule friends! The prelim. program of next year's sm- #Gordon conference in Switzerland is online: www.grc.org/single-molec... It'll be 3x fantastic: science, people, place in the alps ⛰️. Kevin & I hope to see you all next June: Have a look, tell your friends, and register!

This large 10 M€ grant will allow us to explore novel aspects such as the SMC molecular motor mechanism, the many ‘control knobs’ on these motors, and their role in gene expression, e.g. in facilitating enhance-promotor interactions and silencing extrachromomosal circular DNA.

Interesting paper from our BaSyC member @romanbarth.bsky.social!

BaSyC PhD thesis defense coming up, 1st one in 2026! 🙂 Luca Gross will defend his PhD thesis 🎓on 9 February 2026 at 17:30 in Delft. Title of his dissertation: ‘Chaperone-mediated protein folding and rescue: A single-molecule optical tweezers study’. Good luck Luca! www.tudelft.nl/en/evenement...

Congrats @ykjawale.bsky.social 🎓🎉 Nice pictures 📸

www.sciencelink.net/verdieping/e... Another interesting interview with Liedewij Laan (in Dutch).

Nice interview with Liedewij Laan, Nico Claassens and Kristin Grußmayer (in Dutch): bionieuws.nl/article/1875...

Gisteren kunstproject 'Am I alive?' gezien van de enthousiaste 'Emergence' studenten van TUDelft & kunstacademies. Geïnspireerd door ons onderzoek hebben zij afgelopen half een installatie rond 'synthetische cellen' gebouwd www.emergencedelft.nl/nmp4-synthet... www.dehavenloods.nl/agenda/2025/...

Building a synthetic cell together - nice common perspective written by many leading scientists who gathered in Shenzhen China for the inaugural ‘SynCell Global Summit’. Check it out in Nature Comm: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

WORK: 5 (!) openings in our #CDlab, check it out: ceesdekkerlab.nl/come-join-us/

As in so many ways I very much still feel like a novice student in exploring biology, I am very grateful and proud for this Award of the Biochemical Society 'for significant achievements in nanoscale molecular biology, especially the contribution to developing methodologies'.

Congrats @ceesdekker.bsky.social! 🎉

Nice article from @mkeulemans.bsky.social who interviews BaSyC PI John van der Oost (in Dutch) www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/a...

Another BaSyC PhD thesis defense coming up! 🙂 Céline Cleij will defend her PhD thesis 🎓on 18 September 2025 at 12:30 in Delft. Title of her dissertation: ‘Building the genome of a minimal synthetic cell’. Good luck Céline!

BaSyC PhD thesis defense coming up! 🙂 Yash Jawale will defend his PhD thesis 🎓on 12 September 2025 at 12:30 in Delft. Title of his dissertation: ‘Building Minimal Spindles: Reconstituting spindle positioning in synthetic cells’. Good luck @ykjawale.bsky.social!

Congrats Timon!

Nice picture taken during the BaSyC/EVOLF spring meeting last month! In the picture the EVOLF community, growing rapidly 👭👫👬

Just spoke with PhD student Olga Rook. She did a survey on public attitudes to synthetic cells, see journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Overall she finds great support, with only ~10% of people objecting to synthetic cell research and applications.

BPS2026 Annual meeting is in San Francisco next year from 21-25 February.

Telomeres stall DNA loop extrusion by condensin

www.fredhutch.org/content/www/... including @romanbarth.bsky.social

SynCell conferences - Save the dates! SynCell2025: 9-11 September 2025 at Stanford, USA. Further info: www.buildacell.org/syncell2025 SynCell2026: 22-24 April 2026, Institute of Physics in London, UK. Registration opens in Autumn 2025. More info will follow in due course at syntheticcell.eu

Let's get an update on @comeincell.bsky.social, the MSCA doctoral network that aims to develop advanced cellular mimics to shed light on complex cellular mechanisms and accelerate innovation. We interviewed Rumiana @dimovalab.bsky.social, the consortium's coordinator syntheticcell.eu/update-on-co...

Wow, I feel greatly honored by being awarded the 2026 Biochemical Society Award for Significant Breakthrough or Achievement, as was just announced! www.biochemistry.org/about-us/new... It is wonderful that the Biochemical Society honors our contributions to single-molecule biophysics in this way!

Now out in print, our review 'Single-molecule protein sequencing with nanopores' in Nature Reviews Bioengineering: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Congrats @ceesdekker.bsky.social!

