Di Michele Lab

My work on DNA condensates @dimichelelab1.bsky.social is now out! 🧬🎉🍬
A huge thank you to @francolab.bsky.social lab for their invaluable expertise and to everyone in our lab for their insights, feedback, and countless discussions along the way. I’ve learned so much from working with you all!

We believe that this simple but modular condensate design strategy, based on nanostars and linkers, is really powerful and flexible. Hopefully others will find it useful too. Thanks to @erc.europa.eu @royalsociety.org @ceb.cam.ac.uk for funding and support! n/n

Finally, we explore the effect on phase behaviour of changing annealing protocols, demonstrating that multicomponent DNA condensates equilibrate veeeeeeeeeeery slowly. Something to bear in mind if you plan to work with similar systems 5/n

Simulations by Dino Osmanovic @francolab.bsky.social, based on Flory-Huggins, map well onto the experimental trends and allowed us to establish a link between the experimental order parameter and the F-H interaction parameter. Experimental (top) and simulated (bottom) snapshots below 4/n

We can control phase behaviour by changing linker and nanostars concentrations, without having to re-design nanostructures. This is rather convenient, and allowed us to map a large phase diagram and identify an order parameter controlling the transition between 1- and 2-phase condensates 3/n

Condensates assemble from two populations of tetravalent DNA nanostars, and three types of divalent linkers that mediate nanostar-nanostar interactions, either within the same nanostar population or across populations 2/n

Internal Phase Separation in Synthetic DNA Condensates The modular, programmable system of DNA nanostructures developed provides programmatic control over multiphase condensate behavior, enabling mapping onto a predictive Flory-Huggins model. This combin...

Thrilled to share this new Adv. Sci. paper by @dianatanase.bsky.social with Dino Osmanovic @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social @laylamalouf.bsky.social @francolab.bsky.social. We demonstrate a modular approach to program internal phase separation in DNA condensates 1/n doi.org/10.1002/advs...

Grazie Otti!

Thanks @ceb.cam.ac.uk @erc.europa.eu @royalsociety.org and BBSRC n/n

The MLO platform is robust, inducible and modular and many design modifications can be applied to the nanostars to capture different proteins or change MLO properties. Hopefully you’ll find this useful, and we look forward to your feedback! 9/n

Finally, we show that condensation is thermally reversible. The MLOs melt upon heating and re-assemble upon cooling, releasing and re-capturing GFP in the process 8/n

The nanostar designs are modular and allow for embedding of protein binding aptamers. We show that GFP can be selectively captured by the MLOs when a GFP-binding aptamer is included 7/n

We can express two non-interacting nanostars within the same cell, creating two orthogonal MLOs. This is only possible thanks to the selectivity of base pairing. Also here, most cells will have both MLOs, located at or near the poles 6/n

MLOs are located at the cell poles but small RNA clusters may appear near the centre before moving towards the poles. MLOs also tend to appear in the central section as cells approach division. The new MLOs may end up in one of the daughter cells, or be split between both 5/n

We express RNA “nanostars” interacting with kissing loops (KL) in E. coli and show that these form MLOs located at the poles of the cell. Expression is inducible and very efficient. Making the nanostars non-sticky stops condensation, indicating specificity 4/n

Eukaryotic cells use membrane-less organelles (MLOs) to control many processes. Being able to engineer “designer” MLOs in prokaryotes could be useful for optimising metabolic and biomanufacturing pathways. We think that RNA nanotechnology could be the key to achieving this 3/n

Great work from @brianngsh.bsky.social , Catherine Fan, @milandordevic.bsky.social, ‪@adamknirsch.bsky.social‬, @laylamalouf.bsky.social, @giacomofabrini.bsky.social, Sabrina Pia Nuccio, @rogerrubiosanchez.bsky.social ‬, coll Graham Christie @takinouelab.bsky.social ‬ @pcicuta.bsky.social 2/n

Expression of nano-engineered RNA organelles in bacteria Designing synthetic biomolecular condensates, or membrane-less organelles, offers insights on the functions of their natural counterparts, and is equally valuable for cellular and metabolic engineerin...

Thrilled to share our latest preprint on expressing synthetic organelles made from RNA nanostructures in bacteria!

1/n

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks @syncelleu.bsky.social !!!

Origami Black Hole xkcd.com/3033

Please RT and share with relevant candidates!

Candidates should hold a strong master degree in physics, physical chemistry or engineering and fit the residency requirements of MSCA doctoral networks (not have spent more than 1 year in the UK in the last 3).
Salary is pretty good 😉

The candidate will use Synthetic Cell models and DNA nanotechnology to study interactions between lipid membranes and condensates. The project involves exciting training opportunities across Europe and placements with Petra Schwille in Munich and @continiclau.bsky.social in London

Happy new year everyone, and some great news!
We have an opening for a PhD candidate to join our lab @cebcambridge.bsky.social in October 2025 as part of the new exciting MSCA Doctoral Network @comeincell.bsky.social

jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49240/

🧪

Great to see @pembroke1347.bsky.social here!

HI! 👋 We’re the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. We like:

🧪Science that pushes the envelope
🌏Working to solve the world’s biggest challenges
🧑‍🔬Collaborating with amazing scientists
🫖Tea!
🤖Robots!

#DrivenByCuriosity #DrivingChange

Amazing to see our work on designer RNA condensates featured on the cover of @naturenano.bsky.social!!!
#RNAnanotech #condensates #SynCells

www.nature.com/articles/s41...