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pglekas.bsky.social
@pglekas.bsky.social
16 followers 30 following 14 posts
It is not the beginning. But it is a beginning, and one worth marking
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Reposted
vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Time to leverage SynBio for tacking environmental pollution. But releasing bioengineered microorganisms still raises alarms. A new narrative is badly needed: bacteria for bioremediation are not alien intrusions but laboratory-trained extensions of life’s creativity link.springer.com/10.1038/s443...
January 3, 2026 at 1:36 PM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Pre-Xmas lunch for celebratimg with the Lab folk all we have achieved in 2025. The best of this job is being surrounded by such talented people 😍
December 16, 2025 at 8:32 PM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
We all start by cloning something into a plasmid. But the vector you choose matters more than you think. A Commentary from the battleground with my colleague & curator of the @sevaplasmids.bsky.social collection, Esteban Martínez enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
December 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Time to rethink prevailing views re regulations on GE & SynBio microbes for env bioremediation in an era of climate change. We must move from a mindset of control & domination to one of stewardship & negotiation. Indigenous perspectives can help in bridging the artificial–natural divide. Stay tuned!
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 AM
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sevaplasmids.bsky.social
🚨 News on bioremediation! A study published in Nature reveals how by genetically modifying the bacterium Vibrio natriegens, it simultaneously degrades five toxic contaminants in industrial wastewater and saline soils. Read the full article: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Engineered bacteria can degrade five wastewater pollutants at the same time
Five gene clusters have been introduced into a single rapidly growing bacterial strain.
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:02 AM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
The scientific & ethical legacy of the late Ioannis Economidis—a champion of Env Biotech & SynBio at the @ec.europa.eu
—is captured in this article, based on his last lecture. A testament to an exceptional mind & a remarkable human being enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
October 28, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
The recently published report on Biosecurity by Drew Endy et al in the context of contemporary & future Biotech & SynBio is worth every word. Check it out 👉🏻 www.hoover.org/research/bio...
Biosecurity Really: A Strategy for Victory
Current trends make clear that biosecurity will become much more challenging over the next several years. We must act strategically to secure biology—before it becomes a general-purpose technology. Dr...
www.hoover.org
October 15, 2025 at 6:52 PM
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microbiotech.bsky.social
#MicroSky: CLEAN ENVIRONMENT! Glekas et al built a Pseudomonas putida strain with an optimized dsz operon to strip sulfur from fuels. The new strain, DS006, shows high efficiency in removing DBT—paving the way for cleaner & greener energy. doi.org/10.1111/1751...
September 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
pglekas.bsky.social
Grateful to the organizers @vdlorenzo.bsky.social @pabnik.bsky.social, instructors, and host @cshlaboratory.bsky.social of the CSH-Asia workshop. It was an incredible experience for young scientists diving into synthetic biology and the metabolic engineering of Pseudomonas. (1/n)
September 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Bio-desulfurization of fossil fuels has been a classic env biotech challenge for decades, but the field became stagnant for a while … until @pglekas.bsky.social et al leveraged SynBio tools to develop superior whole-cell catalysts enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 😱
Boosting Dibenzothiophene Biodesulfurization Through Implantation of a Refactored DBT Pathway in a Tailored Pseudomonas putida Chassis
This study engineered a Pseudomonas putida strain to efficiently remove sulfur from dibenzothiophene (DBT) by reordering and optimising the dsz operon from Rhodococcus qingshengii IGTS8, enhancing ca...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 12, 2025 at 1:07 AM
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angelgm.bsky.social
Next in Lab's conference agenda: FEMS @femsmicro.org! @vdlorenzo.bsky.social and myself are running a session on bacterial computation. Talks by @yschaerli.bsky.social, @manishmicrobe.bsky.social, Sangram Bagh & organisers. Very looking forward to it! #biocomputation #synbio
July 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Deadline for applications extended to July 22 🔔! An unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge science in a highly interactive format 👇
vdlorenzo.bsky.social Victor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · Jun 11
Dear Pseudomonas aficionados: just a few weeks left to apply for this milestone CSH-Asia hands-on Course on Pseudomonas SynBio & Biotech in Suzhou www.csh-asia.org?content/2645. The experiments run there will be the basis of a dedicated CSHL protocol book on our fav microorganism!
