Karas Lab

Huge day in K-lab! @Daniel_Nucifora successfully defended his PhD thesis titled “Acholeplasma laidlawii as a New Platform for Creating Synthetic Cells.” Congratulations, Dr. Nucifora!

This work builds on our earlier efforts on Acholeplasma and synthetic genomes. Both published in @ACSSynBio First one was published in the very first issue: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/sb… and one more recently: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

Newest paper from our lab lead by @Daniel_Nucifora. We show that the entire genome of A. laidlawii can be transferred directly into yeast by cell fusion. Cloning whole genomes in yeast is a key step toward building and engineering synthetic cells. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

Thank you @NSERC_CRSNG for sponsoring this work @SchulichMedDent

Awesome new synthetic biology paper in Nature today led by Bolin An (SIAT) and Zijay Tang (Harvard/MIT) on cell fate gene circuits that specialise cell progeny to different tasks and control their population ratios. This is the most #synbio paper ever! nature.com/articles/s4158…

Reminder that next seminar is today at 1:30 pm ET

Foggy morning ⁦@WesternU⁩

Excited that our latest diatom engineering research @SchulichMedDent was highlighted by CTV News London! Congrats @ejlwalker and all authors. ctvnews.ca/london/article…

Just out @NatureComms Our new paper led by @KarasLab with our help (Thalassiosira pseudonana). Breaking the cell wall for efficient DNA delivery to #diatoms @NorwichResearch @uniofeastanglia @UEAResearch nature.com/articles/s4146…

Seminar on the fascinating coral-algae endosymbiosis, by the experts Professor Virginia Weis and Dr Maria Ruggeri from Oregon State University starts in 10 minutes. Zoom link: stanford.zoom.us/j/99189904989?…

I’m excited to share that our department @westernuBiochem @SchulichMedDent is hiring Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 1 in Metabolomics for Novel Therapeutics uwo.ca/facultyrelatio…

Thanks to KAUST Discovery for this great write-up on our work. Algae and the Chocolate Factory! @MLPMasson @ASU_AzCATI Prof. Peter Lammers, @Barbara_C_F @MikeD_Fox @KAUSTCoreLabs @MarsGlobal discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/262… Beautiful image by @HenoHwang

#WesternU welcomes The Canada Impact + Chairs program launched by Minister Joly yesterday. This program will help attract the best and brightest to support innovation, knowledge translation and new discoveries that drive social and economic growth.

K-lab dream team

New Preprint from the Karas Lab: Conjugation-Based CRISPR Antifungals (COBRA). Congrats @VidaNasrollahi Thank you to our Sponsors @WesternU Western Innovation Fund, @NSERC_CRSNG, Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative @westernuBiochem biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

NEW! We are now inviting #Perspective papers! Share your commentary, discuss emerging topics, and propose new ideas that can inspire future research. Learn more ▶️ow.ly/5MWw50WFlVL #Microbiology #AcademicWriting #CanadianScience

Symbiogenesis seminar by Andreas Guerrero and Carlos Lax in 20 minutes, at 10.30am PT, with the title "From Host Defense to Symbiotic Partnership: Molecular and Ecological Perspectives" Zoom link: stanford.zoom.us/j/99189904989?… Join the mailing list: forms.gle/HYHzCByabH6TpS…

A story by Jeffrey Renaud on future farming and crop improvement that features some of the work we do in the Karas Lab. Grateful for our sponsors @aria_research @WesternU, students, collaborators and the wider community who make this possible. magazine.westernu.ca/farming-the-fu…

⁦@WesternU⁩

🚨Alert. All domestic students can apply for NSERC Master’s Scholarship nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudi… We are exploring the frontiers of synthetic biology, building synthetic plants, engineered diatoms, and novel organelles, as well as developing next-generation antifungals