My poster on flower bioengineering at the #AIEBaB26 conference in Bristol last week 🌹 🧬 ✨

#plantsynbio peeps, has anyone played around with cell penetrating peptides? some of the papers look fairly convincing for delivery of DNA e.g. 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b00323. but am curious why not used more widely. Viruses and agro are just easier for most applications?

Nominations are now open for awards to be presented at the 2026 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Annual Conference. This is a great opportunity to recognize our outstanding colleague’s contributions to plant phenotyping research and innovation. mailchi.mp/ce99f293f3f6...

Interested in learning about the latest and greatest research in how plants respond to excess salt, too little or too much water? Come to the GRC in Salt and Water Stress in Switzerland. Lots of opportunities for all career levels. www.grc.org/salt-and-wat.... Please repost!

Very excited to finally share my PhD paper, about advancing #chloroplast #synbio through high-throughput plastome engineering of #Chlamydomonas. Huge thanks to the whole team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The @plantcv.bsky.social team is hosting a workshop at the @nappn.bsky.social 2026 conference in Feb. at Michigan State and is able to support the travel of up to 20 participants. Please apply for the workshop and submit an abstract to the conference if you are interested: mailchi.mp/3afecdddf6de...

The UGA Plant Biology Department is hiring! Please help spread the word. We have an opening for an Assistant Professor in Plant Synthetic Biology for Strategic Resources Research. See ad for details – and join us here in Athens, GA!

Looking to host a fellow to explore regulation of duplicate genes in plant development & adaptation using single-cell & spatial transcriptomics. Ideal for candidates with backgrounds in genomics, evolution, or computational science moving to Plant Biology. Reach out if interested and eligible!

Congratulations to 2025 #MacFellow William Tarpeh! The Stanford chemical engineer is working on sustainable and practical solutions to treat wastewater and recover valuable mineral resources. 🗞️: stanford.io/3IZIBqF

Out First Release in @science.org this week: The development of a directed evolution strategy with proof of concept in plant immune protein engineering. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wonderful to see this beautiful image on the cover of Science this week highlighting a paper that uses high resolution imaging to show the spatial patterns of bacterial attraction to glutamine from roots. Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Perspective here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Come join us at @stanford-chemh.bsky.social! I feel incredibly lucky to have launched my career here -- it is a fantastic place to do bold interdisciplinary science surrounded by creative & supportive colleagues. Applications are due 10/15/2025 -- DM me if you have questions about the search!

Game changer for cell-based plant genetics: the labs of Caixia Gao & Jin-Long Qiu have developed very efficient self-replicating vectors and they just published a very nice proof-of-concept paper. #plantscience www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It was our pleasure to write the perspective for such a beautiful piece of work on bacterial colonization of plant roots! 🌱❤️

Thanks also to the great perspective on our article written by @katekozaeva.bsky.social and @jennbrophy.bsky.social and our team @fbm-unil.bsky.social and @unil.bsky.social for their communications !

A long road to the Cover of Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulations to our Institute Scholar @hawa-racine.bsky.social for winning the 2026 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award! @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social www.biophysics.org/news-room/bi...

Color changing flowers 🧬🎨- attempt #2 Older flowers (bottom) show dark red/ orange tints whereas young buds (top) display strong fuchsia color. Getting closer..

Explore plant synthetic biology with Stanford’s Jenn Brophy @jennbrophy.bsky.social on EBRC In Translation. We discuss engineering genetic circuits in plants & microbes, lab sustainability, fostering the next gen of synthetic biologists, and championing diversity in science! tinyurl.com/473b4dky

Great chatting with you Ross! Here’s the link: www.buzzsprout.com/1581817/epis...

Had a fun chat with @jennbrophy.bsky.social! Listen in to hear about the solarpunk future of plant bioengineering ☀️🌿

Want to dive into the datasets from our recent @natcomms.nature.com paper? 🌱📊 Check out this step-by-step guide on how to explore and analyze the #drought #recovery #datasets with Omnibusx: Check out the paper and datasets: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Tutorial: youtu.be/YI0RVFiQnMs

Latest BIOPUNK interview by the amazing Sophia Sanchez is focused on plant engineering! @vivzhong.bsky.social and @atborowsky.bsky.social discuss their goals and motivations 🪴 💕 . www.biopunk.life/p/full-video... Check out Sophia's whole series at biopunk.life

A great read on topsoil preservation by the multitalented @vivzhong.bsky.social!

Side quest # TooMany of this PhD: I co-authored an article for @issuesinst.bsky.social on the need for better soil data to monitor topsoil loss, plus farmland price valuation that reflects the true quality of soil to incentivize topsoil preservation. Feedback most welcome! issues.org/better-soil-...

