Please share: I am hiring a postdoc that will work on enzyme characterization and engineering in the frame of the EU consortium project C5. Read all details here and apply until August 10: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies...

Great collaboration with @lennartschada.bsky.social on an #enzyme converting the #plastic component ethylene glycol and to a feedstock chemical for microbes. Offering new ways to use plastic biotechnologically. 🧪

Ecogenomics and functional biogeography of the Roseobacter group in the global oceans based on 653 MAGs and SAGs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊

Ethylene glycol is widely used as monomer of the plastic PET. It is therefore highly relevant as sustainable feedstock for microbial biotechnology. In our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com, we characterize efficient enzymes for ethylene glycol oxidation: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am happy to share that a joint EIC Pathfinder Challenges project has been funded. The C5 consortium will develop disruptive technology for the sustainable production of isoprene from carbon dioxide. Stay tuned for more updates and open positions. cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...

1/3 Although the issue of releasing GMOs for env bioremediation has been virtually absent of the mainstream scientific literature in Europe/US for >20 yrs, the topic has continued strong in Asia—alas in less fancy/visible journals. Time to revisit the subject in view of new global challenges 💪🏻!

Genetically enhanced bacteria can potentially become an effective tool for bioremediation in the future. Recently, an exciting breakthrough study about an engineered strain of the marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens was published in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@dirktischler.bsky.social is opening the @vaam-microbes.bsky.social conference 2025 at @ruhr-uni-bochum.de. Looking forward to three days of presentations, posters, and networking!

Only one week left to apply for this exciting PhD position, supervised by @gillesvanwezel.bsky.social and me! Please apply if you are interested in microbial biochemistry and have a solid background in enzymes, metabolic pathways, and bacterial genetics. www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies...

NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold. We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940. 2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.

Here's the Chancellor candidate of the German Greens, Robert Habeck, stating what everyone needs to know. Namely that a strong EU is the best counterweight to authoritarians like Musk and Trump. Which is why they support those parties that want to weaken the EU. [with English subtitles]

Synbio across environmental scales! By @ricardsole.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1021/acss...

Not all Bradyrhizobium fix N2! In fact, most that live in soil probably don’t. We isolated a bunch from Arizona soils and found none had N-fixing or nodulation genes. We report their genomes and phylogeny here in an accepted paper at access microbiology! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Would you like to see @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social add a share to blue sky button?! I know I would! Share this post to let @richardsever.bsky.social @erictopol.bsky.social and others at bioarxiv know!

Which one are you? Among scientists are collectors, classifiers, and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others artisans. There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a few mystics. –Peter Medawar

The denitrification ability and #nitrogen metabolism pathway of aerobic #denitrifier Marinobacter alkaliphilus SBY-1 under low C/N ratios doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...

Sign of the times, no more bluebird on the biorxiv engagement tab..

🌐 We just joined Bluesky! SEVA is a free, open-access plasmid repository and an international standard supporting the synthetic biology community. Catch us here! #SynBio ⬇️ seva-plasmids.com

Started creating a synthetic biology starter pack. Still missing many so reply here if I forgot you or someone else. go.bsky.app/SjfpxTK #synbio

We created a starter pack of the members of our Leiden Early Drug Discovery and Development (LED3) hub. Follow our scientists to hear more about their exciting science: go.bsky.app/EJByPDg If you are in LED3 and on bluesky, but not in here, please reply to this. Our Starter Pack includes: (1/3)

We strongly suggest that academic publishers and other platforms that host research rapidly implement a Share to Bluesky button for their articles. Here's how: docs.bsky.app/docs/advance... #AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics

Join us in building a strong Network of Assistant Professors in the Netherlands! If you are an Assistant Professor or equivalent in the Netherlands, we invite you to join APNet, a vibrant community created by and for Assistant Professors across the Netherlands. ap-net.nl/register/

How can lab automation, machine learning, and high-throughput screening methods be combined to speed up the enzyme engineering process? We address this question in a new article in Nature Communications, out today: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A tale of three regulators: in a new study, we investigated the regulation of glycolate metabolism in the bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans. These results help us to understand how bacteria make use of this highly abundant molecule. Now available as a preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If you are interested to learn about our research towards new targets for the antibiotics of the future, check out my eye-opener video. Thanks to the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, the Faculty of Science and the KNCV for making this possible. www.eye-openers.nl/en/seethecas...

Please share: Are you a data creator/user in #metagenomics or other #omics? We’re working on standards for fair data reuse and would like your feedback. We welcome contributions by scientists from all career stages. 5-min anonymous survey here: tinyurl.com/y5kwytpd

Thrilled to share the pAblo·pCasso toolset for unconstrained cytidine/adenine-base editing in #bacteria led by Ekaterina Kozaeva w/Zach Nielsen & Manu Nieto-Domínguez @LabNikel @DTUBiosustain @NAR_Open #SynBio #OpenAccess #CRISPR academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

I have served on the first Junior Editorial Board of mBio in the past two years. Now, as my term comes to an end, Elizabeth Draganova and myself have coordinated an editorial that summarizes our experience during this important program of ASM. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Choline degradation in Paracoccus denitrificans: identification of sources of formaldehyde https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.12.567942v1

Systems-wide analysis of the ROK-family regulatory gene rokL6 and its role in the control of glucosamine toxicity in Streptomyces coelicolor Appl Environ Microbiol by Chao Li et al from Gilles van Wezel journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Fresh from the press: In this Nature Commun perspective paper we discuss microbial pathways to assimilate single carbon substrates, their feasibility and biotech applications to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Big thanks to co-authors Simone Bachleitner and Özge Ata! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@lennartschada.bsky.social on Natural and synthetic biochemistry of Paracoccus denitrificans for sustainable applications #KNVMGMM

The Cell Physiology course (BSc, first year) is getting settled for the first lecture. Well, if I can convince at least a few of the students that topics such as the TCA cycle or CO2 fixation are interesting and exciting, I will consider the course a success. 🙂