Directed evolution of multimeric proteins is enabled by dual-compensatory gene duplication https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.12.698938v1
Directed evolution of multimeric proteins is enabled by dual-compensatory gene duplication https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.12.698938v1
We evolved virus-like particles to high performance homomers and obligate heteromers that exist as hybrids!
Gene duplication directed evolution could be a new way of sampling of unique variants that would otherwise never be discovered!
We applied this in a directed evolution campaign.
We discovered that including a duplicate Wild-Type compensatory copy allows the explorer copy to evolve into WAY MORE unique sequences, that would not be discovered otherwise.
If you're curious about the details of the science, the preprint is linked above! 👆 If you want the cliff notes keep reading 👇
Gene duplication leading to the evolution of multimeric proteins has been discussed in the evolutionary biology literature for decades.
This work is co-driven by the very hardworking PhD candidate Felicia Lie and myself! Huge thanks to our amazing collaborators Michael Andreas and Tobias Giessen! Many efforts from our lab members @taylorszyszka.bsky.social and Alex Loustau. And of course our super lab head @yuhenglau.bsky.social!
Nature has a trick to evolve multimeric proteins via gene duplication.
🧬One copy compensates, the other explores.🧬
Although this has only been a theory so far.
Until now: Directed evolution of multimeric proteins by dual-compensatory gene duplication.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Submitted! 🧬
New preprint dropping tomorrow. We’ve cracked a tough nut regarding evolution, and I can’t wait to show you the data.
Watch this space.
Had a wonderful time presenting at @SynBioAusAsia 2025 about the discovery and developments of #seekRNA gene editing tech and how it stacks up against literature and industry standards. So grateful to have met so many like-minded scientists and keen to see where we go from here!
Every hear of Vaults? If not, read this preprint! New from the lab, exploring novel mechanisms of RNA trafficking in neurons and what they might mean for memory. Led by stellar PhD student Mason Musgrove. #RNAsky
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Congrats to @taylorszyszka.bsky.social and @rezwansiddiquee.bsky.social who have been invited to Raise the Bar! 20 academics will visit 10 bars across Sydney to talk about their research, for 1 night only.
📅 Thu 3 April, 7:30 PM
📍Bank Hotel, 324 King St, Newtown
🎟️ Register: bit.ly/43Ci7n0
#RTBSYD
Really proud of the famous Taylor Szyszka for the perseverance for this project! Amazing work!
Had such a wonderful time at #Coesb2024! Got to meet like minded synthetic biologists and learn about their successes and challenges. And huge thanks to @ARC_CoESB for an award for Outreach Excellence!
My first ever Bluesky post is a new #preprint alert! What if we could put *anything* into a protein cage? Our new in vitro encapsulin assembly system is esay to use and enables the pacakging of protein and synthetic cargo!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This is a great tool to search for your community and quickly follow a bunch of people!
I sometimes forget how flexible proteins are. It becomes really apparent when you use NMR states for an animation. That poor cofactor is getting pushed around a lot 😅
#sciart #blender3d #biocatalysis
Check out Yu Heng’s post below.
bsky.app/profile/yuhe...
This work is led by my better half, the superstar @taylorszyszka.bsky.social and is our first paper together! Many thanks to our supervisor @yuhenglau.bsky.social for incredible support and of course, from contributors Alex, Lachlan, Regi, Titus and collaborators Andrew and Claire from UTS.
How did we do this? A clean system of fusing a steric block to encapsulin protein cage monomer – prevents assembly. Take this in vitro, add *any* cargo to the reaction and cleave off the block. And voila! Assembled in vitro cages that are surprisingly better in every way.
Very excited to share our new pre-print! We’ve developed a new way to put any type of cargo (biological or synthetic) into protein cages! All in-vitro! This enables massively scalable in vitro packaging technology for multiple lucrative applications. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Long time lurker, first time poster... announcing our latest preprint on encapsulin protein cages!
We can now assemble them beautifully in vitro, without the ugly defects you get using acid/base or denaturants.
This lets us put any synthetic cargo into these cages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
