Matthaeus Schwarz-Schilling

3 more weeks to apply!

🧬 Fully funded PhD opportunity! 🧬

We are looking for a curious and motivated candidate to join our new team in Utrecht. Our goal is to develop biomimetic mechanisms for protein folding using DNA origami.

More info:
🔗 www.uu.nl/en/organisat...
🗓️ Deadline: 15.08

Excited to share my first PhD student’s @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social!

Tracking 5 dyes simultaneously Kavan Gor @embl.org tracks nascent #RNA folding during #ribosome assembly to correlate structural with functional information on single RNA molecules!

Check it out!

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

Big news! I am starting my own research lab at the University of Bordeaux as a @cnrs.fr researcher. Excited to turn my dream job into a reality!

I will join the @crpp-bordeaux.bsky.social and the fantastic team of @baretjc.bsky.social, Nicolas Martin and @lauraal.bsky.social. Check dupinlab.com.

Engineered orthogonal translation systems from metagenomic libraries expand the genetic code https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.30.685624v1

Excited to release BoltzGen which brings SOTA folding performance to binder design! The best part of this project is collaborating with a broad network of leading wetlabs that test BoltzGen at an unprecedented scale, showing success on many novel targets and pushing the model to its limits!

Delighted to share my first first author paper, where we realized multi-μm membrane-like shells made entirely of DNA! Huge thanks to co-first author Christoph without whom this wouldn't be possible. This was born from his side-project involving Dipids, stay tuned for the soon-to-be-published paper!

Online monitoring of the mitochondrial respiration activity and protein formation in the Almost Living Cell-free Expression (ALiCE) system - BMC Biotechnology Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) is one approach to address the increasing demand for complex recombinant proteins in various applications, especially in the pharmaceutical sector. CFPS offers a var...

Online monitoring of the mitochondrial respiration activity and protein formation in the Almost Living Cell-free Expression (ALiCE) system
bmcbiotechnol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Constructing synthetic nuclear architectures via transcriptional condensates in a DNA protonucleus - Nature Communications Nuclear biomolecular condensates are functional sub-compartments within the cell nucleus. Here, the authors develop a synthetic DNA protonucleus that enables RNA transcription and condensation into di...

🚨Miao's and Weixiang's work on RNA transcription in DNA based condensates as nucleus mimics is now out in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#syncell #DNA #condensate #LLPS.
Great work to understand transcription and LLPS in #crowded #viscoelastic environments @sfb1551.bsky.social

Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

A paper in Nature suggests a quarter of heatwave events from 2000-23 would have been near impossible without anthropogenic climate change. The paper also indicates that major carbon emitters are responsible for around 50% of the increase in intensity of these events. ⚒️ 🧪

Magnetic activation of spherical nucleic acids enables the remote control of synthetic cells - Nature Chemistry The programmability of synthetic cells, comprising lipid vesicles that are capable of imitating the structure and function of living cells, facilitates their application as drug delivery devices. Now,...

We’ve developed the first-ever method to control nucleic acid activity and gene-expressing synthetic cells with a deeply tissue penetrating alternating magnetic field 🧬 🧪 🧲!!!

Published in *Nature Chemistry*

Led by Ellen Parkes
@syncelleu.bsky.social #chemsky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Simultaneous in vitro expression of minimal 21 transfer RNAs by tRNA array method - Nature Communications tRNAs are essential for translating genetic information into proteins. Here, the authors develop a method to synthesize all 21 essential tRNAs from a single DNA in vitro, enabling protein production a...

Simultaneous in vitro expression of minimal 21 transfer RNAs by tRNA array method
by Miyachi, R., Masuda, K., Shimizu, Y., Ichihashi, N.

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

Rules all PIs should follow

NextGen Voices: Rules all PIs should follow | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Inkscape plugin to rescale figures without distorting the text, and other useful features!
github.com/burghoff/Sci...

Synthetic cell preservation strategies enable their storage and activation at the point of use Synthetic cells encapsulating cell-free protein synthesis machinery are currently limited to laboratory use due to preservation challenges. They are typically produced and used immediately. We present...

A new article from the Elani group looks at the challenge of preserving synthetic cells, a hurdle to their use in real-world applications. The paper presents how cell mimics can be dried, stored and reactivated at the point of use.
#syncell

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Congratulations Noa! One step forward ... We stand on the shoulders of giants.

@pianocktailiste.bsky.social did you check who is Ada Yonath?

Engineering Plasmids with Synthetic Origins of Replication Plasmids remain by far the most common medium for delivering engineered DNA to microorganisms. However, the reliance on natural plasmid replication mechanisms limits their tunability, compatibility, a...

Engineering Plasmids with Synthetic Origins of Replication
Baiyang Liu, Xiao Peng, Matthew R. Bennett, Matthew R. Lakin, James Chappell
bioRxiv 2025.02.21.639468; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Innovations, Challenges and Future Directions of T7RNA Polymerase in Microbial Cell Factories The study of “resource allocator” bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase (T7RNAP) has garnered significant interest, particularly for optimizing transcriptional systems in microbial cell factories (MCFs). Mo...

