Andrew D Hanson
@adhansonlab.bsky.social
Plant & microbe metabolism research, engineering, synthetic biology. Realism in science relating to agriculture & the food system. PhD/postdoc training & jobs. Ex-HGV2 driver in UK. AMDG+
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Excited to share the Hanson Lab’s @adhansonlab.bsky.social new preprint! We used OrthoRep to evolve Arabidopsis HDH, a short-lived enzyme, selecting variants with up to 20× higher abundance. Mutations boosted lifespan, catalytic efficiency, or inhibitor resistance.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 3, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Excited to share the Hanson Lab’s @adhansonlab.bsky.social new preprint! We used OrthoRep to evolve Arabidopsis HDH, a short-lived enzyme, selecting variants with up to 20× higher abundance. Mutations boosted lifespan, catalytic efficiency, or inhibitor resistance.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Can biofuels replace fossil energy sources? A few calculations indicate otherwise 👉🏻 e360.yale.edu/features/cor.... Running numbers academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...) is the way to go. Things get worse with jet fuel (source @adhansonlab.bsky.social) 👇
June 1, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Can biofuels replace fossil energy sources? A few calculations indicate otherwise 👉🏻 e360.yale.edu/features/cor.... Running numbers academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...) is the way to go. Things get worse with jet fuel (source @adhansonlab.bsky.social) 👇
Journals are just part of a system that incentivizes overselling end-to-end. But, as gatekeepers on the final products, they have agency. An editorial policy of “It’s complicated” falls short. Journals can ask for field trials to be done right & interpreted prudently.
May 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Journals are just part of a system that incentivizes overselling end-to-end. But, as gatekeepers on the final products, they have agency. An editorial policy of “It’s complicated” falls short. Journals can ask for field trials to be done right & interpreted prudently.
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health.
A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
May 20, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health.
A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Traditional wisdom tells us that healthy food, in particular fruits & veggies, is the best medicine. Here @adhansonlab.bsky.social elaborates an straightforward 1-stop resource for decision-makers & concerned citizens 👉🏻 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health | PNAS
It is clear that the escalating epidemic of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
has reached a crisis level in the United States, that overweight...
www.pnas.org
May 20, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Traditional wisdom tells us that healthy food, in particular fruits & veggies, is the best medicine. Here @adhansonlab.bsky.social elaborates an straightforward 1-stop resource for decision-makers & concerned citizens 👉🏻 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Excellent reflection on #SynBio in a company context, and on the future of engineering biology.
If you want a short summary of everything I learned by studying the world’s premiere foundry for biology, check out Foundry Theory episode 50
foundrytheory.substack.com/p/three-less...
foundrytheory.substack.com/p/three-less...
Three Lessons from a Year of Foundry Theory
After a year of studying and talking about the Ginkgo Bioworks foundry, I've learned at least 3 things.
foundrytheory.substack.com
May 17, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Excellent reflection on #SynBio in a company context, and on the future of engineering biology.
OrthoRep as a lab-scale sandbox to study molecular evolution ⬇️ Great to see directed evolution being connected with the vast field of evolutionary theory! Up to now, there’s been surprisingly little crossover between #SynBio and #Evolution.
We’re excited to share new work on the continuous in vivo evolution of gene libraries towards arbitrary functions. Led by superstar Olek Pisera, our experiments show that gene evolution is highly versatile...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Rapid continuous evolution of gene libraries towards arbitrary functions
The emergence and evolution of new gene functions is central to biology, yet experimental tools that allow us to prospectively probe and understand this process are lacking. While systems for continuo...
www.biorxiv.org
May 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM
OrthoRep as a lab-scale sandbox to study molecular evolution ⬇️ Great to see directed evolution being connected with the vast field of evolutionary theory! Up to now, there’s been surprisingly little crossover between #SynBio and #Evolution.
#SyntheticBiology postdoctoral position in our group in University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences department. Work is directed evolution to improve enzymes that underlie important crop traits ⬇️
April 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
#SyntheticBiology postdoctoral position in our group in University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences department. Work is directed evolution to improve enzymes that underlie important crop traits ⬇️
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Vertical farming limitations and potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations (Samuel J Lovat, Εlad Noor, Ron Milo) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience
April 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Vertical farming limitations and potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations (Samuel J Lovat, Εlad Noor, Ron Milo) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience
I 💯 endorse the CSPB/SCBV Annual Meetings as first-class science in a congenial & collegial environment!
#plantsci if you’re concerned about this (as I am) please consider @cspbscbv.bsky.social as an alternative to the annual ASPB meetings (ICAR in 🇧🇪 is already at full capacity). imo a much nicer (read: 🇨🇦 ) vibe too :)
I just got a notice that an academic conference for 2026 was being moved from the US to Canada because of concerns people have with entering the US.
The cell phone searches and random detentions at the border are going to have long-term negative effects on the US.
The cell phone searches and random detentions at the border are going to have long-term negative effects on the US.
April 8, 2025 at 10:36 PM
I 💯 endorse the CSPB/SCBV Annual Meetings as first-class science in a congenial & collegial environment!
This is analogous to 1930s German work to bring aurochs back from extinction by selectively breeding modern cattle that had some traits of the aurochs. The result was cattle that look like, but genetically are not, aurochs.
theconversation.com/the-quest-to...
time.com/7274542/colo...
theconversation.com/the-quest-to...
time.com/7274542/colo...
