Paul Beales

One week left to apply for these two exciting postdoc positions. Please repost and circulate to your networks. Thanks!

You will now mainly find me @bealeslab.bsky.social.

Research Fellow in Artificial Cell Modification Particularly suited to applicants with expertise in protein overexpression and purification, peptide synthesis and characterisation of proteins and their conjugates, including mass spectrometry. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?r…

Research Fellow in Artificial Cell Engineering Particularly suited to applicants with expertise in assembly & characterisation of biomimetic membranes/vesicles, including encapsulation of functional biomolecules and/or functionalisation of the membranes. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?r…

We are recruiting 2 postdocs for the ACROPATH project, which aims to develop artificial cells for diagnosis of pathogen infections. This is a joint UK-Japan collaboration with secondments at project partners. Deadline is Monday 3rd February. Details of the positions are below.

@professor_dave When resorting to calling a Fellow of the Royal Society a neo-fascist then we know things must really be a mess!

Just a reminder that in the other, happier place, where the sun shines and neo-fascist Americans with a direct line to the President-Elect don't threaten takeover of the UK, I'm professor-dave, with a hyphen not an underscore.

Great to see this work finally out in @angew_chem. Congratulations to @zexi_xu on producing fascinating data on the interaction dynamics between cubosomes and vesicles. Lots of potential for developing this towards minimal machinery for membrane remodelling in artificial cells.

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine There's no controlling how the press present a story. I've experienced that too. We need to be nuanced & balanced in discussions. I thought the Science article was very worst case scenario. Life always amazes me & it wouldn't surprise me if native life soon adapted to any threat.

@BealesLab @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine No argument from me on that. Some of those headlines made me cringe. 🤦‍♀️

The capability for producing "mirror life" is out there and poses danger. When some scientists who worked on this became aware, they stopped pursuing it, and co-authored this piece, along with over 30 leading scientists—a @ScienceMagazine policy forum that lays out the risks science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine The community probably needs a discussion on how best to engage in measured dialogue about ethics and risk. I'm not convinced that initiating major press headlines of "mirror bacteria that could wipe out mankind" is the answer.

@BealesLab @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine How would you propose wide discussion with scientific community while keeping it out of the public? The worst that we could have would be press sniffing out a confidential discussion, conspiracy theorists would descend on us like a pack of golden retrievers on a bag of chips.

@The_Angu @KateAdamala @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine For me, the question is the extent of this idea of "invisibility" - there would still be intermolecular interactions. I bet if we decorated nanoparticles with right-handed proteins and gave repeat doses to immune-competent mice, they would soon generate antibodies against them.

@BealesLab @KateAdamala @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine It's not the toxins. Cyanobacteria without competition/viruses would quickly deplete all CO2 in the atmosphere. That's an extinction level event

@The_Angu @KateAdamala @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Interesting hypothesis. I was thinking the carbon fixation could be good for the climate! I guess you can have too much of a good thing!

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Then was the article and press coverage an example of putting the cart before the horse? Should the wider community discussions have been had first before presenting outcomes to the public?

@BealesLab @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine No, the entire field didn't have time to consider the concerns for long enough yet. We just presented the research, now we're having open call for discussion on both the science and the needed policy.

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Was the entire field in agreement? The fact you plan a workshop/discussion on this next year suggests not. But what will be the purpose of this meeting when the bad press and public mistrust has already been created?

@BealesLab @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine I think this improves trust in science. People who developed this direction of research changed their mind. I would say it shows we're willing to give up a promising direction and give up potential benefits for safeguarding.

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine I have no opinion on mirror life, only questions. However your previous comment came across as fairly absolute and final!

@BealesLab @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Dialogue is to change minds. On both sides. Having an opinion doesn't, for most of us, mean we're "entrenched" in it.

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine But at least there'll likely be a good Hollywood disaster movie or Netflix series that comes out of this!

@KateAdamala @The_Angu @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine That is why I think it's a dangerous precedent. Do we want a scientific community that is constantly throwing fear at the public? Will that more broadly improve public trust in science? I think not. We need less public forums to play out these conversations first. (4/4)

@The_Angu @KateAdamala @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Would the chirality of cyanotoxins matter? I don't know. But a moot point as it's now a lost technology given the press release and subsequent news articles of putative doomsday scenarios. Even if later proven unjustified, public opinion will always now fear this.

@BealesLab @KateAdamala @EricTopol @ScienceMagazine Think mirror-life cyanobacteria. That could be a global extinction event