Francesco De Batté

Working on a tool to define Golden Gate syntaxes for #OpenCloning. You define your syntax, and then you can drag-and-drop your plasmids in OpenCloning, they will be sorted into the right categories, and you can do combinatorial assembly. Reach out if you'd like to contribute:

syntax.opencloning.org

New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve.

‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Inspired by the story, I created a petunia with 5 differently colored petals using new genes I made, AMBER & GOLD that I just published here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Similar to RUBY, these polycistronic genes encode yellow, fluorescent betaxanthins 💛🧡

If you are looking to integrate your latest genetic creation into the genome of your favourite bug, you might find our latest review now out in OUP Synthetic Biology useful. 🧬⚒️ Work led by Riesa Rohmat with input from Thea Irvine and Shivang Joshi. #genome #synbio doi.org/10.1093/synb...

@peterfineran.bsky.social and colleagues develop Tn-seq for phages by leveraging anti-CRISPR (Acr) as a positive
selectable marker in the presence of CRISPR-Cas counter-selection, and identify essential genes in phage from non model orgs
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It's been a great experience to start a team here, I highly recommend applying!

A couple new #PhD opportunities to join my lab at the intersection of #synbio, #plantsci and #biotech as part of the Plant BioDesign doctoral programme spanning the University of York, University of Cambridge, University of Bristol and John Innes Centre. 1/4

What is the best strategy to win any contest?

Eliminate your opponents of course.

Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.

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

A cloning strategy as depicted in the OpenCloning website

#OpenCloning is a an Open Source alternative to SnapGene/Benchling that supports automation and integration with other software

✅ Free
🔓 Open Source
🧬 More cloning methods than SnapGene
🤖 Can be automated with python
👨‍🔬 Built by a researcher — for researchers!

👉 Check it out at opencloning.org

A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.

Early morning today in the Anza Borrego desert

Moments like this, a sunrise in the desert, remind me that science begins with wonder.
Discovery starts when we pause long enough to notice. Isn't it amazing how life always finds a way to adapt and persist? And how are Plants so good at this?
#Science #Discovery #Nature #AnzaBorrego #PlantScience

I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication.
I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026.
Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1
drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...

Emergence of population-level feedback control by transposon-plasmid coevolution
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

1 week left to apply for a postdoctoral position in my group to lead the experimental component of a 5 year BBSRC project on synthetic microbial communities

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Highly recommended👇

🛠️New tool from the lab! #SHARK🦈: a new strain to support complex cloning of transient R6K expression plasmids – perfect for genome engineering. Work led by the talented Shivang Joshi and all strains and strain assembly tools enroute to Addgene. #synbio doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Microbial stem cells support productivity in dedicated factory cells in an asymmetrically dividing E. coli system
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

**Please Repost**

Pallavi Singh Lab is looking for two Postdocs to join our team studying how plants balance carbon, water, and resilience in a changing climate.

PlantPlug PDRA: vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

REVOLUTION PDRA: vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Deadline: October 15.

Genetic controllers for enhancing the evolutionary longevity of synthetic gene circuits in bacteria - Nature Communications Engineered gene circuits often degrade over time due to mutation and selection. Here the authors use a host-aware modelling framework to develop genetic controllers to sustain synthetic gene expression. They identify a range of design trade-offs in production, robustness and long-term performance.

Genetic controllers for enhancing the evolutionary longevity of synthetic gene circuits in bacteria
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Loved having a chance this weekend to showcase the science behind bioluminescence & talk about the bioluminescent bays of Puerto Rico at the Harvard Museum's Celebremos Puerto Rico 🕺🇵🇷!

London SynBio Network 10 London SynBio afterwork talks and networking event on Thursday 25th of September

🎉 London SynBio Network is back! Join us on 25th of September.

🧬 Surpassing Nature – Metabolic engineering for novel biological CO2 fixation routes
Ari Satanowski

💐 Open Flower: designer flowers for art and education
Nick Desnoyer

➡️ Register at: events.humanitix.com/london-synbi...

Marchantia berteroana at 3000 meters above the sea level. Vallecitos, Mendoza.

Synthetic promoters has relied on naturally occurring TFs or Cas9. With de novo designed DNA binding proteins, there are so much potential for synbio, whether it's targeting natural promoters or designing synthetic ones.

Deciphering microbial spatial organization: insights from synthetic and engineered communities Abstract. Microbial communities are frequently organized into complex spatial structures, shaped by intrinsic cellular traits, interactions between communi

Deciphering microbial spatial organization: insights from synthetic and engineered communities url: academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

We are looking for a PDRA for the PlantPlug project, turning parasitic plants into programmable bio-modules! Using mistletoe as a novel chassis, we are exploring the frontiers of inter-species communication.
Apply online by 15/10/2025.
*RP*
#PlantSciencesJobs

vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Fluctuating DNA methylation tracks cancer evolution at clinical scale Nature - Cancer evolutionary dynamics are quantitatively inferred using a method, EVOFLUx, applied to fluctuating DNA methylation.

Cancer is an evolutionary disease, but does knowing a cancer’s evolutionary past help predict its future? Out today in @nature, we learnt the evolution of 2000 lymphoid cancers and found it was highly correlated with clinical outcomes! (1/7)
rdcu.be/eFrrc

SynBio UK London 2025. Submit your abstract and register before 12 September for earlybird discount.

🚨I have a fully funded 4-year #PhD opportunity in my lab on 'Tuneable multi-input genetic logic circuits for designer probiotics'.🦠 We'll be throwing all the tech we have at this one to make reliable engineering of diverse microbes a reality. Applicants must be UK national...

Educational and entertaining video demonstrating a system for building interactive multi-neighbourhood cellular automata. Well worth a watch

Can a virus help uncover Turing patterns in nature? In this @commsbio.nature.com paper, researchers show how the tulip breaking virus triggers the expression of a pigment that can display a broad range of (observable) stripe patterns @philipcball.bsky.social
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...