Rapid and decentralized vaccine production is essential to ensure global preparedness against emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Cell-free gene expression systems, which can be freeze-dried...

Profiling host RNA shed in feces reveals disease states in the gut.

The School of Biology at the University of St Andrews is inviting applications from outstanding visionary Research Fellow and Future Leader candidates to attend the Biomolecular Science (BMS) Fello…

Genetically encoded biosensors are powerful tools for linking metabolite production to fluorescent outputs, but stresses imposed by engineered pathways can confound their signals. In this study, we developed four fluorescence-based biosensors for inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), a therapeutic target for cancer and diabetes, and compared their performance in the presence of heterologous terpenoid pathways, a promising source of new inhibitors. When expressed in Escherichia coli, all four could reliably detect an exogenously supplied PTP1B inhibitor, but only one remained functional alongside terpenoid pathways, where pathway-derived stress reduced overall fluorescence. This sensor, which links PTP1B inhibition to the assembly of a split T7 RNA polymerase, exhibited a high dynamic range with minimal toxicity, a common liability of T7-based circuits. Variants of this sensor with different sensitivities to inhibition and stress allowed us to separate the terpenoid pathways that made PTP1B inhibitors from those that did not. Our findings show how pathway-specific stresses (e.g., terpene synthase expression) can alter biosensor signals as strongly as their target analytes and provide a framework for disentangling these confounding effects in high-throughput screens.

Humans are rapidly altering natural ecosystems, often resulting in fragmentation of remaining habitats. While consequent reductions in species richness and changes in composition are now well document...

Purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) are metabolically versatile microorganisms that inhabit diverse environments taking advantage of a remarkably efficient photosynthetic machinery. In this work, we des...

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Synthetic biology is defined by Design-Build-Test-Learn cycles. Recent advances in machine learning are changing the landscape; thus, we propose that “Learning” can precede “Design”. Moreover, adoptin...

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Abstract. The stringent response represses translation and is activated when cells enter the stationary phase and intracellular amino acid levels drop. Bac

Bacteria can be engineered as biosensors for the detection and analysis of DNA in unpurified samples. This Review examines the engineering of bacterial DNA biosensors, highlighting performance metrics...

Genomic species delimitation is transforming how we understand and define species by enabling a process-oriented and efficient approach to identifying species boundaries. This review outlines the two ...