Bristol BioDesign Institute
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bristolbiodesign.bsky.social
Bristol BioDesign Institute
@bristolbiodesign.bsky.social
Coordinating synthetic and engineering biology research and innovation across Bristol. Official account of the University of Bristol.
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biodesign-institute
Pinned
We are delighted to announce that two academics from
the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society @royalsociety.org

Congratulations to our Director Prof Dek Woolfson, and to Prof Jonathan Clayden.

royalsociety.org/news/2025/05...
Exceptional scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society | Royal Society
Over 90 outstanding researchers from across the world have this year been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
royalsociety.org
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Although I've now taken a back seat, it is great to see the growing adoption of SBOL Visual in the synthetic and engineering biology literature and even more awesome to see so many current and visiting students to my lab on the author list😍 Roll on 2035! arxiv.org/abs/2507.04601
July 8, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
This afternoon, we continued with more inspiring talks from:
Velia Siciliano (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia), Will Milligan (Extracellular), Max Jamilly (Hoxton Farms), Giulia Cuccato (Academy of Medical Sciences)

Huge thanks to our speakers! Excited for networking tonight before starting Day 2!
June 23, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
What to agument your favourite protein with new functionalities? 🛠️ We've got a #biodesign workflow to help with that! In work led by @georgiehs.bsky.social we present SIMPLIFE that blends biophyscial and #ML models to extend biology in useful ways. #synbio doi.org/10.1101/2025...
June 23, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Kicking off our first CDT Summer School in Bristol this week! 🎓
3 days of talks, workshops & networking with students, academics & industry partners.
Excited for the connections & insights ahead!
#CDTSummerSchool #STEM
June 23, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Great to see this report out from the UK Government Office for Science on 'Mirror Life'. Was nice to contribute to the discussions and thoughts on this topic with other UK colleagues. #synbio www.gov.uk/government/p...
Mirror life
www.gov.uk
June 12, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Recombinases your thing? In the latest from my lab, Veronica Greco shows how @nanopore sequencing + automated liquid handling provides the perfect platform for characterising these systems at scale! Awesome collaboration with @jennbrophy.bsky.social @sarah-guiziou.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...
May 29, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Excited to share our new @pnas.org paper! We used reconstitution approaches and synthetic cells to uncover what drives bispecific T cell engagers efficiency. This helps future #immunotherapy design and demonstrates the potential of synthetic cells in #immunoengineering:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Solution structure and synaptic analyses reveal determinants of bispecific T cell engager potency | PNAS
Bispecific T cell engagers (TcEs) link T cell receptors to tumor-associated antigens on cancer cells, forming cytotoxic immunological synapses (IS)...
www.pnas.org
May 31, 2025 at 8:32 AM
New publication from our Max Planck colleagues 👇
Can we build synthetic cells from de novo designed proteins?

Find out more in the latest review @natrevbioeng.nature.com from Bela Frohn, Shunshi Kohyama and Petra Schwille.

❕Publication: doi.org/10.1038/s442...

#ProteinDesign #SyntheticBiology @belafrohn.bsky.social
May 23, 2025 at 2:33 PM
More on yesterday's announcement that our Director Dek Woolfson has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...
Two Bristol scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society
Two renowned University of Bristol researchers have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
www.bristol.ac.uk
May 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
We are delighted to announce that two academics from
the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society @royalsociety.org

Congratulations to our Director Prof Dek Woolfson, and to Prof Jonathan Clayden.

royalsociety.org/news/2025/05...
Exceptional scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society | Royal Society
Over 90 outstanding researchers from across the world have this year been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.
royalsociety.org
May 20, 2025 at 9:21 AM
NEW PUBLICATION

Dual Proteomics Strategies to Dissect and Quantify the Components of Nine Medically Important African Snake Venoms

From our ADDovenom project team (addovenom.com), published in Toxins @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social

doi.org/10.3390/toxi...
doi.org
May 16, 2025 at 8:32 AM
📢 Bioprocessing Internship

Bristol-based Extracellular (www.extracellular.com) is offering a one-month, paid internship in bioprocessing this summer for early-career individuals, with the opportunity of a full-time role at the company.