Delighted to be speaking at Synthetic Biology Australasia November 2025 in Wellington! I’ll be sharing our latest work in plant syn bio - come explore how biology can be redesigned to solve global challenges! 🔗 synbioaustralasia.org/upcoming-conference #SBA2025 #SyntheticBiology #SynBioCommunity

Today in Nature we report a systematic strategy to activate & identify gene sets in plants. We identify 8 new genes from the yew tree's Taxol biosynthetic pathway, enabling us to engineer tobacco with 17- & 20-gene pathways to Taxol precursors baccatin III & deBz-deoxy-Taxol #SingleCell #secmet 🧬🧪🌾

Recombinases your thing? In the latest from my lab, Veronica Greco shows how @nanopore sequencing + automated liquid handling provides the perfect platform for characterising these systems at scale! Awesome collaboration with @jennbrophy.bsky.social @sarah-guiziou.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Call your senators and ask them to restore full science funding to the budget. Cutting the $25 billion allocated to the massive “Golden Dome missile defense project” would leave plenty of money for our science programs AND money to spare to augment the salaries of our amazing young scientists.

What cutting science and biomedical grants mean for the nation... www.npr.org/2025/04/25/n...

HHMI halting fellowships right after a proposed 10% endowment tax on foundations isn’t a coincidence. The public needs to understand: this directly harms our brightest young scientists. These aren’t slush funds—they’re the pipeline. And their future is what’s being cut.

The costs of disinvestment in science: nondefense government R&D yields returns of 150% to 300% & accounts for roughly a QUARTER of American productivity growth since World War II. The authors conclude:“Our findings point to a misallocation of public capital & substantial underinvestment in R&D.”

📜 In defense of funding foundational plant science 🧑‍🔬 @jfriesner.bsky.social, @cargueso.bsky.social, @plantteaching.bsky.social, Shuang Wu, @roederlab.bsky.social, et al. 📔 @theplantcell.bsky.social 🔗 academic.oup.com/plcell/advan... #️⃣ #PlantScience

Donald Trump spent $23M on golf (up to mid march). Over 56 days, he spent $410k of our tax dollars each day at his own clubs. That is one 3-year NSF grant per day. Waste and abuse, my ass. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Plant health is essential to food security, yet pathogens continue to threaten crops worldwide. To better understand how disease takes hold—& how to stop them—HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow @shanice-webster.bsky.social is exploring the dynamic relationships among plants, microbes, & disease-causing agents.

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

Hello Community! Are you a postdoc/grad student preparing to launch a faculty search? Do you have a track record of excellence in research, leadership, mentorship & community engagement? Apply to the 2025 Next Generation Faculty Symposium: www.berkeleystanfordnextgensymposium.com! Pls repost! (1/3)

Now online! Root microbiota regulates tiller number in rice

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

Know any soon to graduate or recently graduated postbac researchers interested in / with experience working with phages? We are hiring a junior specialist/research tech! Apply here: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04863 (start date more flexible than stated in ad!)

Xiaojing Gao has won the 2025 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation for developing an innovative programmable RNA sensor and molecular tools to improve mRNA vector therapeutics. scim.ag/3Rwsrpq In this video, Senior Editor Michael Funk describes the prize and the winning work.

LIDAR is out! rdcu.be/efugD We are one baby step closer to making it useful for therapeutics. NIH high-risk high-reward program provides key support.

I am honored and humbled to be elected as a AAAS fellow (www.aaas.org/news/aaas-we...) with such great colleagues here at Stanford (news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...) and abroad. It really drives home the amazing nature of our scientific community. Special thanks to @dutcherlab.bsky.social's support

I am honored to be elected into the 2025 class of AAAS Fellows! It is surreal to see my name in the list. I am very grateful to lab members over the last 10 years & to Aaron Streets & Jason Sello for the chance to co-launch the Next Gen Symposium (1/2). news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

Stanford BioE PhD student Bella Archibald named Top 30 Young Scientists working on breakthrough solutions to climate change 🌍🛠️🌿 Honored by Inflection Award for her impact @jennbrophy.bsky.social Read more: bioengineering.stanford.edu/news/stanfor...

Could not be more proud of Bella and her well deserved recognition as a leader in climate research! Bella is an incredible scientist and person who we are so fortunate to know and work with!

Finally! Im so excited to present to culmination of many years of work from the fantastic Defeng Shen and some great collaborators. For details, I have made a digested thread below, but if you are more interested feel free to reach out (and read the paper of course). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Another heartwarming moment in my #NewPI life : seeing Aidan present at #APSDBIO! I am beyond grateful for the amazing trainees in my lab!!

Something we have been working on. Built off the work of the unforgettable Dr. Joanne Chory. doi.org/10.1101/2025...