Michael Booth

👀

Prof Alice Davidson introducing upnat symposium

Excited to be at the UK Platform for Nucleic Acid Therapies (UPNAT) symposium today at UCL!

AMAZING! I'm stealing this for my chembio lectures 😅

Really impressive talk on artificial cells and all the behaviours that can be built up inside them using DNA by @waltherlab.bsky.social #sbuk2025 #sbuk

Woops #SBUK25 😅😖

Always great to be at the annual @biochemsoc.bsky.social Synthetic Biology UK conference - today's one is extra special as it's in London and I'm on the organising committee 🫡🫣 #SBUK26 #SBUK2026

Thanks, very kind of you to say!

Pic of my group across the Thames

We had a fantastic group day today - discussing new research ideas and a stimulating trip to the Tate Modern ❤️🧪🧬

It's always so wonderful to spend time with these amazing people
#chemsky

Affinity-selected peptide ligands specifically bind i-motif DNA and modulate c-Myc gene expression Abstract. c-Myc is an oncogene that is dysregulated in ∼70% of cancers. Its multifaceted function complicates effective drug targeting of the protein. i-Mo

Dr Chris Morris and I have a new paper in Nucleic Acids Research.

This paper has been a long time in the making & was affected by COVID so we are proud to have it published!

@shozebhaider.bsky.social
@effrosynialexandr.bsky.social
@chriswaudby.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

lol

Special thanks to @dr-mip.bsky.social 🫡

Three pumpkins, carved with different levels of ability...

BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC
🧪

Differential stability and dynamics of DNA-based and RNA-based coacervates affect non-enzymatic RNA chemistry - Nature Communications Mixtures of peptides and nucleic acids tend to demix and form coacervate droplets. Here, the authors show that even short peptides and oligonucleotides form droplets. DNA and RNA impart different prop...

Happy to share our newest publication! 🤩
We found that DNA and RNA behave differently in primitive coacervates: RNA makes them more stable, DNA more fluid. Both properties are key for non-enzymatic DNA replication!
An incredible teamwork across continents! 😊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...

🚨Our paper is out! 🥳
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion.
Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

it all started years ago with a failed experiment
🧵👇 1/9

Screenshot that reads: The award "underlies the importance in investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth", says economist Diane Coyle of the University of Cambridge. "It's great to see the Nobel prize recognize the importance of this topic," adds innovation policy researcher Richard Jones of the University of Manchester, UK. "It's important that economists understand the conditions that lead to technological progress," he adds. The winners, says Coyle, "have long been on people's list of potential candidates".

‘Economics Nobel prize won by researchers who showed how science boosts growth’ by @philipcball.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wow, that's so frustrating it's still up!

I didn't have to look, Google Scholar suggested I add it to my profile!

✨️ Silver lining ✨️

Get 'em where you can, eh?

No idea, I wasn't involved in it's creation!

Worth noting, the email addresses of the other two authors also aren't real!

The email address for the journal sent... I'm not really expecting a reply though 😑

Website image of a paper with my name on - that's not mine!

This is a new one for me #chemsky 🧪

My name has appeared on a published paper that I've had nothing to do with (even using an incorrect version of my email address)!

Has this happened to others? If so, what did you do?

Cell-surface DNA - wowser!

🧬❤️

2012 Nobel laureate John Gurdon has died. His work was central to both the development of animal cloning and the possibility of reprogramming cells to a different state. A giant of cell and developmental biology.
www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Ellen, examiners, and me after her viva

Congratulations to Ellen Parkes for passing her PhD viva last week 🥳

- PhD #8 from the Booth group 🤩🤯 !

Massive thanks to Harrison Steel and @akellett.bsky.social for examining #proudPI

'Someone else would have done it' seems like an argument you could make it all breakthroughs!?

Cell-free opens a unique test-bed to reconstituteand to explore alternative life possibilities.

Check our review (by Maud Hofmann, Farouk Abdo, @manishmicrobe and myself) :

Reconstituting alternative life using the test-bed of cell-free systems
doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

kermit the frog is standing in front of a red curtain with his arms outstretched . Alt: kermit the frog is standing in front of a red curtain with his arms outstretched .

💯

It's #ChemNobel season again!

Surely this year should go to the most important chemical breakthrough of our lifetimes: DNA synthesis/Marvin Caruthers 🧬

Phosphoramidite DNA synthesis is the bedrock of modern biology and enabled the development of therapies for untreatable diseases
#chemsky 🧪

As did one of my undergraduate Organic Chemistry lecturers... 🤐