Phil Holliger
@philholliger.bsky.social
Program Leader and Head of PNAC division at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK @mrclmb.bsky.social. Synthetic / Chemical biology and all things RNA
Great thread by lead author @edogia.bsky.social on our recent Science paper: bsky.app/profile/edog...
How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller?
Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
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Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
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A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand
The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...
www.science.org
February 13, 2026 at 12:36 PM
Great thread by lead author @edogia.bsky.social on our recent Science paper: bsky.app/profile/edog...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Grateful to the unique environment and long-term support of the MRC-LMB (@mrclmb.bsky.social) & Holliger lab, and a big thank you to the rest of the team: Sam Kwok, @chrisjwan.bsky.social, Kevin Goeij, @bryceclifton.bsky.social, @escolizzi.bsky.social, James Attwater, @philholliger.bsky.social.
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February 13, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Grateful to the unique environment and long-term support of the MRC-LMB (@mrclmb.bsky.social) & Holliger lab, and a big thank you to the rest of the team: Sam Kwok, @chrisjwan.bsky.social, Kevin Goeij, @bryceclifton.bsky.social, @escolizzi.bsky.social, James Attwater, @philholliger.bsky.social.
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Have a look at the Insight on Research story on our Science paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... on the @mrclmb.bsky.social website: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... including a great little animation from LMB VisLab.
Bridging the gap from chemistry to life: discovery of a tiny RNA that can copy itself | MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Led by Edoardo Gianni, Philipp Holliger’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division have identified a small self-replicating catalytic RNA (ribozyme), providing new ...
mrclmb.ac.uk
February 13, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Have a look at the Insight on Research story on our Science paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... on the @mrclmb.bsky.social website: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... including a great little animation from LMB VisLab.
Great summaries of our paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... in Science: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.... and New Scientist: www.newscientist.com/article/2515... and in the Science museum blog: blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/in-the-begin...
A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand
The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...
www.science.org
February 13, 2026 at 11:03 AM
Great summaries of our paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... in Science: www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.... and New Scientist: www.newscientist.com/article/2515... and in the Science museum blog: blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/in-the-begin...
New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
February 13, 2026 at 10:57 AM
New paper from my group in @science.org : "A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesise itself and its complementary strand" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
Outstanding work by @edogia.bsky.social
Reposted by Phil Holliger
How did life arise from simple chemical building blocks?
New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
February 13, 2026 at 10:20 AM
How did life arise from simple chemical building blocks?
New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
New #LMBResearch led by @edogia.bsky.social in @philholliger.bsky.social group has identified a small self-replicating ribozyme that could be the answer.
Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Required reading for everyone interested in the synthetic genomics - @adrianwoolfson.bsky.social's new book 'On the Future of Species' is published today (Charles Darwin's birthday). Here's the man himself at the launch last night at @dauntbooks.bsky.social in Marylebone. (Photo: Wes Robertson)
February 12, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Required reading for everyone interested in the synthetic genomics - @adrianwoolfson.bsky.social's new book 'On the Future of Species' is published today (Charles Darwin's birthday). Here's the man himself at the launch last night at @dauntbooks.bsky.social in Marylebone. (Photo: Wes Robertson)
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Just posted our latest, led by Consuelo Perez and Pierre Murat, showing the intimate relationship between transcription, DNA supercoiling and chromatin architecture during human stem cell differentiation. Thanks to all at @mrclmb.bsky.social doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
February 12, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Just posted our latest, led by Consuelo Perez and Pierre Murat, showing the intimate relationship between transcription, DNA supercoiling and chromatin architecture during human stem cell differentiation. Thanks to all at @mrclmb.bsky.social doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
A beautifully crafted summary of the extraordinary discovery in the lab of my @mrclmb.bsky.social colleague @philholliger.bsky.social of a tiny RNA that can replicate RNA.
Researchers have discovered a little RNA molecule - small enough to potentially form spontaneously, yet sophisticated enough to begin to copy itself - that could explain how life on Earth began over four billion years ago, Science Director @rogerhighfield.bsky.social reports: https://bit.ly/3ZvPS6s
February 12, 2026 at 10:52 PM
A beautifully crafted summary of the extraordinary discovery in the lab of my @mrclmb.bsky.social colleague @philholliger.bsky.social of a tiny RNA that can replicate RNA.
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Our beloved and long-serving @mrclmb.bsky.social PNAC Divisional Administrator Michele Hare has retired. We gathered to wish her well and a long, happy and music-filled retirement.
January 23, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Our beloved and long-serving @mrclmb.bsky.social PNAC Divisional Administrator Michele Hare has retired. We gathered to wish her well and a long, happy and music-filled retirement.