Find out more: extracellular.bamboohr.com/careers/49?s...
Bioprocessing Internship
Extracellular is offering a unique, one-month, paid internship in bioprocessing this summer for early-career individuals, with the opportunity of a full-time role at the company. We have 6 places av...
extracellular.bamboohr.com
May 8, 2025 at 11:16 AM
We really enjoyed delivering our session at #SynBioBETA2025 on turning breakthrough health innovations into real world impact.

Thanks to everyone who attended and asked so many questions, and thanks to Fiona Mischel and John Cumbers from @synbiobeta.bsky.social for the opportunity to present.
May 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Last week, the CDT students submitted their first short research project 🥳
During their first year, CDT students research two 11-week projects. One of these will become their PhD project which they will work on for the next three years.
After submitting, students met up to discuss their findings.
May 6, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
We are excited to be sponsoring and hosting a session at #SynBioBeta2025 on 6 May 2025!

Join us to explore how @bristoluni.bsky.social and @sciencecreates.bsky.social are addressing global health challenges as part of Bristol's thriving deep-tech ecosystem.

Come meet us in San Jose!
April 23, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
New polymorphic composites inspired by pinecone scales are responsive to water, humidity, and hydrocarbons. They show reversible, stable actuation across cycles, load-bearing strength, and stiffening effects during wet/dry transitions. Paper here: doi.org/10.1002/aisy... 🧪♻️🤖⚙️ #AcademicSky
April 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM
We are excited to be sponsoring and hosting a session at #SynBioBeta2025 on 6 May 2025!

Join us to explore how @bristoluni.bsky.social and @sciencecreates.bsky.social are addressing global health challenges as part of Bristol's thriving deep-tech ecosystem.

Come meet us in San Jose!
April 23, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Learn how Cas9-enrichment + @nanoporetech.com sequencing can more fully uncover biodiversity in complex environments via targeted metabarcoding in latest from lab! Led by the hugely talented Lucia Nikolaeva-Reynolds who started this as her final year undergraduate project! doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
April 23, 2025 at 6:51 AM
NEW PUBLICATION

De Novo Design of Parallel and Antiparallel A3B3 Heterohexameric α-Helical Barrels

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

In 'Biochemistry' / @pubs.acs.org
De Novo Design of Parallel and Antiparallel A3B3 Heterohexameric α-Helical Barrels
The de novo design of α-helical coiled-coil peptides is advanced. Using established sequence-to-structure relationships, it is possible to generate various coiled-coil assemblies with predictable numb...
pubs.acs.org
April 15, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
New preprint on kinesin inhibition and activation - collaborative effort across Bristol Biochem and Chemistry with Woolfson and Schaffizel labs and JJ Phillips in Exeter 1/2 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Molecular mechanism for cargo-mediated initiation of kinesin-1 activation
Kinesin-1 is a dynamic heterotetrameric assembly of two heavy and two light chains (KHC and KLC) that mediates microtubule-based intracellular transport of many different cargoes. The complex adopts a...
www.biorxiv.org
April 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
We show via models and tests how random root distribution affects the mechanical properties of soil-root composites and the reinforcement provided by roots. You can access the paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ca... 🧪⚙️♻️🌳⚙️ #AcademicSky
April 9, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Our new lab website is online!

sharplab.uk

Check it out and learn more about our research in Bristol!
April 9, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
🐍 Developing new snakebite treatment to save lives 🐍

Short film about our ADDovenom (addovenom.com) project (@bristoluni.bsky.social, @lstmnews.bsky.social, @universitedeliege.bsky.social, @univ-amu.fr & iBET)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKAj...
Developing new snakebite treatment to save lives
YouTube video by University of Bristol
www.youtube.com
March 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
📢 JOB VACANCY:

🔬 Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design

📍 Based in the Dek Woolfson and Mark Dodding labs at University of Bristol

🗓️ Closing date: 1 May 2025

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMN615/r...
Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design at University of Bristol
Apply for the Research Associate / Senior Research Associate in de novo peptide and protein design role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and ap...
www.jobs.ac.uk
April 3, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Bristol BioDesign Institute
Looking for a PhD? I have a fully funded one for UK nationals on engineering gene circuits in probiotic microbes. Will bring together a lot of existing stands of #synbio research in my group and push towards some exciting applications! Start date Sept 2025. Email me if interested! Pls RT
March 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM