Sebastian Wenk

Fluorescein-based dyes are not valid reporters of oxidative stress in bacteria, and conclusions based on their use must be reconsidered | PNAS Dihydrodichlorofluorescein derivatives have been employed as reporters of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in innumerable studies. Their...

Hmmm
This work has so many implications on literature 😳😬

Fluorescein-based dyes are not valid reporters of oxidative stress in bacteria, and conclusions based on their use must be reconsidered | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Prashant Singh in the lab of Tina Iverson at Vanderbilt published this image of the bacterial 🦠flagellar motor, a detailed molecular model made possibly by CryoEM 🔬.

The similarity to mechanical motors are strong enough we can use terms like stator, rotor, rod & gearing to describe it.

Black and white photograph of six-year-old Ruby Bridges, wearing a dark dress and white cardigan and carrying a School bag, accompanied by three FBI agents in dark suits.

Sixty-five years ago today, four first-graders desegregated New Orleans's public schools: Ruby Bridges at William Frantz Elementary School, and Leona Tate, Tessie Provost, and Gail Etienne at McDonogh 19 Elementary School. They faced violent mobs and threats to their lives. They were 6 years old. 🗃

Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...

Very excited to share our latest work in Science on metagenomic editing (MetaEdit) of the gut microbiome in vivo & directly modifying unculturable immune-modulatory SFB bug in the small intestine. 🦠🧬🛠️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very nice. Looking forward to a more detailed read!

Very happy to share our recent work @cultivarium.bsky.social on genetic tools for Ideonella sakaiensis, a (Betaproteo-)bacterium that degrades PET plastic.

We identified a plasmid vector for the strain and generated a large RB-TnSeq library, screening for genes impacting plastic degradation.

Prof. Hamilton Smith at J. Craig Venter Institute, a Nobel laureate for discovering type II restriction enzymes, passed away last night.
@jcvi.org @nobelprize.bsky.social
A huge loss in Science, but his legacy will be remembered.
www.jcvi.org/about/hamilt...

Such an honor! Can’t wait to visit Brno next week, the place I’ve been teaching about in Genetics course for years but never visited (I feel like I know the garden and the monastery from what I read).

Thaaaank you Helena 🙏

doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

Enjoy the read — and I’m always happy to hear your thoughts or feedback!

Kudos to my long-term friend and collaborator Maren Nattermann and the fantastic team at the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg for another inspiring collaboration.

Very proud of my former students Jenny Bakker, Karin Schann, and Maximilian Pfeifer Boinot , who carried out this challenging work under constrained conditions in the fading Bar-Even lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam.

We built and evolved a pathway that activates formate, turns it into formaldehyde, and feeds it into metabolism. This shows that we can likely convert RuMP methylotrophs into RuMP formatotrophs through this simple intervention.

“Evolution-assisted engineering of formate assimilation via the formyl phosphate route in Escherichia coli” is now out in Metabolic Engineering.

In our new study we used enzyme engineering and evolution to teach E. coli a new trick: to grow using CO2-derived formate via a fully synthetic metabolic route that nature never tried.

🔥🔥🔥 Friday Evening, Paper Out, Feierabend 🔥🔥🔥

When evolution and enzyme engineering team up, they can convince microbes to assimilate sustainable carbon substrates preparing them for a life in a circular bioeconomy.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

Unlike the heart attack of getting a “Decision” email, it’s such a good feeling to get a “Your review is ready” email from qed :)

Photo: Cecilia Odlind

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body 🧪 www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medic...

"Jane Goodall showed us what a life in science could look like: rigorous discovery paired with fierce advocacy for what you study. She gave the world six decades of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees and their habitats, then turned that knowledge into a global movement for conservation." (1/2)

Once upon a time Desk Editors quietly fixed minor issues in accepted papers to ensure format compliance. Now, even the smallest formatting slip sends a ms back to the authors for trivial corrections. Is this really about maintaining standards—or just saving salaries of those used to handle this 🤔?

Diese #Klimademo war laut, bunt, wütend, hoffnungsvoll - ich bin stolz auf dich #Berlin, weiter so 💪🏻

Boosting Dibenzothiophene Biodesulfurization Through Implantation of a Refactored DBT Pathway in a Tailored Pseudomonas putida Chassis This study engineered a Pseudomonas putida strain to efficiently remove sulfur from dibenzothiophene (DBT) by reordering and optimising the dsz operon from Rhodococcus qingshengii IGTS8, enhancing ca...

Bio-desulfurization of fossil fuels has been a classic env biotech challenge for decades, but the field became stagnant for a while … until @pglekas.bsky.social et al leveraged SynBio tools to develop superior whole-cell catalysts enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 😱

That's a great idea. Wish you a pleasant transition and as said before: tell us where you are heading ;-)

Invisibility cloak pioneer Sir John Pendry awarded Royal Society’s top prize | Royal Society The Royal Society announces the medals and awards recipients 2025

Very honored to receive the Royal Society Research Culture Award - this represents the work of a great team who've worked non-stop since we launched bioRxiv in 2013 royalsociety.org/news/2025/08... www.cshl.edu/inglis-and-s...

I gave a symposium talk at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2025 (#eseb2025) meeting last week and this was my title slide showcasing how I was speaking as an independent scientist because @dalhousieu.bsky.social @dalhousie.bsky.social has locked us out.

Synthetic C1 metabolism in Pseudomonas putida enables strict formatotrophy and methylotrophy via the reductive glycine pathway | mBio Soluble C1 feedstocks, such as formate and methanol, have gained attention as sustainable substrates for biotechnology, with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on sugar-based resources. Despite their promise, the metabolic ...

#Synthetic C1 #metabolism in #Pseudomonas putida enables strict formatotrophy and methylotrophy via the reductive glycine pathway—led by J. Turlin, M. G. Alván, @oscarpuiggene.bsky.social w/@stefanodonati.bsky.social & @sebwenk.bsky.social @mbio.bsky.social #SynBio
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A discovery journey of almost 4 years initiated by J. Turlin, and then continued by M. G. Alván, @oscarpuiggene.bsky.social with the precious collaboration of @stefanodonati.bsky.social and @sebwenk.bsky.social!
5/5

Wildfires rage across southern Europe as temperatures pass 40C The heatwave has led to red alerts being issued in parts of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans.

Spain is on fire. Italy, Greece, Portugal — all burning. We have had summer fires before, but never like this. This is climate breakdown in real time. It is killing people, animals, and our future. DAMN the climate deniers. DAMN those who know and could do but do NOTHING www.bbc.com/news/article...

There are more than a million Dominicans in NYC, and yesterday on 6th Avenue I felt every bit of that pride.

Thank you for welcoming me in to celebrate the vibrant, beautiful culture and community that does so much for our city. 🇩🇴

Fascinating story. Congratulations Danny 🥳