Akos Nyerges

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

Biosecurity Really: A Strategy for Victory Current trends make clear that biosecurity will become much more challenging over the next several years. We must act strategically to secure biology—before it becomes a general-purpose technology. Dr...

The recently published report on Biosecurity by Drew Endy et al in the context of contemporary & future Biotech & SynBio is worth every word. Check it out 👉🏻 www.hoover.org/research/bio...

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Abhishek Chatterjee @achemsynbio.bsky.social and Michael Krogh Jensen's talks are opening the afternoon session of SynBio @ #BostonDOT

SynBio @ #BostonDOT started with a fantastic morning session, with talks from Farren Isaacs, Shira @shiraweingarten.bsky.social, and Ryan Clarke

If there were a collection of E. coli with every combination of a bunch of resistance markers fluorophores on the chromosome, would this be something people would be interested in using?

New blog post – A quick look at Roche's SBX
lh3.github.io/2025/09/11/a...

Please repost!

Postdoc in adaptive laboratory evolution and C1 synthetic metabolism!

Location: DTU Biosustain

🦠🧬🔬

Starting in 01/2026!

Fell free to reach out if you have questions!
efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Looking forward to a terrific symposium on Synthetic Biology and it's implication in therapeutic development ✨

High throughput screening of eukaryotic release factor 1 variants to enhance noncanonical amino acid incorporation Noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) enable diversification of protein functions, but the efficiency of genetic code expansion (GCE) in eukaryotes is hindered by competition between suppressor tRNAs and r...

Today, I’m grateful that I can finally share Briana Lino’s @blino237.bsky.social work on engineering eukaryotic release factor 1 (eRF1) for enhanced noncanonical amino acid incorporation. I highlight some key findings in this thread (1/n).

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

Join us on September 22, in person or online. Visit 🔗 discoveryontarget.com/synthetic-biol… for the full agenda and to register.

We still have spots available, and please reach out (email or DM me) if you are a trainee, student, or postdoc and need registration support to attend!

Excited to chair #BostonDOT 's SynBio symposium with talks from
🔸Farren Isaacs
🔸Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social
🔸Shira Weingarten-Gabbay @shiraweingarten.bsky.social
🔸Abhishek Chatterjee @achemsynbio.bsky.social
🔸Wen Tseng
🔸Michael Krogh Jensen
🔸Ryan Clarke
🔸Alex Reis @alexcampreis.com

This is one of the findings that really motivates my research: yes, antibiotic resistance genes are ancient, but the age of antibiotics has likely contributed to a big change in their mobility and of the landscape of MGEs we see today! Very happy for Arya and to see this published.

Dave Baker, not on bluesky, on the issues of the 600 cycle kit on Illumina NextSeq 2000 instrument.

At Harvard, Trump administration cuts hit young scientists hard More than 700 graduate students and nearly 800 postdoctoral researchers at Harvard get salaries, stipends or tuition support from federally funded research.

“We feel like the lost generation.” A story on the collapse of US science, which is hitting young scientists hardest www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Nanopore sequencing of intact aminoacylated tRNAs - Nature Communications Accurate protein synthesis depends on aminoacylated tRNAs, but their identities have been hard to measure. Here, authors present aa-tRNA-seq, a nanopore-based method that reveals the amino acid, seque...

Our paper is out in its final form! Back in April 2023, my coauthor Aleks Radakovic, then a PhD student, approached me after a talk in Chicago to ask what I thought an aminoacylated tRNA would look like if we pulled it through a @nanopore.
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

An orthogonal T7 replisome for continuous hypermutation and accelerated evolution in E. coli Systems that perform continuous hypermutation of designated genes without compromising the integrity of the host genome can substantially accelerate the evolution of new or enhanced protein functions....

#NatMicroPicks

Synthetic evolution overdrive 🦠🔧🚅

A highly mutagenic DNA replication system speeds up evolution in Escherichia coli, without harming the host, opening a new way to accelerate protein engineering.

#SynBio #MicroSky

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Simulating a for-loop in the human genome: Design and evaluation of recombinase genetic programs that count to three. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.04.668540v1

Precise virulence inactivation using a CRISPR-associated transposase for combating Enterobacteriaceae gut pathogens - Nature Biomedical Engineering A self-transmissible CRISPR-associated transposase system encodes a nanobody payload to treat Shiga toxin infections.

#NatMicroPicks

Engineering Peace in the Gut Microbiome ☮️🔧🦠

BACTRINS, a microbiome engineering platform that precisely edits gut pathogens by inserting therapeutic payloads and neutralizing virulence genes, transforming them into allies.

@natbiomedeng.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Senate appropriators approve Labor-HHS bill with NIH bump The vote and lawmaker comments show that most senators aren't going along with the White House's proposed 40% budget cut to NIH.

BIG NEWS:

“Senate appropriators on Thursday approved an FY26 Labor-HHS bill that included a slight bump in funding for the NIH, with a strong 26–3 bipartisan vote.”

Thank you to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle!

www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

Scientists Are Learning to Rewrite the Code of Life

E. coli, but with only 57 codons! Honey, who shrunk the genetic code?

By @carlzimmer.com quoting @akosnyerges.bsky.social about work from Jason Chin's lab at the MRC LMB.

"There’s a lot more in genomes than we thought. We are still not great at designing biology.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/s...

Scientists are Learning to Rewrite the Code of Life In a giant feat of genetic engineering, scientists have created bacteria that make proteins in a radically different way than all natural species do.

Meet Syn57, a living cell that only needs 57 codons, not the standard 64. Here's my story on how synthetic biology is tackling the mystery of our bloated genetic code. Gift link: nyti.ms/3Hf4f9v

We traveled to DC to talk to Congressional Staffers about the impact of NIH and NIBIB funding. It enables us to develop synthetic biology tools to advance cell & genetic medicines for patients in need. REPOST to deliver the message that SCIENCE saves lives & makes America GREAT!

Engineered reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme enables ATP-driven modification of protein and peptide C termini Nature Chemistry - In living systems, ATP provides an energetic driving force for protein synthesis and modification. Now, an engineered enzymatic tool has been developed for high-yield, ATP-driven...

Excited to share our latest: we engineered the reactivity of a bacterial E1-like enzyme for ATP-driven modification of C termini. Our tool mimics the logic of peptide bond formation in biology for precision modification of proteins in vitro. 🧪https://rdcu.be/ewN7C

Deadline for applications extended to July 22 🔔! An unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge science in a highly interactive format 👇

Jumbo phage-mediated transduction of genomic islands Bacteria acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer (HGT), typically mediated by mobile genetic elements (MGEs). While plasmids, bacteriophages and certain integrative and conjugative elements (ICE...

Amazing stuff by one of the most hard working lab rats I’ve ever met. In a good way ;p

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

Prime editor-based high-throughput screening reveals functional synonymous mutations in human cells - Nature Biotechnology A prime editor screen systematically identifies deleterious synonymous variants in human cells.

Massive prime editing approach to look at synonymous variant effects in human cells. In this assay, synonymous variants do not generally have the same level of effect as non synonymous 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Super exciting work! Congrats @shiraweingarten.bsky.social and everyone involved!

Shining a Light on the World of Microproteins From viruses to humans, life makes microproteins that have evaded discovery until now.

How many proteins are in the human body? Excellent question! At least 20,000. But maybe 30,000? Maybe more? Here's my story about scientists exploring the hidden world of microproteins, and what it may mean for the future of medicine. nyti.ms/3HEPQTY 🧪