Conor McClune
LightNews LightNews
cmcclune.bsky.social
Conor McClune
@cmcclune.bsky.social
510 followers 930 following 42 posts
Plants, specialized metabolism, synthetic biology, protein evolution, and everything in between.

Postdoc at Sattley & Fordyce Labs, Stanford
Previously SynBio @ Voigt & Laub Labs, MIT
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
cmcclune.bsky.social
Conor McClune @cmcclune.bsky.social · Jun 11
Today in Nature we report a systematic strategy to activate & identify gene sets in plants. We identify 8 new genes from the yew tree's Taxol biosynthetic pathway, enabling us to engineer tobacco with 17- & 20-gene pathways to Taxol precursors baccatin III & deBz-deoxy-Taxol #SingleCell #secmet 🧬🧪🌾
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
Reposted by Conor McClune
radinbio.bsky.social
Do you know what happens when you touch a carnivorous sundew plant?
If the touch is strong and large enough, a cytosolic calcium wave will spread from the site of touch throughout the whole plant, but if you only touch one tentacle (see post below), the calcium wave will be local and less intense.
September 15, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
maddyseale.bsky.social
Out in @science.org The crazy sequence of events from planting maize in dense fields. Density-dependent linalool release triggers release of compounds into the soil affecting microbes and plants.
Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Perspective: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
Linalool-triggered plant-soil feedback drives defense adaptation in dense maize plantings
High planting density boosts crop yields but also heightens pest and pathogen risks. How plants adapt their defenses under these conditions remains unclear. In this study, we reveal that maize enhance...
www.science.org
August 15, 2025 at 11:05 AM
cmcclune.bsky.social
A truly enabling new approach by @taralowensohn.bsky.social Will Cody and @sattelylab.bsky.social to probe plant genetics at scale.

Single-gene-per-cell delivery coupled to an effective transcriptional selection system

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 7, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
sattelylab.bsky.social
@cmcclune.bsky.social will be at the GRC for Single-Cell Approaches in Plant Biology! Be on the lookout for his talk on Wednesday (8/13) at 9.10 am. Talk will be about some new approaches and discoveries recently published in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #grc #singlecell #plantbiology
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
August 7, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
plosbiology.org
Elucidating #plant #Biosynthetic pathways: @jjjvanderhooft.bsky.social @marnixmedema.bsky.social &co develop #MEANtools, an unsupervised computational workflow that integrates #MultiOmics data to predict #metabolic pathways by linking transcripts to metabolites @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4odL94g
Detection of functional clusters (FCs) specific to the phenylalanine (PAL) and p-coumaroyltyramine (THT) pathways. Top left: Network depicting the relationship between transcripts and mass signatures within the PAL FC. Bottom left: Network illustrating the interplay between transcripts and mass signatures within the THT FC. Top right: Heatmap illustrating the expression levels of all transcripts within the PAL and THT FCs. Upper middle right: Heatmap displaying the abundance of all mass signatures present in the PAL and THT FCs. Lower middle right: Correlation matrix highlighting the correlations among transcripts and mass signatures within the PAL FC. Bottom right: Correlation matrix displaying the relationships between transcripts and mass signatures within the THT FC, including Mutual rank and transformed edge weights.
July 31, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by Conor McClune
spitewinter.bsky.social
#plants #trees #history #botany #art 🌲

Taxus baccata - English Yew, Common Yew

Folk lore has it that the English used Churchyard Yew longbows - not true. Spanish Yew was straighter and better quality. (Confirmed by an Olympian archer I knew.)

Bows and trees:
www.longbow-archers.com/longbow.html
July 16, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
proflhunter.bsky.social
Scientists, please take a moment to comment on these plans to limit animal testing in drug regulation and biomedical research. Use whatever experience you have to make your comments specific to you. The law requires regulators take these comments into account, so it might help. Mine is attached.
I am a full professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago, and a world renowned expert in artificial intelligence and molecular biology, particularly AI and drug discovery. I obtained a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence (computer science) from Yale University in 1989, was a staff scientist at NIH from 1989 to 2000, when I moved to the University of Colorado School of Medicine to become a professor of Pharmacology. I have published more than 200 scientific papers and hold two US patents. In addition to my faculty position, I am also the chief technology officer of TenZero Biosciences, an early stage drug discovery company. Not incidental to this letter, I am also a frequent volunteer participant (subject) in clinical trials. I have spent my career trying to create artificial intelligence systems that facilitate the discovery of new pharmaceuticals. In 2003, I won the American Association for Artificial Intelligence's Engelmore Prize for Innovative Applications of AI for my work in AI and molecular biology. In that talk, I proposed a better version of the "Turing Test" for whether a computer system is actually intelligent would be one getting credit for inventing a new drug. We are quite close to that mark now, with InSilico's Rentosertib in phase II trials. I am proud of our industry's ability to realize that vision from 20 years ago, and of my small part in that progress. The excitement of the first AI-discovered drug is wonderful, but should not be taken as evidence that AI is ready to usurp the FDA's traditional regulatory role. Even under the current very stringent regulatory scrutiny, mistakes are made that cost lives. Rofecoxib is perhaps the most obvious example, but there are of course many others. There are many published methods to assess the safety of novel compounds for human beings, including ones based on AI. However, none of them are perfect. The complexity and diversity of human biology means that the effects of novel compounds on …
July 11, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
rebeccarhelm.bsky.social
I just learned these this elephant-trunked-shaped cells, known as ciliate, put their sexy DNA into a special pocket (called a generative nucleus), and the rest of their DNA in a normal get-shit-done nucleus.