Innovations, Challenges and Future Directions of T7RNA Polymerase in Microbial Cell Factories
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Optimizing Protein Production in the One-Pot PURE System: Insights into Reaction Composition and Expression Efficiency The One-Pot PURE (Protein synthesis Using Recombinant Elements) system simplifies the preparation of traditional PURE systems by coculturing and purifying 36 essential proteins for gene expression in ...

Optimizing Protein Production in the One-Pot PURE System: Insights into Reaction Composition and Expression Efficiency | ACS Synthetic Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

SynCell conferences - Save the dates!

SynCell2025: 9-11 September 2025 at Stanford, USA.
Further info: www.buildacell.org/syncell2025

SynCell2026: 22-24 April 2026, Institute of Physics in London, UK. Registration opens in Autumn 2025. More info will follow in due course at syntheticcell.eu

Establishing a High-Yield Bacillus subtilis-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System for In Vitro Prototyping and Natural Product Biosynthesis Cell-free systems are emerging as powerful platforms for synthetic biology with widespread applications in both fundamental research, such as artificial cell construction, and practical uses like recombinant protein production. Among these, cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) plays a crucial role in gene expression for various downstream applications. However, the development of CFPS systems based on certain chassis, such as Bacillus subtilis, still remains limited due to their low in vitro productivity. Here, we report the development of a highly productive CFPS system derived from an engineered B. subtilis 164T7P strain, which contains a genomic integration of the T7 RNA polymerase gene. This modification allows the preparation of cell extracts that inherently contain T7 RNA polymerase, enabling T7 promoter-based transcription without the supplementation of purified T7 RNA polymerase in CFPS reactions. Through systematic optimization of cell extract preparation and key reaction parameters, we achieved the synthesis of 286 ± 16.7 μg/mL of sfGFP in batch reactions, with yields increasing to over 1100 μg/mL in a semicontinuous format that can replenish substrates and remove inhibitory byproducts. We further demonstrated the system’s versatility by using it for two synthetic biology applications: prototyping ribosome binding site (RBS) elements and synthesizing pulcherriminic acid─a bioactive cyclodipeptide. The system successfully characterized RBS performance, with in vitro and in vivo rankings correlating with predicted strengths, and expressed two active biosynthetic enzymes (cyclodipeptide synthase─YvmC and cytochrome P450 enzyme─CypX), leading to the production of pulcherriminic acid. Overall, our B. subtilis-based CFPS system offers a robust platform for high-yield protein synthesis, in vitro prototyping of gene regulatory elements, and natural product biosynthesis, highlighting its broad potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology applications.

Establishing a High-Yield Bacillus subtilis-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System for In Vitro Prototyping and Natural Product Biosynthesis | ACS Synthetic Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Sustainable regeneration of 20 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in a reconstituted system toward self-synthesizing artificial systems An in vitro system is capable of sustainably regenerating 20 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases toward artificial cells.

Sustainable regeneration of 20 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in a reconstituted system toward self-synthesizing artificial systems

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

Engineering a Biohybrid System to Link Antibiotic Efficacy to Membrane Depth in Bacterial Infections A biohybrid system is presented for mimicking infections in both cellular and tissue contexts. Droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) are spatio-temporally controlled to enable antibiotic addition, withdr...

Beautiful study using artificial/living cell communication and droplet interface bilayer (DIB) to look at antibiotic efficacy.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A roadmap toward the synthesis of life This perspective offers a cross-disciplinary roadmap toward synthetic life that does not shy away from technical and non-technical challenges, ethical concerns, and provocative implications, embracing...

Perspective: A roadmap toward the synthesis of life: Chem www.cell.com/chem/fulltex...

This will never stop blowing my mind.

AI-driven high-throughput droplet screening of cell-free gene expression - Nature Communications Cell-free gene expression (CFE) systems are often constrained by numerous biochemical components required to maintain biocatalytic efficiency. Here, the authors propose a droplet-AI combined approach ...

DropAI is a droplet-based, AI-driven screening strategy optimizing cell-free expression systems with high throughput and cost efficiency. It uses microfluidics to create picoliter reactors and a fluorescent color-coding system to screen vast chemical combinations.

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

2 PhD positions in Molecular Machines for EU researchers
in the framework of the EU MSCA "MONALISA" are available at TUM from autumn 2025:

i) Autonomous Brownian Rotors Based on DNA Origami

ii) Controlling enzymatic reactions with DNA machines

Email: simmel@tum.de "MONALISA" in the reference

A comprehensive review on covalent chemical strategies for protein self-labeling from @kjohnsson.bsky.social's lab: HaloTag, SNAP-tag et al. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Rapid Protein Production Achieved Through Biologically Engineered Reaction Crucibles - SynBioBeta

Breakthrough in Rapid Protein Production

Duke scientists engineered synthetic compartments that trap cellular machinery, significantly boosting protein production and speeding up synthesis for medical and industrial use.

read more: www.synbiobeta.com/read/rapid-p...

#ProteinSynthesis

A modular cell-free protein biosensor platform using split T7 RNA polymerase A split polymerase is used to develop a plug-and-play cell-free biosensor platform for point-of-care protein detection.

I’m so happy that the major focus of my PhD is out! Very proud of what we accomplished here, and excited for the potential this tech has to enhance future point-of-care protein diagnostics.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...