Bristol BioDesign Institute

Although I've now taken a back seat, it is great to see the growing adoption of SBOL Visual in the synthetic and engineering biology literature and even more awesome to see so many current and visiting students to my lab on the author list😍 Roll on 2035! arxiv.org/abs/2507.04601

This afternoon, we continued with more inspiring talks from:
Velia Siciliano (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia), Will Milligan (Extracellular), Max Jamilly (Hoxton Farms), Giulia Cuccato (Academy of Medical Sciences)

Huge thanks to our speakers! Excited for networking tonight before starting Day 2!

What to agument your favourite protein with new functionalities? 🛠️ We've got a #biodesign workflow to help with that! In work led by @georgiehs.bsky.social we present SIMPLIFE that blends biophyscial and #ML models to extend biology in useful ways. #synbio doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Kicking off our first CDT Summer School in Bristol this week! 🎓
3 days of talks, workshops & networking with students, academics & industry partners.
Excited for the connections & insights ahead!
#CDTSummerSchool #STEM

Mirror life

Great to see this report out from the UK Government Office for Science on 'Mirror Life'. Was nice to contribute to the discussions and thoughts on this topic with other UK colleagues. #synbio www.gov.uk/government/p...

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...

Solution structure and synaptic analyses reveal determinants of bispecific T cell engager potency | PNAS Bispecific T cell engagers (TcEs) link T cell receptors to tumor-associated antigens on cancer cells, forming cytotoxic immunological synapses (IS)...

Excited to share our new @pnas.org paper! We used reconstitution approaches and synthetic cells to uncover what drives bispecific T cell engagers efficiency. This helps future #immunotherapy design and demonstrates the potential of synthetic cells in #immunoengineering:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New publication from our Max Planck colleagues 👇

Two Bristol scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society Two renowned University of Bristol researchers have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.

More on yesterday's announcement that our Director Dek Woolfson has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...

...This is a recognition of the creativity & dedication of the outstanding co-workers I have been privileged to work with, and it underlines what outstanding, stimulating & collaborative places Bristol, and before that Manchester, have been (and still are!) to do imaginative and inventive science.”

Prof Jonathan Clayden: “I’m completely delighted, and extremely honoured, to have been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, recognising the ways that we have managed to harness the power of molecular synthesis to explore and illuminate broader scientific concepts...

...I’m indebted to my fantastic colleagues in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and across the University for their collaboration, collegiality, and friendship over the last 20 years."

Prof Dek Woolfson: "I was completely bowled over to learn that I had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is an honour for me personally, but, more importantly, it is recognition of my co-workers’ research over the past 30 years or so. Much of this work has been done at Bristol...

Exceptional scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society | Royal Society Over 90 outstanding researchers from across the world have this year been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.

We are delighted to announce that two academics from
the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society @royalsociety.org

Congratulations to our Director Prof Dek Woolfson, and to Prof Jonathan Clayden.

royalsociety.org/news/2025/05...

NEW PUBLICATION

Dual Proteomics Strategies to Dissect and Quantify the Components of Nine Medically Important African Snake Venoms

From our ADDovenom project team (addovenom.com), published in Toxins @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social

doi.org/10.3390/toxi...

Bioprocessing Internship Extracellular is offering a unique, one-month, paid internship in bioprocessing this summer for early-career individuals, with the opportunity of a full-time role at the company. We have 6 places av...

📢 Bioprocessing Internship

Bristol-based Extracellular (www.extracellular.com) is offering a one-month, paid internship in bioprocessing this summer for early-career individuals, with the opportunity of a full-time role at the company.

Find out more: extracellular.bamboohr.com/careers/49?s...

Five people - Francis Lister, Kathleen Sedgley, Kerstin Kinkelin, Ash Toye, Darryl Hill - stood by a notice board advertising the BBI event.

We really enjoyed delivering our session at #SynBioBETA2025 on turning breakthrough health innovations into real world impact.

Thanks to everyone who attended and asked so many questions, and thanks to Fiona Mischel and John Cumbers from @synbiobeta.bsky.social for the opportunity to present.

Three students sit at a table, looking to the right hand side. There are three laptops open, facing away from the students.

Last week, the CDT students submitted their first short research project 🥳
During their first year, CDT students research two 11-week projects. One of these will become their PhD project which they will work on for the next three years.
After submitting, students met up to discuss their findings.

The University of Bristol Lunch & Learn session ('Engineered Human Therapies: Turning Breakthrough Health Innovations into Real-World Impact') at SynBioBeta 2025 (Tuesday 6 May, 12:15-13:00) will include Darryl Hill, Kerstin Kinkelin, Francis Lister, Kathleen Sedgley and Ash Toye who are pictured.

We are excited to be sponsoring and hosting a session at #SynBioBeta2025 on 6 May 2025!

Join us to explore how @bristoluni.bsky.social and @sciencecreates.bsky.social are addressing global health challenges as part of Bristol's thriving deep-tech ecosystem.

Come meet us in San Jose!

PHygromorphic materials and composites adjust their shape and curvature in response to changes in relative humidity, similar to the pinecone scales existing in nature. This work introduces a new class of poligromorphic materials-composites that adapt across various environments, including water, humidity, and hydrocarbons. Composed of carbon fibers (CF), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and maleic anhydride ethylene-propylene (MA-EPR) matrices, these materials are sensitive to fluctuations in fluids like water, isooctane, and toluene. Their bioinspired internal architecture mimics the asymmetric stacking of pinecone scales. MA-EPR/CF composites show limited actuation in water but strong responsiveness in isooctane and toluene. PVA/CF materials are more sensitive to water while retaining functionality in hydrocarbons. Importantly, their actuation is reversible and stable through multiple cycles of environmental aging, and the carbon fibers provide significant load-bearing capabilities, with stiffening effects when passing from dry (2.2 GPa) to wet and immersed states (6.6 GPa).

New polymorphic composites inspired by pinecone scales are responsive to water, humidity, and hydrocarbons. They show reversible, stable actuation across cycles, load-bearing strength, and stiffening effects during wet/dry transitions. Paper here: doi.org/10.1002/aisy... 🧪♻️🤖⚙️ #AcademicSky

The University of Bristol Lunch & Learn session ('Engineered Human Therapies: Turning Breakthrough Health Innovations into Real-World Impact') at SynBioBeta 2025 (Tuesday 6 May, 12:15-13:00) will include Darryl Hill, Kerstin Kinkelin, Francis Lister, Kathleen Sedgley and Ash Toye who are pictured.

We are excited to be sponsoring and hosting a session at #SynBioBeta2025 on 6 May 2025!

Join us to explore how @bristoluni.bsky.social and @sciencecreates.bsky.social are addressing global health challenges as part of Bristol's thriving deep-tech ecosystem.

Come meet us in San Jose!

Learn how Cas9-enrichment + @nanoporetech.com sequencing can more fully uncover biodiversity in complex environments via targeted metabarcoding in latest from lab! Led by the hugely talented Lucia Nikolaeva-Reynolds who started this as her final year undergraduate project! doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

De Novo Design of Parallel and Antiparallel A3B3 Heterohexameric α-Helical Barrels The de novo design of α-helical coiled-coil peptides is advanced. Using established sequence-to-structure relationships, it is possible to generate various coiled-coil assemblies with predictable numb...

NEW PUBLICATION

De Novo Design of Parallel and Antiparallel A3B3 Heterohexameric α-Helical Barrels

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

In 'Biochemistry' / @pubs.acs.org

Molecular mechanism for cargo-mediated initiation of kinesin-1 activation Kinesin-1 is a dynamic heterotetrameric assembly of two heavy and two light chains (KHC and KLC) that mediates microtubule-based intracellular transport of many different cargoes. The complex adopts a...

New preprint on kinesin inhibition and activation - collaborative effort across Bristol Biochem and Chemistry with Woolfson and Schaffizel labs and JJ Phillips in Exeter 1/2 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The diagrams show: (a) the vegetated slope with roots and its macroscopic coordinates, (b) the periodic soil-root composite model with mesoscopic coordinates, (c) 2D view of the Finite Element unit cell developed to predict the mechanical properties of the composite, (d) a 3D finite element model of a UC, (e) the model used for calculating elastic modulus and (f) the model adopted for calculating the shear strength.

The experimental shear test methodology used in this work. (a) Peeling off the top surface of the carrot sample, (b) cutting the ring, (c) shear apparatus, (d) a sample after being subjected to the shear test and (e) stripped roots from the samples.

Numerical shear stress contours of the soil-root unit cell model with different random distributions of roots

We show via models and tests how random root distribution affects the mechanical properties of soil-root composites and the reinforcement provided by roots. You can access the paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ca... 🧪⚙️♻️🌳⚙️ #AcademicSky

Protein structure of C1 bound to IgM antibodies

Our new lab website is online!

sharplab.uk

Check it out and learn more about our research in Bristol!

YouTube video by University of Bristol Developing new snakebite treatment to save lives

🐍 Developing new snakebite treatment to save lives 🐍

Short film about our ADDovenom (addovenom.com) project (@bristoluni.bsky.social, @lstmnews.bsky.social, @universitedeliege.bsky.social, @univ-amu.fr & iBET)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKAj...

Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design at University of Bristol Apply for the Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and ap...

📢 JOB VACANCY:

🔬 Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design

📍 Based in the Dek Woolfson and Mark Dodding labs at University of Bristol

🗓️ Closing date: 1 May 2025

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMN615/r...

Looking for a PhD? I have a fully funded one for UK nationals on engineering gene circuits in probiotic microbes. Will bring together a lot of existing stands of #synbio research in my group and push towards some exciting applications! Start date Sept 2025. Email me if interested! Pls RT

Sabine Hauert in the Royal Institution lecture theatre. Text on image reads: "future robot swarms"

NEW VIDEO

Swarm engineering expert @sabinehauert.bsky.social explains how recent developments in robotics and AI can revolutionise our lives, and why these swarm systems can be trusted.

Watch now: youtu.be/E6iJx4ePQCc