It has functional specialization nuclei.

Respectfully: holy shit 🧵🧪
July 11, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
quinnsievers.bsky.social
I didn’t know this but apparently paclitaxel is still derived from the yew tree!? I had just assumed we had found a way to synthesize it.

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III | Nature
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
July 11, 2025 at 4:52 AM
cmcclune.bsky.social
Thank you Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social for highlighting our Taxol work!
July 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social
Check out this amazing new work from @sattelylab.bsky.social along with collaborator and @stanford-chemh.bsky.social Institute Scholar @pollyfordyce.bsky.social !

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
July 11, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Reposted by Conor McClune
donmoyn.bsky.social
A friend of my compared gutting of federal agencies to a wrecking a car: if you remove 30% of the parts of the car, it does not go 30% slower. It stops working.
March 20, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by Conor McClune
embojournal.org
A million shades of green: understanding and harnessing plant metabolic diversity
Rocky Payet, Anne Osbourn et al presents a step-by-step guide to starting a project that characterises plant secondary metabolites
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
July 4, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Conor McClune
sjb287.bsky.social
Further advanced in synbio systems for expression of plant rubiscos in E. coli, exploring importance of Raf1 variants:
academic.oup.com/jxb/article-...
and accompanying perspective via @jxbotany.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
Effects of chaperone selectivity on the assembly of plant Rubisco orthologs in E. coli
We used an E. coli system to examine recognition of plant Rubisco chaperones for different Rubiscos. Identified factors influencing chaperone selectivity e
academic.oup.com
July 5, 2025 at 1:42 AM
cmcclune.bsky.social
It makes sense that skin microbes would have an intimate relationship with our immune cells.

But engineering these bugs into topical vaccines still feels like sci-fi.

Congrats @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social on the well deserved prize
djenetbousbaine.bsky.social Djenet Bousbaine @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social · Jul 5
It’s truly an honor to receive this year’s
@science.org Noster Microbiome prize.

Here’s my essay on how we can engineer skin microbes to build topical vaccines:
science.org Science Magazine @science.org · Jul 4
🎉 Congratulations to Djenet Bousbaine, winner of the 2025 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for her work to illuminate how the immune system responds to the beneficial skin microbiome.

Learn more: scim.ag/4lVwpFx
July 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social
Check out this prize-winning essay by postdoc @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social on her work with @mfgrp.bsky.social @stanford-chemh.bsky.social 👏
July 4, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
apmahonen.bsky.social
How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social‬ @erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion - Nature
A study using Arabidopsis shows that plants can monitor the integrity of their outer barriers by sensing gas diffusion, enabling them to initiate wound repair to prevent water loss and pathogen entry.
www.nature.com
July 2, 2025 at 4:20 PM
cmcclune.bsky.social
Pithy coverage by @plantaeofficial.bsky.social of our recent Taxol work

#chemsky #medsky
July 2, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
plantaeofficial.bsky.social
Plant Science Research Weekly -- Elucidation and recreation of the biosynthetic pathway for taxol (Nature) @cmcclune.bsky.social‬ (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social)
buff.ly/miccEK3

#PlantaePSRW
Elucidation and recreation of the biosynthetic pathway for taxol | Plantae
Paclitaxel (sold as Taxol) is taxane diterpene natural product of yew trees (Taxus spp.) and a potent stabilizer of microtubules that is effective in treatment of cancers. However…
buff.ly
July 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
plantophagy.bsky.social
How 🆒 is this?!? www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.
www.cell.com
June 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
natprodreports.rsc.org
🔓Don't miss this #OpenAccess Highlight in our MS Metabolomics themed collection by Brett C. Covington & Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost at Princeton University looking at the evolution of high-throughput mass spectrometry in screening for cryptic natural products #natprod
Unlocking hidden treasures: the evolution of high-throughput mass spectrometry in screening for cryptic natural products
Covering: 1994 to 2024 Historically, microbial natural product discovery has been predominantly guided by biological activity from crude microbial extracts with metabolite characterization proceeding…
pubs.rsc.org
June 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
cmcclune.bsky.social
Great article in today’s Stanford Report on our recent work deciphering how yew trees produce Taxol

@sattelylab.bsky.social news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
New insights in plant gene research could boost cancer drug production
A novel approach to analyzing yew tree genes has revealed key enzymes used to make Taxol, a chemotherapy drug that’s long been difficult and costly to produce.
news.stanford.edu
June 25, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Conor McClune
maitecolinas.bsky.social
Next preprint out from my work @oconnorlab.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social : the discovery or iridoid cyclase in asterids!
Thread below.
#PlantScience
#natprod

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
June 18, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Conor McClune
carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social
Exciting new work from Sattely lab with collaborator @pollyfordyce.bsky.social and coworkers @stanford-chemh.bsky.social, solving they biosynthesis of taxol!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III - Nature
An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...
www.nature.com
June 19, 2025 at 6:01 AM
cmcclune.bsky.social
Excited to see this great coverage in C&EN of our work on how yew trees synthesize the chemotherapy Taxol #medsky 🧪
June 18, 2025 at 11:36 PM