UF Synthetic Biology Working Group

University of Florida SynBio Working group. Practicing & promoting microbial & plant #SynBio & metabolic engineering. 'Build-to-use' & 'Build-to-understand'

[Edmar Oliveira-Filho, PhD👨🏻‍🔬 @edmar_oliveiraf]

Excited to share the Hanson Lab’s @ADHansonLab new preprint! We used OrthoRep to evolve Arabidopsis HDH, a short-lived enzyme, selecting variants with up to 20× higher abundance. Mutations boosted lifespan, catalytic efficiency, or inhibitor resistance.
🔗https://t.co/XKEZDKA0KR

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Essential reading for everyone who has ever written, is writing, or will ever write an article that mentions nitrogen and agriculture in the same sentence.

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Thoughtful piece centered on ‘the fallacy of misplaced concretenes’ (mistaking abstractions for concrete realities). This fallacy can account for much, incl. #SynBio’s embrace of the ‘cells as circuit boards’ abstraction - which is useful but can be taken too far. @SynBio1

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Journals are just part of a system that incentivizes overselling end-to-end. But, as gatekeepers on the final products, they have agency. An editorial policy of “It’s complicated” falls short. Journals can ask for field trials to be done right & interpreted prudently.

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

@ATinyGreenCell Automation surely has a place for routine tasks and low-cost robots democratize it. But I think there’s a real concern that expts will get designed so the hardware can handle them instead of in the best way to answer key questions. That would be the tail wagging the dog.

[Kevin Folta @kevinfolta]

If we want to Make America Healthy Again, it's not food dyes and trace chemistires. It is that most people fail to eat the foods we know fortify health. Shouldn't funding for research in fruit/veg production parallel medical investment? https://t.co/QYDRvxOyMJ

[Jake Wintermute 🧬/acc @SynBio1]

@JohnathanNapie1 @uf_group I always tried to be clear about the distinction between “we make biology easier” and “biology is easy”

Not only because it was honest. It was also better marketing. Our customers were too smart to believe “biology is easy”

[Johnathan Napier @JohnathanNapie1]

Agreed, it's a really clear message. Good to see acknowledgement of reality at #3 'We still don't speak the language of biology'. Not too sure what that means for a company that pitches as being able to rewrite biology, but based on my 30+ years at the GM coalface, it 100% true.

[Claudia Vickers @claudiaevickers]

Hey plant synbio folks - Plant Physiology is now actively soliciting plant synbio papers. Get your manuscripts in! @PlantPhys

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Some of what this blog says is 💯 (falling cost of DNA sequencing & synthesis, low-cost robots…).
But title & much of the content are throwbacks to ~2005. The analogy with the digital revolution is appealing but misleading. #synbio learnt this & moved on.
https://t.co/xfSxJ9mqLd

[Chang Liu @chang_c_liu]

Exciting opportunity in @ADHansonLab!

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter.
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬

Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
https://t.co/nm56DhhLed

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

🙏@NSF for supporting @UF_IFAS @ufhorticulture's trailblazing workshop 'How SynBio can *realistically* impact crop improvement & agriculture'! We brought🌱#SynBio ECRs together w/ top ag biotech & crop breeding experts to identify disconnects btwn their worlds & how to fix them⬇️

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

💯 account of how synthetic gene circuits work & current status in 🌱🌱
But what are the
“myriad applications” relating to “the introduction of novel traits for improved agricultural productivity”?
Vague clichés may be prudent IP management - but in SynBio now they’re so passé.

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Useful references but otherwise uncritically recites typical ideas about what #SynBio & #AI *might perhaps one day* do in plant breeding⬇️Enough boosterism! Let's focus on *realistic, specific* applications & *numbers not adjectives* for projected benefits
https://t.co/WtXpW26xfP

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

For users of yeast OrthoRep or any continuous #DirectedEvolution system: After all accessible beneficial synonymous mutations have been made, synonymous ones that just boost expression dominate, creating improvement 'mirages'. Attests to OrthoRep's power! https://t.co/djaXlAqCNS

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Are you an early-career SynBio researcher (PhD student/postdoc/Asst Prof) at a US institution & want your work to *really* help agriculture?
If so, this workshop is a great chance to learn & network. 30 places available, fully funded! Apply before Jan 15.
https://t.co/rOUeaKdFw8

[Tae Seok Moon @Moon_Synth_Bio]

#SynBYSS #seminar with Prof Tobias Erb at Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & Prof Jaya Joshi at University of British Columbia
@jayajoshi20 @UBC @ADHansonLab @maxplanckpress @mpi_marburg

The talk video link is below
https://t.co/fQBcqV0Xcc

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

"Sucrose synthase (SUS) is a key enzyme that directly hydrolyses sucrose"
No. It's a glycosyltransferase. Reversibly cleaves suc to fruc + UDP-/ADP-gluc.
If SUS inactivation is why "knockouts increased gluc &
fruc" why are there *zero data* on suc content?
https://t.co/frwHlLEo14

[Andrew D Hanson Lab @ADHansonLab]

Interesting 2020 study from Bloom et al concluded that number of #maize genetics/breeding researchers rose 23-fold btwn 1969 & 2009 but rate of yield advance fell somewhat. What do these trends mean? And where do they end?
🙏@skdh for flagging the study!
https://t.co/m9VRb5UesZ