10 years ago today, Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni was found murdered after being kidnapped and tortured by Egyptian security services. Egypt has never cooperated with Italian prosecutors to identify those responsible www.channeldraw.org/2026/01/24/g...

Newest preprint from our lab: a new family of promising synthetic CO2 fixation cycles that may outcompete the Calvin cycle and that Vittorio Rainaldi realized to a great extent in E. coli! Up to 11 heterologous enzymes in a cascade supporting CO2 fixation & growth! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Growth-coupled microbial biosynthesis of the animal pigment xanthommatin — Led by Leah Bushin, featuring M. Gracia Alvan, @danielvolke.bsky.social @oscarpuiggene.bsky.social in a fantastic collaboration w/Brad Moore @labnikel.bsky.social @natbiotech.nature.com 🦑 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How does Pseudomonas putida keep its redox balance steady across different metabolic states? Our new preprint shows that two transhydrogenases -membrane-bound PntAB and soluble SthA - act together as a flexible, reversible system to control NAD(H)/NADP(H) ratios. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🔥🔥🔥 Friday Evening, Paper Out, Feierabend 🔥🔥🔥 When evolution and enzyme engineering team up, they can convince microbes to assimilate sustainable carbon substrates preparing them for a life in a circular bioeconomy. doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

Please repost! Postdoc in adaptive laboratory evolution and C1 synthetic metabolism! Location: DTU Biosustain 🦠🧬🔬 Starting in 01/2026! Fell free to reach out if you have questions! efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

🧪 We're hiring a #Postdoc in Bioprocess Engineering! Excited about scaling CO₂-based biomanufacturing from bench to pilot scale? Join our group working on converting CO₂ + renewable electricity → polymers 💡🌱 👇

#ME16 This is quite subjective , but imo @helenasm.bsky.social just gave the most impressive talk of the conference so far and she is "only" in the third year of her PhD. If you are interested in synthetic pathway engineering or C1 fixation you should check out her research.

🎉 Excited to share that I’ve received an Emerging Investigator Grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation! I’ll start my research group in Jan 2026 to develop universal cell factories for P2X & CO₂-based biomanufacturing 🌱🔬 👉 researchleaderprogramme.com/recipients/e...

www.sciencenews.dk/en/designed-... Piece from ScienceNews.dk on our glyoxylate and glycolate sensor strains

Excited to share a main project from my PhD, out now in @naturecomms.bsky.social! 📝 We've designed and brought to life the “CORE cycle” – a new-to-nature pathway that provides a novel route for biological CO2 capture 🦠🌱 nature.com/articles/s41... Take a look! Thread below... 🧵

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...

Online now: Streamlined and efficient genome editing in Cupriavidus necator H16 using an optimised SIBR-Cas system

Excited to see our SIBR work out in Trends in Biotechnology :) doi.org/10.1016/j.ti... This is the first study I have coordinated from start to finish, and it brings me immense satisfaction to see it published. For a brilliant description of the tech check this: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Our brand new CRISPR/Cas toolkit for genome editing of Cupriavidus necator is out🦠🧬 A joint effort w/ @dellavallesimo.bsky.social and Costas (and many more!) Check 🧵 our long journey for developing a new state-of-the-art for the manipulation of this promising bug 1/n www.cell.com/trends/biote...

📑📑📑#synthetic_biology @eorsi.bsky.social @pabnik.bsky.social present a workflow for designing versatile auxotrophic metabolic sensors for glyoxylate and glycolate detection @naturecomms.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The utilization of #C1-feedstocks, such as methanol, by non-model bacteria demands an in-depth analysis of design alternatives, a modular strategy to identify bottlenecks and efficient solutions within the host #metabolism of the chosen host... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out Sebastians crazy effort to engineer E. coli to grow on formate via the synthetic Serine-Threonine-Cycle. In contrast to the rGlyp the STC works even at ambient CO2!🔥

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...

Interested in Sustainability, Metabolic Engineering and Evolution? Check out how we convinced E. coli to grow on the CO2-derived substrate formic acid using the synthetic Serine Threonine Cycle! ♻️🌱🦠 OPEN ACCESS publication to be found here: 🚨 doi.org/10.1016/j.ym... 🚨 #MEvoSky #microsky (1/🧵)

🚀 The SEM Group (Lab Nikel) is officially on Bluesky! We’re kicking things off with our latest paper: an end-to-end journey on designing, implementing & applying auxotrophic metabolic sensors for bioengineering! 🧬🔬 @naturecomms.bsky.social Check it out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

With great collaborations come great outcomes! A fine example from @eorsi.bsky.social from @pabnik.bsky.social's lab et collaborators of how to design, build and develop cell biosensors for value-added chemicals (related to synthetic C1 assimilation, of course)! 🧪

We just #published an end-to-end work for the computer-aided design💻, construction🛠️, validation✅, characterization🔬 & application💪 of #auxotroph metabolic sensors, the work-horses of in vivo growth-coupled selection screening systems-using glycolate as test case. 🧵👇1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really happy to share that our work on constructing six glyoxylate / glycolate sensors covering a three order of magnitude concentration range is out now in Nature Communications ! 🔥 Read below to see how we developed the sensors and what they are good for 🥳. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super excited to see my main PhD project finally out in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... We show for the first time that a synthetic and engineered pathway can indeed exceed nature at one-carbon fixation.

Preprint alert🚨Systematic #engineering of synthetic serine cycles in #Pseudomonas putida uncovers emergent topologies for #methanol assimilation · @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social led by Òscar Puiggené #SynBio #Methylotrophy #CircularEconomy www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

As 2024 wraps up🌇, I’ve been reflecting on the journey in #metabolic #engineering this year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to cool research, and thought I’d share a thread of what I’ve been involved with. Looking forward to connecting with the #biotech community here on Bluesky! 🙏🔬

🚨 The Alker Lab is starting at the University of Rhode Island in early 2025 and we will be hiring! 🚨 If you are interested in marine microbiology, bacterial genetics and/or symbiosis, please consider reaching out! Repost to help spread the word 🪸🧪🧬🌊

My first paper post on BlueSky: today our preprint on an an efficient SIBR-Cas tool for genome editing of my favorite C. necator (bug growing on H2, CO2 and formate came online www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #syntheticbiology #C1

We developed a brand new #CRISPR toolkit for Cupriavidus necator, a biotechnological platform for CO2 (and derivatives) valorization. The system is based on self-splicing introns and allows us to get mutants within 48h and with efficiencies up to 80% doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.24.625072 [1/n]