July 9, 2025 at 6:54 AM
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sagan.bsky.social
Carl Sagan in 1986 on the problems with media and science literacy.
June 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM
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angelgm.bsky.social
We are offering a #PhD candidate position (Spanish FPI) to work with us at the @cnb-csic.bsky.social in Madrid. The project you would be part of: establish a #biofoundry at our institution, to optimize #synbio experiments from #design to #test. If interested, get in touch!
May 30, 2025 at 7:22 AM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Today by 12 h @cnb-csic.bsky.social our Tomás Aparicio will share his latest insights & genetic tools on how to accelerate evolution without stress in individual bacteria and communities—what we call *hit-and-run mutagenesis* 🤩 thereby revisiting the discussion of what is a GMO 😱
May 26, 2025 at 8:44 AM
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vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Is there life in the bioscience research landscape other than being a PI? Find out with @aemonten.bsky.social, who will give a talk in the @cnb-csic.bsky.social this Fri on his experiences as Executive Editor CSH Protocols & Head of the Integrity in Publishing Group of the CSHL Press
May 22, 2025 at 8:05 PM
pglekas.bsky.social
The Secretary of Education just went full OP-ed in a letter to Harvard. Foreign chaos, remedial math, and Bill Ackman as fiscal Yoda. Somewhere in there was a point about grants? When academia meets political fanfic....
ericcolumbus.bsky.social Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · May 6
🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON, DC 20202 May 5, 2025 Dr. Alan Garber Office of the President Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 Dr. Garber, The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public? Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates. Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected? Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then… running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede… Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University. These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Sincerely, Linda E. McMahon Secretary of Education
May 6, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted
vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Dear Pseudomonas aficionados: Please check this hands-on Cold Spring Harbor Asia Course on the sexiest science and technology of our favourite bug. All info in the QR code 👇
April 30, 2025 at 7:52 AM
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brionesci.bsky.social
“No existe el cambio climático. Siempre ha llovido en Europa durante febrero y marzo.”

Ya, pero:
March 26, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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pabnik.bsky.social
A call for action by Ken Timmis — Academic institutions worldwide must welcome de-funded US researchers · Read the statement here 👇
iums.org/kenneth-timm...
Academic institutions worldwide must welcome de-funded US researchers
Academic institutions worldwide must welcome de-funded US researchers
iums.org
March 19, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted
vdlorenzo.bsky.social
Keep an eye out for the Special Sessions of the European Academy of Microbiology this July at FEMS2025 fems-microbiology.org/eam-sessions... ! Do not miss the one on bacterial computation, featuring top experts @angelgm.bsky.social, Manish Kushwaha, Yolanda Schaerli, and Sangram Bagh!
March 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
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trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social
The most extraordinary thing about James Harrison, who donated his rare plasma every 2 weeks for over 60 years and saved the lives of an estimated 2.4 million babies, is that he had to overcome a FEAR OF NEEDLES.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
James Harrison, whose rare blood helped save millions of babies, dies at 88
By donating blood over 1,100 times, James Harrison helped develop Anti-D, a life-saving treatment for newborns at risk of Rhesus disease
www.independent.co.uk
March 4, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted
sfelena.bsky.social
Experimental evolution of evolvability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Experimental evolution of evolvability
Evolvability—the capacity to generate adaptive variation—is a trait that can itself evolve through natural selection. However, the idea that mutation can become biased toward adaptive outcomes remains...
www.science.org
February 20, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted
asm.org
ASM stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone. Read our statement: asm.org/Press-Releas...
ASM’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The American Society for Microbiology stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone.
asm.org
February 15, 2025 at 12:34 AM