A cold-adapted enzyme beats standard genetic code expansion systems. Our “Cold-OTS” enables efficient multi-site ncAA incorporation - even at low concentrations and reduced temperatures. Psychrophiles are an underexplored resource for synthetic biology. #GeneticCodeExpansion #PsychrophilicEnzymes

Cold Orthogonal Translation: not more stability, but more flexibility. A psychrophilic PylRS from M. burtonii outperforms standard systems in genetic code expansion. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The genetic code is not just a translation table – an inherited, operational rule system that defines what life can be before any organism exists. → Synthetic biology edits sentences → Xenobiology attempts to change the grammar itself. #BeyondTheGenome #RewritingLife

What continues to surprise me is how often the terms genetic code and genome are used interchangeably. They are not the same. → The genome is the text – the blueprint of an organism. → The genetic code – the rule system that makes this text readable. #OperationalAPriori ##GrammarOfLife

The genome is text. The genetic code is grammar. Genomes change. The code is largely invariant. My new paper in Front Synth Biol: the genetic code as an ‘operational a priori’ – from Kant to chemistry of life. www.frontiersin.org/journals/syn... #Xenobiology #GeneticCode #CodeBiology

The vision: Synthetic life isn't a risk - it’s a path to safer, bio-contained, scalable environmental technologies. Plastic pollution won’t be solved by “releasing microbes,” but by responsible engineering and closed-loop systems. #GreenChemistry #CircularEconomy #ScienceForGood

Built-in biocontainment! We built this on a genome-integrated, plasmid-free system - a essential step toward strong biocontainment. Next step: adding genetic firewalls & multi-layer containment already developed in our lab. #Biosecurity #GMO #ResponsibleInnovation

Clarification: This is NOT about releasing GMOs into the environment. Real biodegradation must happen in CONTROLLED BIOREACTORS, after plastics are collected and processed - exactly as in industrial biotech. #Biocontainment #WasteManagement #SustainableTech

Plastic as an “alien” carbon source! Why plastic? It’s a chemically “alien” carbon source - far outside natural metabolism. That makes it the perfect testbed for synthetic cells with rewired genetic and metabolic logic. #SyntheticCells #Xenobiology #MetabolicEngineering

Plastic eating bacteria! Introducing surface-displayed plastic-degrading enzymes on engineered bacteria. Direct PET breakdown - no antibiotics, inducers, or enzyme purification needed. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #SyntheticBiology #PlasticDegradation #Bioengineering

Can we really define Synthetic Biology as a science that promises “life synthesis” when we still can’t define life itself? The Pasteurian Wall - our barrier between the living and the nonliving - reminds us that knowing and making life aren’t the same.

Pasteur ended the dream of spontaneous generation - showing that all life comes exclusively from life. But his triumph built a new boundary: the Pasteurian Wall - our still-unbroken limit between living and nonliving matter. Like Einstein’s speed of light, it defines what’s possible.

Illustration showing how the invention of the microscope changed scientific and theological views on the beginning of life.

The microscope didn’t just reveal cells - it reshaped doctrine. Its use in science shattered Aristotle’s idea of staged “ensoulment” and, by 1869, helped change Catholic teaching: life was now seen as continuous from conception. A reminder that “progress” doesn’t always move as we expect.

Every scientific revolution reshapes more than science itself. Each has four dimensions: technology, ideology, culture, and knowledge (epistemology). From Aristotle to Kant and the Catholic Church, these shifts redefined what life means - and when it begins.

Can we create life from scratch? For 1,000 years, people believed life could arise spontaneously from mud or decay - until microscopes, Lavoisier’s chemistry, and Pasteur’s flasks shattered that belief. Our new paper in FrontSyntBio revisits this epic shift. www.frontiersin.org/journals/syn...

We highlight an alternative: breaking triplet degeneracy - reshaping how codons are read, not just hijacked. Not tinkering with recoding tricks but redesigning the code’s architecture. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/cctc... #GeneticCode #LifeEngineering #SyntheticBiology #Xenobiology

If more stop codons mean less protein, can we really call this expansion? Recoding looks fragile - more in-frame stops give exponentially less protein. We need efficiency for true translational research. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/cctc... #GeneticCode #LifeEngineering #SyntheticBiology #Xenobiology

Life’s “operating system” is a universal genetic code. For billions of years it seemed frozen. In ChemCatChem we explain why it looks this way - and how we might carefully expand it. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/cctc... #GeneticCode #LifeEngineering #SyntheticBiology #Xenobiology