@kaitong25.bsky.social
Postdoc in Ahmad (Mo) Khalil's lab at Harvard University / Boston University. Synthetic multicellularity | Understanding and engineering multicellularity via synthetic biology and experimental evolution.
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).
A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
Nature highlighted @kaitong25.bsky.social's 'Behind the Paper' blog post in their end of year round up: communities.springernature.com/posts/top-po...
The funny thing is, they told us "Posts over 1,000 words have reduced engagement- yours is over 3,000 words, please reduce length". We kept it long.
📱Is the origin of animals comparable to the origin of the smartphones? Yes! See our new review in @embojournal.org where we show how important it was the new "Operating System" (animalOS)for animals to evolve! with @ricardsole.bsky.social, Nick and Elena @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es @prbb.org
1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
"Technology always becomes obsolete, but a good aesthetic is, by definition, timeless" -Sheehan Quirke
Preview of my flower design toolkit and its visual language.
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
Adaptive radiation during long-term experimental evolution of the multicellular bacterium #Streptomyces www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...
STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.
Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹
I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes.
Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)
Online now @ Cell is the yeast multicellular engineering paper from Fankang Meng - the fruits of his productive PhD in our group. He developed modular synthetic biology tools to bring multicellular behaviours to yeast - specific adhesion, juxtacrine signalling and more. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
I’m very excited to share our work on the early evolution of animal regulatory genome architecture - the main project of my postdoc, carried out across two wonderful and inspirational labs of @arnausebe.bsky.social and @mamartirenom.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fun Q&A with Curr Bio in which I discuss mammoths, Don Quijote, and why you should not fall in love with a hypothesis authors.elsevier.com/a/1l2MF3QW8S...
Sign ups for the fall Barcelona multicellularity meeting are now up- come join us!
meetings.embo.org/event/25-mul...
We published a new xenobot-related paper today:
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
In a nutshell: building xenobots from frog "explants" is good because explants, apparently, come with adaptive potential "built in".
This paper took 6 years and 10 co-authors (see post #2) to reach the light.
Contrary to popular belief, what is important in science is as much its spirit as its product: it is as much the openmindedness, the primacy of criticism, the submission to the unforeseen, however upsetting, as the result, however new that may be. – Francois Jacob
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Striking new study from @archaeon-alex.bsky.social's lab just out in @science.org on multicellular development induced by compression in Archaea: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Thank you! Your kind words make writing this (somewhat long) behind-the-paper blog totally worth it!
My new paper examining how plasticity may have shaped the evolution of cellular differentiation is out! We propose that the plastic development of somatic-like cells may have been an intermediate step in the evolution of soma in the volvocine algae. #evosky #mevosky doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
This "behind the paper" is a pretty fun read. Kai includes discord chats and other pieces of day to day science that do a great job of showing how the paper came together.
Thank you so much Mo for the really kind words and your tremendous support along the way!
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...