Engineered bacteria sense gut bleeding and secrete repair materials.

Sidewinder enables high-fidelity DNA assembly by separating the information that guides assembly from the final assembled sequence.

Job Title: Locum Associate or Senior Editor (Chemical Biology / Biological Chemistry), Nature Chemistry Company: Nature Portfolio Contract Type: Full-time, Fixed Term (maternity leave cover) Location(...

Advances in synthetic biology continue to potentiate bacterial cancer therapy. Here, we constructed biosensor-driven encapsulation systems for autonomous control of capsular polysaccharides of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 to improve pharmacokinetic profiles. The engineered bacteria were programmed to express capsular polysaccharides for immune evasion upon intravenous administration to reach tumors and then turn off gene expression upon colonizing the tumors based on quorum-sensing or acid-sensing to prevent dissemination of bacteria into the systemic circulation. Because a classical pharmacokinetic model could not capture the dynamic nature of living therapeutics, a two-state pharmacokinetic model was developed to simulate the autonomous control of capsular polysaccharides in different biological compartments and their impact on biodistribution. Using this model, we identified parameters in gene circuit dynamics and immune clearance that influence tumor colonization and systemic bacterial persistence. In a “humanized” pharmacokinetic model with an increased rate of complement-mediated lysis of bacteria, biosensor-driven systems achieved tumor seeding densities comparable to wild-type bacteria while reducing bacterial loads in blood and liver by several orders of magnitude, highlighting their potential for safe systemic delivery. The biosensor-driven systems represent a more effective strategy to control living drugs than inducible systems, and the two-state pharmacokinetic model is a first step to capture the autonomous nature of this new class of therapeutics for clinical translation.

As the most important carbon source for bioproduction, glucose is transported and enters the central carbon metabolic pathway directly in most microorganisms. However, certain bacteria utilize membran...

Abstract. Precise modeling of transcriptional regulation is essential for the rational design of genetic circuits in synthetic biology. Current computation

This study used metagenomic analyses of Indian urban sewage. It revealed antibiotic contamination, resistance genes, and mobile genetic elements from multidrug-resistant pathogens, highlighting sewage...

Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) modification and processing are essential steps in ribosome assembly. Using Oxford Nanopore direct RNA sequencing, we simultaneously detect and quantify eight classes of 23S rRNA ...

Plasmid copy number and gene circuit design together shape how genetic mutations emerge at the phenotypic level in bacteria. Here the authors characterize how the interplay of gene dosage via plasmid ...

Living cells dynamically coordinate gene expression with the spatial organization of their membranes and cytoskeletons. Unraveling how membrane-less organelles arise and interact with cytoskeletal net...

In synthetic biology, a key goal is to design robust and stable genetic circuits with accurate and predictable behavior. Modularity is a central principle in circuit design, enabling the construction ...