Dear authors, why do you bloody submit your papers during Christmas? Just hold on and submit in January!! As a reviewer I do not appreciate being asked at this time of the year. I too have a paper to submit but I respect my colleagues and will simply do it in January.

Preprint of our work tuning bacterial growth, something that changes context for genetic circuits and therefore, their behaviour. Very interesting observations from both experimental results and a model describing it in this piece of work with @mirobueno.bsky.social and @angelgm.bsky.social! :)

Few people outside our profession understand the joy—if not the surge of happiness—of a paper acceptance on a topic you love & have worked hard to get through. The best part? The feeling never gets old, no matter how many papers you have written or published already 😍

Pre-Xmas lunch for celebratimg with the Lab folk all we have achieved in 2025. The best of this job is being surrounded by such talented people 😍

We all start by cloning something into a plasmid. But the vector you choose matters more than you think. A Commentary from the battleground with my colleague & curator of the @sevaplasmids.bsky.social collection, Esteban Martínez enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Your societies need you #MicroSky! Editorial from the European Academy of Microbiology Task Force: Society journals matter—supporting science through renewed commitment: academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

Apply for #EMBOSynBio! 🥼🧪 The course offers hands-on experience with cutting-edge SynBio tools, supported by lectures covering the whole engineering cycle and its convergence toward a deeper understanding of biology. 30 Jun – 6 Jul 2026 EMBL Heidelberg s.embl.org/syn26-01-bl

Ten PhD contracts at CSIC in Synthetic Biology. Passionate about biophysics or computational molecular biology? Join Daniel Lopez's @mib-lab.bsky.social and me at @cnb-csic.bsky.social studying bacterial membrane microdomains! lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/ (Please spread the word, thanks!)

Two of my fav scientists👇!

Tech-driven, unlimited growth is a convenient illusion. The dilemma is whether cutting-edge research should focus on preventing/delaying systemic collapse, or on developing what we’ll need to deal with whatever comes after. Mario Pansera’s analyses 👉🏻 bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/monobook-oa/...

@elpaiscyt.bsky.social Today’s headlines: english.elpais.com/science-tech... 😱 @manuelansede.bsky.social did it again 👏 Predatory practices in spurious scientific journals is bad enough. But it's even worse when publishers prioritize production fees over quality academic.oup.com/microlife/ar... ☹️

@manuelansede.bsky.social lo ha vuelto a hacer 👏 elpais.com/ciencia/2025... Mal está la proliferación de prácticas predatorias en revistas científicas espúreas. Pero peor es que cabeceras con prestigio primen el cobro de los costes de producción sobre la calidad ☹️ academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

Mediterranean food has long been an amazing broker of scientific interactions. I’ve lost count of how many int collaborations I’ve initiated or strengthened —and conflicts resolved— over a paella or a cocido. No wonder it also helps to ease political tensions 👉🏻 www.frontiersin.org/journals/pol...

😱!

Jesús Vázquez-Cobos es un crack. Coincidimos en el mismo colegio de pequeños y desde entonces no ha hecho sino crecer mi admiración por el y por cómo ha llegado a lo más alto a pesar de los retos que seguro que contará en su charla en el @icmm-csic.bsky.social 👇

Frankly depressing. One more historical example of the 5 steps of *The March of Folly* (Barbara Tuchman) ie: 1. A disaster is coming, 2. Everybody knows it will happen, 3. It can be avoided, 4. No one does anything, 5. It finally happens www.cnn.com/2025/11/22/c...

What do you think of the exotic—if not ludicrous—names that taxonomists seem to delight in assigning not only to new species but also to long-established ones, much to the amusement (and often irritation) of the community? How can a bacterium be called Elizabethkingia meningoseptica? No standards?

Time to rethink prevailing views re regulations on GE & SynBio microbes for env bioremediation in an era of climate change. We must move from a mindset of control & domination to one of stewardship & negotiation. Indigenous perspectives can help in bridging the artificial–natural divide. Stay tuned!

Names matter! I find the growinly popular term *evolutionary engineering* a blatant oxímoron. One can either ran ALE of a wt strain à la Lenski or evolve an engineered strain for multi-objective optimization. But I would call the last *synthetically-primed evolution* not evolutionary engineering 😱!

Despite the tidy maps found in textbooks, metabolism is still full of unresolved mysteries. Few people are better at uncovering these overlooked but essential puzzles than Antoine Danchin. Here here an analysis of the intriguing guanidine enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The NoticiaSEM: an excellent monthly newsletter for Spanish-speaking microbiologists, now celebrating its 200th edition. It also publishes Portraits from the IMiLI. On the occasion of its 200th "birthday", it published an IMiLI "MicroChat" on......birthdays. www.semicrobiologia.org/revista-noti...

In Wikipedia, the German entry for DNA computer mentions the cellular supremacy de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA-Com...

If you wanna know everything you ever wished to learn re HGT in bacteria—but were afraid to ask—don’t go to ChatGPT. Just spend an hour listening to Eduardo Rocha’s seminar @cnb-csic.bsky.social. Great talk today on the open-ended complexity of DNA trafficking & the full splendour of selfish DNA 😱

Grabbing an early train for a sortie to Zaragoza to catch up with @paulbrainey.bsky.social, quite a few things to discuss!

What a fantastic & inspiring visit! Thanks for taking a break from your sabbatical to drop by Madrid and letting us pick your brain. Your talk at @cnb-csic.bsky.social on pushing the limits of standard biochemistry for the sake of containment was spectacular, so many new avenues 👏

Glad to welcome @kunjapur.bsky.social to the @cnb-csic.bsky.social to enjoy his seminar on his latest research in Synthetic Biology!