The Return of the Dire Wolf
Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live in over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species.
time.com
April 8, 2025 at 12:48 PM
This is analogous to 1930s German work to bring aurochs back from extinction by selectively breeding modern cattle that had some traits of the aurochs. The result was cattle that look like, but genetically are not, aurochs.
theconversation.com/the-quest-to...
time.com/7274542/colo...
theconversation.com/the-quest-to...
time.com/7274542/colo...
On a per-cup basis, coffee requires almost 7.5 x the land area that tea does.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
April 7, 2025 at 2:54 PM
On a per-cup basis, coffee requires almost 7.5 x the land area that tea does.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter.
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
April 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter.
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Congratulations to 2 outstanding @ufhorticulture @UF_IFAS colleagues on their 2024 election to AAAS!
🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
www.aaas.org/programs/fel...
🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
www.aaas.org/programs/fel...
March 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Congratulations to 2 outstanding @ufhorticulture @UF_IFAS colleagues on their 2024 election to AAAS!
🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
www.aaas.org/programs/fel...
🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
www.aaas.org/programs/fel...
March 8, 2025 at 9:23 PM
"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus." (Horace)
March 5, 2025 at 12:19 AM
"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus." (Horace)
March 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
Three days of engaging Plant Synthetic Biology discussions from sunrise to sunset. More avenues are needed to connect academic researchers, industry and government representatives and to support multidisciplinary efforts that bring new ideas and products to market.
🙏 NSF for supporting @uf-ifas.bsky.social / UF Horticultural Sciences' trailblazing workshop 'How SynBio can *realistically* impact crop improvement & agriculture'! We brought🌱 SynBio ECRs together w/ top ag biotech & crop breeding experts to identify disconnects btwn their worlds & how to fix them⬇️
March 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Three days of engaging Plant Synthetic Biology discussions from sunrise to sunset. More avenues are needed to connect academic researchers, industry and government representatives and to support multidisciplinary efforts that bring new ideas and products to market.
🙏 NSF for supporting @uf-ifas.bsky.social / UF Horticultural Sciences' trailblazing workshop 'How SynBio can *realistically* impact crop improvement & agriculture'! We brought🌱 SynBio ECRs together w/ top ag biotech & crop breeding experts to identify disconnects btwn their worlds & how to fix them⬇️
March 3, 2025 at 9:19 PM
🙏 NSF for supporting @uf-ifas.bsky.social / UF Horticultural Sciences' trailblazing workshop 'How SynBio can *realistically* impact crop improvement & agriculture'! We brought🌱 SynBio ECRs together w/ top ag biotech & crop breeding experts to identify disconnects btwn their worlds & how to fix them⬇️
In 🐀 🐀. Such an important qualifier should be featured in headlines like this. Optimism is crucial - but there’s such a thing as false optimism, so please let’s dial back the hype.
February 24, 2025 at 11:31 PM
In 🐀 🐀. Such an important qualifier should be featured in headlines like this. Optimism is crucial - but there’s such a thing as false optimism, so please let’s dial back the hype.
Useful references but otherwise uncritically recites typical ideas about what #SynBio & #AI *might perhaps one day* do in plant breeding ⬇️ Enough boosterism! Let's focus on *realistic, specific* applications & *numbers not adjectives* for projected benefits.
doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...
doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...
February 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Useful references but otherwise uncritically recites typical ideas about what #SynBio & #AI *might perhaps one day* do in plant breeding ⬇️ Enough boosterism! Let's focus on *realistic, specific* applications & *numbers not adjectives* for projected benefits.
doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...
doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...
Very relevant to #DirectedEvolution and what transition vs. transversion mutations do if they happen at the 2nd base.
TIL when you sort the codon wheel by the second base the quadrants align with the properties of the amino acids being coded for and also it looks like the mystic sigil of the coven of the four bases
journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
February 15, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Very relevant to #DirectedEvolution and what transition vs. transversion mutations do if they happen at the 2nd base.
Excellent 🇨🇦 lecture on 'Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Farmland, Biomass Demand, & Planetary Boundaries'
TLDR: SAF is *not* a feasible path to net-zero air travel
youtu.be/UWoFcDzemE8?...
See also our own calculations on this doi.org/10.1093/plph...
TLDR: SAF is *not* a feasible path to net-zero air travel
youtu.be/UWoFcDzemE8?...
See also our own calculations on this doi.org/10.1093/plph...
February 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Excellent 🇨🇦 lecture on 'Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Farmland, Biomass Demand, & Planetary Boundaries'
TLDR: SAF is *not* a feasible path to net-zero air travel
youtu.be/UWoFcDzemE8?...
See also our own calculations on this doi.org/10.1093/plph...
TLDR: SAF is *not* a feasible path to net-zero air travel
youtu.be/UWoFcDzemE8?...
See also our own calculations on this doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Reposted by Andrew D Hanson
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible"
#PlantScience
They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible"
#PlantScience
A map of the rubisco biochemical landscape - Nature
A massively parallel assay developed to map the essential photosynthetic enzyme rubisco showed that non-trivial biochemical changes and improvements in CO2 affinity are possible, signposting further e...
www.nature.com
January 24, 2025 at 11:56 AM
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible"
#PlantScience
They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible"
#PlantScience
“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
[“But who will guard the guards themselves?" Juvenal, Satires]
[“But who will guard the guards themselves?" Juvenal, Satires]
January 18, 2025 at 9:13 PM
“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
[“But who will guard the guards themselves?" Juvenal, Satires]
[“But who will guard the guards themselves?" Juvenal, Satires]