Nicholas Sarai

Biotechnology Innovation for Climate | Activate Fellow | Previously: Cofounder & CSO @ Huminly, PhD @ Caltech, Postdoc @ Stanford

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

During my PhD with @francesarnold @Caltech we taught nature to break man-made bonds. Excited to share our report in @sciencemagazine using #directedevolution to engineer the first #enzyme that can cleave silicon–carbon bonds in non-biodegradable siloxanes! https://t.co/2c5664U9Rf

[Kadina Johnston @kadinaj]

Happy to share that our work "A combinatorially complete epistatic fitness landscape in an enzyme active site" by myself, @patrickalmhjell, @EllaWD_PhD, Grace Liu, @NJP_Chem, @jsunn_y, and @francesarnold is now out in @PNASNews! (1/15)

https://t.co/Xnl6f1mmNM

[Jason Yang @jsunn_y]

Excited to share our preprint on Active Learning-Assisted Directed Evolution (ALDE)! We present a practical workflow that leverages uncertainty quantification to efficiently navigate protein fitness landscapes. 🧵(1/6)

Paper: https://t.co/fME23B3Q0x
Code: https://t.co/G7TsAgn9a9

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

@sethbannon @moxon @fiftyyears 🇺🇸🧬🏭

[Patrick Almhjell @patrickalmhjell]

My primary PhD project with @francesarnold at @Caltech is out now in @nchembio!

Here we show that the β-subunit of tryptophan synthase (TrpB) is a latent *tyrosine* synthase (TyrS), capable of regioselective and irreversible alkylation of phenols to tyrosines.

Read more below:

[Chemistry World @ChemistryWorld]

A custom-engineered enzyme can break the bonds in siloxane, the building blocks of silicone, in what researchers say is the first step to making siloxanes biodegradable.
https://t.co/EN215OZqhs

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

5050 was catalytic for me and I can't recommend it highly enough! The program is an incredible service to scientists aiming to build positive impact through their work.

[Seth Bannon @sethbannon]

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https://t.co/ucsabh5CyT

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At @fiftyyears, we’ve backed over 100 deep tech startups, helped them raise over 5.5 billion dollars, and supported our founders in achieving many firsts:

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[Kevin K. Yang 楊凱筌 @KevinKaichuang]

We present Folding Diffusion: a diffusion model for protein structure inspired by physical protein folding.

Let by @Kevin_E_Wu during his internship, with @alexijielu @vdbergrianne @james_y_zou @avapamini

Code: https://t.co/ldKQGnsrMQ
Preprint: https://t.co/fGdHqLTi5U

[Jason Yang @jsunn_y]

@francescazfl, @francesarnold, and I wrote an outlook in @ACSCentSci about how machine learning (ML) can facilitate the engineering of enzymes for useful biocatalytic applications! We also suggest important future ML-research efforts. Open access here:

https://t.co/WOjdWeHXRF

[Dr Bethany Halford @beth_halford]

“Our enzyme is terrible. It’s not a good enzyme, but it shows that it can be done" - the always quotable @francesarnold on a super-cool enzyme her group developed. My latest in @cenmag:
https://t.co/s1R5DT9DrI

[Caltech @Caltech]

Scientists have engineered an enzyme that can break man-made bonds between silicon and carbon that exist in widely used chemicals known as siloxanes, or silicones. The discovery is a first step toward rendering the chemicals biodegradable.

https://t.co/HcXT4MeDoo

[Frances Arnold @francesarnold]

ICYMI, I'm so pleased that this work by @NicholasSarai, @TylerFulton13, @ryenomeara, @Sabine_BC , and colleagues at Dow Silicones is now out in @Science. First #enzyme to break carbon-silicon bonds, found in non biodegradable #siloxanes. @Caltech, #biocatalysis, #directedevolution https://t.co/alaqn5sWMj

[Kevin K. Yang 楊凱筌 @KevinKaichuang]

First you find an enzyme that can make carbon-silicon bonds.

8 years later, you find one that cleaves carbon-silicon bonds under mild conditions — not possible with any previous catalyst or enzyme!

@NicholasSarai @ryenomeara @TylerFulton13 @Sabine_BC @francesarnold

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

@fiftyyears @francesarnold Thanks team @fiftyyears!

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

@GitaAbhiraman Many thanks @GitaAbhiraman

[Frances Arnold @francesarnold]

When we published the first #enzyme to MAKE carbon-silicon bonds back in 2016, some people asked us to BREAK them, so these man-made compounds would not persist in the environment. We finally made the first steps toward that: https://t.co/9Mg6mWxtc4

[Frances Arnold @francesarnold]

We are thrilled to present a new #enzyme to the world, the first shown to break the man-made carbon-silicon bonds in #siloxanes, which are persistent in the environment.
https://t.co/BJOuWk4WGW

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

Our colleagues at Dow, Ryan Maar, Ron Tecklenburg, John Roberts, Jordan Reddel, and Dimitris Katsoulis provided a wealth of expertise and generous support. Finally, @francesarnold's wisdom, insights, and constant enthusiasm made this project gratifying from start to finish.

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

During my PhD with @francesarnold @Caltech we taught nature to break man-made bonds. Excited to share our report in @sciencemagazine using #directedevolution to engineer the first #enzyme that can cleave silicon–carbon bonds in non-biodegradable siloxanes! https://t.co/2c5664U9Rf

[Nicholas Sarai @NicholasSarai]

I’m grateful to have worked with a great team in this collaboration between @Caltech and Dow! Colleagues @Caltech include co-first authors @TylerFulton13 and Ryen O’Meara as well as @kadinaj and @Sabine_BC, each of whom made fundamental experimental and theoretical contributions.