Es algo trágico que las historias de éxito de la Biología Sintética más publicitadas no sean la solución de grandes problemas como la energía, la agricultura o el medio ambiente como prometía en su día, sino las petunias luminiscentes y la desextinción de especies perdidas elpais.com/ciencia/2025...

Our Framing Talks from the Biotech Beyond Conventional Containment workshop, part of the #CaltechBioPolicyInitiative, held at @caltech.edu earlier this month are all posted here (in addition to the @caltechlcssp.bsky.social 's YouTube channel: www.biotech-beyond-containment-caltech2025.org/videos

At our #BioPolicyInitiative's "Biotech Beyond Conventional Containment: A Workshop on Policy & Governance," @vdlorenzo.bsky.social, @cnb-csic.bsky.social in Madrid intro'ed environmental galenics—adapting principles of pharma delivery to ensure precise & purposeful deployment of engineered microbes

One added value of a quick sortie to Valencia to discuss science with my colleagues of the @i2sysbio.es 👇

The scientific & ethical legacy of the late Ioannis Economidis—a champion of Env Biotech & SynBio at the @ec.europa.eu —is captured in this article, based on his last lecture. A testament to an exceptional mind & a remarkable human being enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Pls share: A postdoctoral research position is available in the group of Prof. Dr. Kirsten Jung at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany focusing on SRBs (www.bio.lmu.de/en/research/...)

IMILI regional Center in Latin America is led by Max Chavarria. (www.chavarrialab.com/imilicac). Visit the website to discover the microbial world in Spanish.

Víctor de Lorenzo inaugura el Ciclo Iberoamericano de Conferencias FlavoGreen–Talks 🌱  Un espacio que reúne a referentes iberoamericanos para promover el intercambio y la colaboración en torno a la biología sintética y la biotecnología aplicada a la sostenibilidad. Más info ⬇️⬇️

Customs & Homeland Protection officers have become v picky lately with shipments of @sevaplasmids.bsky.social to US labs, demanding lots of documents for materials we provide free of charge. This takes working time than we cannot afford. If this persists, we may have to suspend shipments to US ☹️

Here some ideas on releasing Lab-trained microorganisms to the environment as bioremediation agents—my talk at the recent Workshop in Caltech on *Biotech beyond containment* @caltechlcssp.bsky.social youtu.be/PXIv0GIM2zE?... More videos in www.biotech-beyond-containment-caltech2025.org/videos

1/2 POV re GMO debate & risks of their release. What truly separates natural from non-natural engineered constructs is not genetics per se (i.e., whether DNA is recombinant or not), but biochemistry — the use of alternative amino acids, xeno-DNA, NTN reactions, mirror metabolisms and the like.

If you are curious about how to go from a School student's project to creating a spinoff company for bioremediation and valorization of plastic waste, don't miss today's the impromptu seminar with Samuel Baker and Gabriel DeGaglia at 12 h in room B6 of the CNB.

The recently published report on Biosecurity by Drew Endy et al in the context of contemporary & future Biotech & SynBio is worth every word. Check it out 👉🏻 www.hoover.org/research/bio...

Are you a rising start—or know one? Check the *Rising Stars Symposium* organized by the IBFG (Salamanca) to identify & attract young researchers—mainly postdocs—who could join the institute in the future or establish their own research groups here. Check readymag.website/u1842310954/... for info 👇

1/3 To those interested in microbial iron & metal transport: In 1992, the late JB Neilands (UCB), the pioneer in the study of Fe transport entrusted me with his collection of purified siderophores from a wide range of microbes—many of them unique chemical species that can no longer be reproduced

Crazy World! In the same week I was in Los Angeles (California) and in Los Angeles (San Rafael, Segovia). The landscape looks a bit different, however—although not altogether alien 🤩

Predatory practices plague modern science, but the origins & reasons of their success can be identified—and solutions exist. Instead of blacklists, funding agencies should foster accreditation systems. See analyses & proposals of the EAM Task Force of @femsmicro.org on the matter shorturl.at/gVXJR

This is veering into the surreal, if not the downright dystopian. It is as if a handful of alien concepts were fused into a single sentence and uttered without hesitation … ☹️

Université Grenoble Alpes opens a full professorship in microbiology in 2026. The selected candidate will develop their research program on quantitative approaches in microbiology in the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique. More info: liphy.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/en/join-us/r...

Our paper, describing how the T6SSs of P. putida shape the tomato rhizosphere, is now in its final format in @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Communications. If you'd like to learn more, here is a thread (1/11) or read the Article doi.org/10.1093/isme....

Off to @caltechlcssp.bsky.social to follow up the conversation started past Feb in Asilomar on *Biotech Beyond Conventional Containment*. Time to rethink the (now banned) release of Lab-trained microorganisms for extensive environmental remediation in view of new genet technols & urgent global needs

Pleased to announce that our book on the evolution of biological agency is now available, thanks to @templetonfdn.bsky.social It condenses +2 years of discussions between a philosopher and a biochemist, including our conversations in the Jardí Botànic @uv.es @ehu.eus @i2sysbio.es @dicv.csic.es

#MISB (@csic.es-UIMP ) Design meets evolution: Theory and practice Víctor de Lorenzo (@vdlorenzo.bsky.social), @cnb-csic.bsky.social  📅Oct 3 ⏰11am The seminar will take place at CIB and additionally streamed online 🔗https://rediris.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZmrXKHmFSHqyxE65O3wvRQ#/registration

It is a scandal that many groundbreaking ideas capable of transforming medicine, agriculture & environment are stifled—not by a lack of ingenuity but by the rampant greed of IP holders that strangles sci & and tech progress. This stranglehold must be broken to allow knowledge serving the public good