Nice coverstory in Pioneering Tech (ENG+NL) about the synthetic cell: 'Factory of the future' with BaSyC PI Marileen Dogterom @marileend.bsky.social (and check out the brand new image of synthetic cells from BaSyC PhD Federico Ramirez Gomez (Koenderink & Danelon labs).

Interested in engineering bacteria to turn #C1feedstocks into high-value chemicals for #bioproduction? Here is a thread summarizing our latest review on the roadblocks and how we might bio-hack our way past them 🧵 1/n academic.oup.com/femsre/advan...

Onderzoeker en viroloog John van der Oost wint de #Beijerinck #Virologie Prijs voor zijn CRISPR-Cas onderzoek. Early career onderzoekers Carmen Embregts & Puck van Kasteren ontvangen de #BeijerinckPremie. www.knaw.nl/nieuws/voorb... @rdo-erasmusmc.bsky.social @rivm-nl.bsky.social @w-u-r.bsky.social

Latest #CDlab paper online in @labonachip.rsc.org: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a... Here, 1st authors Alex Joesaar & Martin Holub developed a microfluidics platform to extract and study full length megabase-size genomes in microfluidic chambers (where they are protected against shearing by flow)!

Very happy to contribute to this work (a bit) and see Simona, Enrico and Costas finally cracking the CRISPR-Cas genome engineering challenge in my favorite bug C. necator!

Checkout this article I found at PLOS: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... from our BaSyC colleagues Olga, Marileen and Hub!

BaSyC PI John van der Oost ontvangt de M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs van de KNAW! Voorbij de grenzen van de virologie: M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs voor revolutionaire DNA-techniek knaw.nl/nieuws/voorb...

Congrats @romanbarth.bsky.social 🥳

Several positions available in Cees Dekker's lab!

The Goepfrich lab @kgoepfrich.bsky.social yesterday published the creation of cytoskeleton-like structures with different properties inside lipid vesicles using RNA origami: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'Eiwitmotor met versnellingsbak cruciaal voor het leven' Leuk stuk in het RD

Join our online information session re. our 2025 round for Fellows at Oxford Biological Physics (original ad below)! Date: Jan 30, 2025 Time: 11 am -12 noon UK time Location: Online via Zoom (rsvp by Mon 27/1/2025 at [email protected]) Oxford Biological Physics Faculty

CTCF stall DNA 🧬 loop ➰ extrusion by cohesin - but exactly how it pulls this off is a 'mechanistic mystery' (to cite @andersshansen.bsky.social, Nucleus, 2020). We just preprinted 📜 a new study @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social that provides some answers to this enigma: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hello Bluesky! We're thrilled to announce an open PhD position on exploring controlling condensate membrane attachment and exocytosis! Collaborate across Europe in the ComeInCell EU network. Apply now! Details: www.comeincell.org & www.ru.nl/en/working-a...

Congrats! @spruijtlab.bsky.social

We have an opening for a 4 yr PhD interested in membrane remodelling and cryo-EM/ET of a minimal cell division machinery: edu.nl/bukan You will be part of the EVOLF consortium in which 30 leading biochemists/biophysicists work together to explore if and how we can build autonomous synthetic cells.

Exciting news 📃🧬🔬 Today we report on the dynamics of a fascinating class of molecular motors, so-called SMC proteins in @cp-cell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Latest #CDlab paper by Nicola De Franceschi ea now in eLife @elife.bsky.social: 'Interaction hierarchy among Cdv proteins drives recruitment to membrane necks', an in vitro study of the fascinating and unique proteins machinery that drives cell division in archaea elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

New discovery from our #CDlab reported in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social today: SMC motor proteins have a left-right ‘gearbox’ and can switch direction in DNA loop extrusion! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/

After the coffee break, we were thrilled to welcome @ceesdekker.bsky.social from Delft University of Technology. He presented on 'Nanopore scanning of single proteins and their PTMs' Truly an inspiring session! #SMPS4

Very interesting and clearly written article in the Volkskrant (by @mkeulemans.bsky.social) in which he interviews BaSyC PI Bert Poolman and gives us an insight into recent research on synthetic cells. www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/h...

'NL wetenschappers zijn begonnen aan een sciencefictionachtige zoektocht: leven maken uit het niets. De eerste stap – een werkende energievoorziening – is bijna een feit. En hoe dan verder?' Enthousiasmerend verhaal van @mkeulemans.bsky.social in de volkskrant: www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/h...

Congrats DOCTOR 👨‍🎓Martin! 🥳