Oxford researchers will lead a new £6M BBSRC-funded project nature’s “quantum compass” to uncover, how animals sense Earth’s magnetic field and turn this knowledge into innovative biotechnologies. 🧭 #QuantumBiology #BBSRC #OxfordResearch Read more: eng.ox.ac.uk/news/new-pro...

1 week left to apply for a postdoctoral position in my group to lead the experimental component of a 5 year BBSRC project on synthetic microbial communities www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Generative design of synthetic gene circuits for functional and evolutionary properties https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678595v1

🚨 We’re hiring! The OPIG group is looking for multiple postdocs to join OpenBind, an open science initiative generating foundational structural biology data to power the next era of AI/ML for drug discovery. opig.stats.ox.ac.uk openbind.uk

We’ve developed the first-ever method to control nucleic acid activity and gene-expressing synthetic cells with a deeply tissue penetrating alternating magnetic field 🧬 🧪 🧲!!! Published in *Nature Chemistry* Led by Ellen Parkes @syncelleu.bsky.social #chemsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MagLOV quantum sensing update! Much improved imaging (>10% single cell ODMR contrast), detailed characterisation and simulation, and new experimental demonstrations taking us a step closer to applications. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... SI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now out in JACS. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... Grateful to thoughtful reviewers who found some errors in our model and encouraged us to make a better one! A renaissance in magnetobiology is coming...

My lab at @ethzurich.bsky.social is looking for a motivated PhD student. We develop chemical tools for advanced fluorescence microscopy 🔬 and work at the interface of synthetic chemistry ⚗️ and protein engineering 🦠. Sharing with skilled Master students appreciated. More info at tinyurl.com/2dbjk5ty

NEW PREPRINT! Do you think we can do better when characterising resource competition properties of gene circuit modules? If no, think again; if yes, you’re in for a pitch how exactly we can do that – automated culturing, cybergenetic control and all! 1/ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

New spin resonance measurements with fluorescent proteins out this month from Burd et al., following the still mind-blowing result from @andrewgyork.bsky.social and @mariaingaramo.bsky.social that if you create a selection pressure for a quantum system, nature will oblige! 🧪

New preprint 🎇 We developed oligonucleotide PROTACs (OligoPROTACs), which show comparable activity to small molecule equivalents - but can be *switched off*, using DNA nanotech, to restore protein levels! Last of Disha's trilogy! #chemsky 🧪 @uclchemistry.bsky.social chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

How do tiny magnetic fields affect biochemistry? Overflowing with pride over Katherine Xiang's study on a giant magnetic field effect in a red fluorescent protein, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!

Bravo @plos.org! US exec orders "stand in direct conflict with our core values, our mission, edit policies" "PLOS will not compromise on issues of scientific rigor & editorial integrity... we seek diversity because more expert voices make for better science" theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos...

Experimental evolution of evolvability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This Valentine's day I want to share the LOV2 with you! ❤️ Roses are red, the light is blue, stimuli are read by the domain LOV2.

My lab does cool stuff 👇

Looking for a #PhD that is at the intersection of #biodesign, #synbio, #openendedness, #evolution? Look no further. Great supervisory team too 😉

Two weeks to go until the application deadline for ILESLA. If you or anyone you know would benefit from full funding to carry out a PhD in Life and/or Environmental Science please visit/refer to our website page iles.web.ox.ac.uk/how-apply where you can see open day videos and get full guidance.

Do you know who Douglas Prasher is? Many don't, even though he is the person who cloned the original #GFP gene in the late 1980s. In my short history of plant light #microscopy I also cover a bit of his story - & why he is relatively unknown today, despite the importance of his work. See this 🧵👇

The one time @theguardian.com could rightly use a left-handed DNA image... and they choose right-handed 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ @iansample.bsky.social

Reflecting on the two days of #sbuk24 talks on the very slow journey home, I think my favourite was Scott Stacey from Harrison Steel's group. Lovely demonstration of complexity built from simple biology that needs modelling to fully understand an unexpected result

Goooo @georgiehs.bsky.social!

Day 2 of #sbuk24 starts with a session on control opened by Harrison Steel. Lots of excellent stuff (as usual), from directed evolution in microfluidics to "magnetogenetics"

Scott Stacey uses sponge RNAs to control synthetic circuits but finds some unexpected resource competition #sbuk24

Some exciting results to share! The MagLOV and related proteins from @andrewgyork.bsky.social and @mariaingaramo.bsky.social are quantum. We measured 4% optically detected magnetic resonance contrast in living bacterial cells at room temperature. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Biochemical Society's #SBUK2024 conference: Day 2 Starting in a few minutes with a session on Control Systems, which among other things includes 2 (two!) talks from our Steel Lab 1/multiple #BiochemEvent

Hi Bluesky 👋 I thought, I'd say hello with a protein butterfly 🦋 (pdb 6of3) I'm a scientist, graphic designer, blender enthusiast, science communicator, media relations specialist ... a bit of everything. Looking forward to the journey here! 🎶 "blue skies, smiling at me, nothing but blue skies ..."

Here's a starter pack that focuses on engineers/builders/makers/enablers of optical tools for (cell) biology. I'm pretty sure that the pack is incomplete - if you want to join the list, please reply with your favorite probe (that you made or used) and I'll add you 🤓 go.bsky.app/2YVvYER

Q: I've been asked by a theoretical physicist (think spin models) about transitioning to biology. There are so many important & hard problems to tackle (eg designing dynamic proteins and enzymes, understanding folding), but is there need for new theory or is it all about getting more data & ML? 🧪