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Excited to share our latest work on dissecting the mechanism of processive telomeric DNA synthesis by telomerase. Led by amazing PhD student Sebastian Balch in collaboration with lab members,@automnenine.bsky.social @rachael-kretsch.bsky.social,@rdaslab.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Structures of nucleotide-bound human telomerase at several steps of its telomeric DNA repeat addition cycle - Nature Communications
To maintain genome stability, the specialised reverse transcriptase telomerase processively adds telomeric DNA repeats to chromosome ends. Here the authors reported structures of human telomerase at t...
www.nature.com
January 23, 2026 at 6:57 AM
Excited to share our latest work on dissecting the mechanism of processive telomeric DNA synthesis by telomerase. Led by amazing PhD student Sebastian Balch in collaboration with lab members,@automnenine.bsky.social @rachael-kretsch.bsky.social,@rdaslab.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
To complement the launch of our new LMB website, we’ve shared a new introductory video on our YouTube channel.
Meet some of our scientists and support staff, take a look around our wonderful building and see how we come together to unravel how life works.
youtu.be/JmC17_4bEMA?...
Meet some of our scientists and support staff, take a look around our wonderful building and see how we come together to unravel how life works.
youtu.be/JmC17_4bEMA?...
Through the doors of discovery - an introduction to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
YouTube video by MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
youtu.be
January 23, 2026 at 3:28 PM
To complement the launch of our new LMB website, we’ve shared a new introductory video on our YouTube channel.
Meet some of our scientists and support staff, take a look around our wonderful building and see how we come together to unravel how life works.
youtu.be/JmC17_4bEMA?...
Meet some of our scientists and support staff, take a look around our wonderful building and see how we come together to unravel how life works.
youtu.be/JmC17_4bEMA?...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
🌐Our new LMB website is live!🌐
Fresh design, better navigation, same first-class science.
Take a look around ➡️ mrclmb.ac.uk
Fresh design, better navigation, same first-class science.
Take a look around ➡️ mrclmb.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 5:25 PM
🌐Our new LMB website is live!🌐
Fresh design, better navigation, same first-class science.
Take a look around ➡️ mrclmb.ac.uk
Fresh design, better navigation, same first-class science.
Take a look around ➡️ mrclmb.ac.uk
Reposted by Phil Holliger
I wrote some personal reflections about being physically embedded in a world-leading molecular biology lab @mrclmb.bsky.social, learning to communicate with experimentalists, back-breaking wet lab work, scientific rigour, and skin in the game!
💌: chaitjo.substack.com/p/an-ai-rese...
💌: chaitjo.substack.com/p/an-ai-rese...
An AI Researcher in the Cathedral of Molecular Biology
How we designed catalytic RNA functions, and what I learned holding a pipette at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
chaitjo.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I wrote some personal reflections about being physically embedded in a world-leading molecular biology lab @mrclmb.bsky.social, learning to communicate with experimentalists, back-breaking wet lab work, scientific rigour, and skin in the game!
💌: chaitjo.substack.com/p/an-ai-rese...
💌: chaitjo.substack.com/p/an-ai-rese...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Excited to release the fully open-source code for gRNAde - our wet-lab validated, generative AI framework for 3D RNA inverse design 🚀⭐️
I pride myself on open-science & this is probably the most intense release I've done!
I pride myself on open-science & this is probably the most intense release I've done!
December 15, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Excited to release the fully open-source code for gRNAde - our wet-lab validated, generative AI framework for 3D RNA inverse design 🚀⭐️
I pride myself on open-science & this is probably the most intense release I've done!
I pride myself on open-science & this is probably the most intense release I've done!
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Time for a new pre-print! How do dendritic cells control pore formation in their own endocytic compartments?
Our work shows that the unique transmembrane anchor of perforin-2 does not protect DC membranes, but instead it enables antigen escape during cross-presentation
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our work shows that the unique transmembrane anchor of perforin-2 does not protect DC membranes, but instead it enables antigen escape during cross-presentation
doi.org/10.64898/202...
December 11, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Time for a new pre-print! How do dendritic cells control pore formation in their own endocytic compartments?
Our work shows that the unique transmembrane anchor of perforin-2 does not protect DC membranes, but instead it enables antigen escape during cross-presentation
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our work shows that the unique transmembrane anchor of perforin-2 does not protect DC membranes, but instead it enables antigen escape during cross-presentation
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
A key step towards human genome synthesis. With thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social @mrclmb.bsky.social #SynHG doi.org/10.1126/scie...
High-fidelity human chromosome transfer and elimination
The synthesis of human genomes and other gigabase-scale genomes will require new strategies. Here, we realized key steps in our pipeline for building synthetic human chromosomes. We established: (i) t...
doi.org
December 4, 2025 at 7:27 PM
A key step towards human genome synthesis. With thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social @mrclmb.bsky.social #SynHG doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Reposted by Phil Holliger
New pipeline to implant human chromosomes into mouse cells and back again signals first step in mammoth undertaking to synthesise the human genome.
