New paper from the lab! We show a new pathway to make tagatose from glucose! After assessing several pathways, we identified a phosphatase specific to gal-1-P to enable this route. We also perform modeling to understand the molecular determinants of specificity. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I'm honored to be selected as Tufts Rising Innovator of the year for 2025! This is awarded for demonstrating an ambitious entrepreneurial spirit by actively developing new innovations and moving them to the market. Video: tuftsu.wistia.com/medias/imcxj... Story: now.tufts.edu/2025/11/17/s...

Attending #AIChE2025 #AIChE in Boston next week? Connect with us! The group is presenting 5 talks on Wednesday & Thursday!

Congratulations to Trevor (@biotechalchemist.bsky.social) and the recent success he's had with building on his thesis work and spinning out Caravel Bio! www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Plan to attend #aiche2025 in Boston next month? Friends, alumni, colleagues, please visit the Tufts ChBE reception on Sunday night at 7 pm. #aiche

🚨New manuscript alert!🚨We show that a natural, bacterial-derived, #antimicrobial #AMP can be used and engineered for targeted manipulation of specific species in a microbial community from the top-down! #microbiome. Thanks to @vandeventerjim.bsky.social for helping! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today, I’m grateful that I can finally share Briana Lino’s @blino237.bsky.social work on engineering eukaryotic release factor 1 (eRF1) for enhanced noncanonical amino acid incorporation. I highlight some key findings in this thread (1/n). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today, I'm grateful to Tufts University--the university is trying to do good in the world, at a time when it's very easy for institutions of higher learning to stray wildly from their core missions. (Disclosure: Tufts is my employer) now.tufts.edu/2025/09/09/t...

I'm very excited to lead the @darpa.mil #SWITCH effort on #sustainable #biomanufacturing at #TuftsUniversity with Matt McNulty, Amin Nikkhah, and Todd Chappell! See more here: now.tufts.edu/2025/08/19/w...

New pre-print from the lab! We show for the first time that tagatose can be synthesized from glucose! After assessing several pathways, we identified a phosphatase specific to gal-1-P. We also perform modeling to understand the molecular determinants of specificity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great piece @nytimes.com with a database of thousands of NIH grants ended or delayed. No matter the intention, the effects are clear: a huge slowdown in biomedical research into diseases & new therapeutics. Share with your Rep & Senators, and spread awareness! www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Nair lab is looking for a #post-doc experienced in yeast pathway and genome engineering. Please DM or email me if you are interested!! Please spread the word! #synbio #metabolicengineering

ICE kidnapped another student. This time a grad student at Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturk. Turkish national, in the United States on a student visa. Her lawyer does not know where she is being held. Rumeysa wrote op-eds criticizing the university's response to student demands on Gaza.

The Van Deventer Lab’s first manuscript describing chemically expanded antibody discovery is now published! The genetically encoded “Clickable CDR-H3 Library” can become many, chemically diverse antibody libraries, enabling new drug discovery opportunities (1/n). pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

I'm excited to be named a senior member of the NAI! Thank you to all my group members and colleagues at Tufts for supporting my group's research! now.tufts.edu/2025/02/20/f...

Want hands-on battery research experience? Join the Battery Research Summer School! 4 days of real labs, real data, real problem-solving. Learn to cycle, test & troubleshoot Li-ion batteries. 📅 June 3-6 | 📍 Tufts University 📌 More info: www.eventbrite.com/e/1234043610...

This pre-print is now published and available in final form here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨🆕New manuscript🆕🚨from the lab!! Started by @biotechalchemist.bsky.social and completed by Todd Chappell. This work assesses the utility of >30 #spore coat proteins for #surfacedisplay - almost 3x currently described! We found that SscA is a great carrier not used before‼️ biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

🆕New pre-print🆕! Our first foray into 🥩cultivated meat🍖 with David Kaplan, Kyong Lee, and supported by Tufts University for Cellular Agriculture, Consortium! We report that microbial lysates can be used as serum alternatives for in vitro animal cell proliferation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨New paper🚨by @aaronlove89 is out now in @ScienceAdvances! As #synbio systems get more complex, we want to understand how to minimize resource competition between heterologous genes and host functions. (1/8) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk3485

After ~15 months of (reviews, transfers, and rebuttals)^n, this paper was finally accepted today! Kinda exhausted😫 - but proud of PhD student Aaron Love for powering 💪 through! More details with the final print but here's the revised pre-print in the meantime: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨🆕New collaborative #manuscript🚨with Bennet, Mace, & Lee labs. We optimize the production of landomycins in #Streptomyces cyanogenus and characterize their #antimicrobial and #anticancer properties. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...