Read more about the achievement from LMB’s PNAC Division as part of the SynHG project: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/transplant-o...
#LMBResearch
Read more about the achievement from LMB’s PNAC Division as part of the SynHG project: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/transplant-o...
#LMBResearch
December 5, 2025 at 9:51 AM
New pipeline to implant human chromosomes into mouse cells and back again signals first step in mammoth undertaking to synthesise the human genome.
Read more about the achievement from LMB’s PNAC Division as part of the SynHG project: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/transplant-o...
#LMBResearch
Read more about the achievement from LMB’s PNAC Division as part of the SynHG project: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/transplant-o...
#LMBResearch
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Check out the latest paper from Leo James and William McEwan which explains the science behind LMB spin out TRIMTECH Therapeutic's TRIMTAC® degraders ⤵️
Our academic co-founders have published in Nature Communications - detailing the science behind TRIMTECH’s TRIMTAC® degraders. Congrats to Will, Leo, Dean, Jonathan, and all collaborators advancing state-selective protein degradation: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 28, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Check out the latest paper from Leo James and William McEwan which explains the science behind LMB spin out TRIMTECH Therapeutic's TRIMTAC® degraders ⤵️
Reposted by Phil Holliger
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Congratulations to @anatv.bsky.social, Group Leader in the LMB’s PNAC Division, who has joined @embo.org’s Young Investigator Programme!
Read more about the programme and Ana’s research here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ana-tufegdzi...
#LMBNews
Read more about the programme and Ana’s research here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ana-tufegdzi...
#LMBNews
December 2, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Congratulations to @anatv.bsky.social, Group Leader in the LMB’s PNAC Division, who has joined @embo.org’s Young Investigator Programme!
Read more about the programme and Ana’s research here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ana-tufegdzi...
#LMBNews
Read more about the programme and Ana’s research here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ana-tufegdzi...
#LMBNews
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Pilar raises her Asgard bridge from the sea!
December 2, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Pilar raises her Asgard bridge from the sea!
Reposted by Phil Holliger
Introducing gRNAde: our own little "AlphaGo Moment" for RNA design! 🧬🚀
📝: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Unlike proteins, RNA design has long relied on "wisdom of the crowd" (human experts) or the slow crawl of directed evolution — gRNAde changes that! 🧵👇
📝: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Unlike proteins, RNA design has long relied on "wisdom of the crowd" (human experts) or the slow crawl of directed evolution — gRNAde changes that! 🧵👇
December 3, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Introducing gRNAde: our own little "AlphaGo Moment" for RNA design! 🧬🚀
📝: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Unlike proteins, RNA design has long relied on "wisdom of the crowd" (human experts) or the slow crawl of directed evolution — gRNAde changes that! 🧵👇
📝: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Unlike proteins, RNA design has long relied on "wisdom of the crowd" (human experts) or the slow crawl of directed evolution — gRNAde changes that! 🧵👇
Reposted by Phil Holliger
4/ This was a massive team effort bridging AI and biology, from one end of Cambridge to another 🤗🚲
Thanks to Edo Gianni* @edogia.bsky.social, Sam Kwok*, @simonmathis.bsky.social, Pietro Liò, and @philholliger.bsky.social for this journey!
📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Thanks to Edo Gianni* @edogia.bsky.social, Sam Kwok*, @simonmathis.bsky.social, Pietro Liò, and @philholliger.bsky.social for this journey!
📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Generative inverse design of RNA structure and function with gRNAde
The design of RNA molecules with bespoke three-dimensional structures and functions is a central goal in synthetic biology and biotechnology. However, progress has been limited by the challenges of de...
tinyurl.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:47 AM
4/ This was a massive team effort bridging AI and biology, from one end of Cambridge to another 🤗🚲
Thanks to Edo Gianni* @edogia.bsky.social, Sam Kwok*, @simonmathis.bsky.social, Pietro Liò, and @philholliger.bsky.social for this journey!
📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Thanks to Edo Gianni* @edogia.bsky.social, Sam Kwok*, @simonmathis.bsky.social, Pietro Liò, and @philholliger.bsky.social for this journey!
📄 Preprint: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper
Reposted by Phil Holliger
What do apple trees, Nobel Prizes, cows, and world-changing innovation all have in common? Well, they're all part of a new animated journey across one of Europe’s most extraordinary places, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
youtu.be/2K7Txdwb_k4
youtu.be/2K7Txdwb_k4
Welcome to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus
YouTube video by Cambridge Biomedical Campus
youtu.be
October 20, 2025 at 10:58 AM
What do apple trees, Nobel Prizes, cows, and world-changing innovation all have in common? Well, they're all part of a new animated journey across one of Europe’s most extraordinary places, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
youtu.be/2K7Txdwb_k4
youtu.be/2K7Txdwb_k4