Jazz Ghataora, PhD

IT'S ALIVE !!! Selection-free whole genome transplantation revives dead microbes doi.org/10.64898/2026.…

Analysis and control of untemplated DNA polymerase activity for guided synthesis of kilobase-scale DNA sequences doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

A major work from our lab is out in Science! @ScienceMag, another key step towards a true demonstration of RNA self-replication. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… (1/6)

Construction of complex and diverse DNA sequences using DNA three-way junctions doi.org/10.1038/s41586…

New perspectives paper from Anupama in our group - The new wardrobe: How engineered microbes are re-dressing fashion’s sustainability crisis sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

New work from Francesca Ceroni's mammalian #synbio group - really cool study by Tom Copeman with input from AstraZeneca. I've been lucky to be part of this one. @ceronifranci

Here are 30 great essays about biology. I consider these to be my "personal canon," and think that they are all basically perfect in their own ways, despite being different in form and style. All have shaped my own writing considerably. I'm not including links here, but you can easily search and find these. 1. Diagnosing the decline in pharmaceutical R&D efficiency, Jack W. Scannell et al., 2012 2. Predictive validity in drug discovery: what it is, why it matters and how to improve it, Jack Scannell et al., 2022 3. Is the cell really a machine?, Daniel J. Nicholson, 2019 4. How academia and publishing are destroying scientific innovation: a conversation with Sydney Brenner, Elizabeth Dzeng, 2014 5. A Future History of Biomedical Progress, Adam Green (Markov), 2022 6. The pharma industry from Paul Janssen to today, Alex Telford, 2023 7. The Lives of a Cell, Lewis Thomas, 1974 8. The maddening saga of how an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure for decades, Sharon Begley, 2019 9. The Scientific Virtues, Slime Mold Time Mold, 2022 10. First Clean Water, Now Clean Air, Fin Moorhouse, 2023 11. I should have loved biology, James Somers, 2020 12. The Baffling Intelligence of a Single Cell, James Somers & Edwin Morris, 2024 13. Biology is more theoretical than physics, Jeremy Gunawardena, 2013 14. Can a biologist fix a radio?, Yuri Lazebnik, 2002 15. Cells are very fast and crowded places, Ken Shirriff, 2011 16. Life at Low Reynolds Number, E.M. Purcell, 1976 17. Lena, qntm, 2021 18. Sequences and Consequences, Sydney Brenner, 2010 19. The NIH Report, Matt Faherty, 2022 (I edited this one) 20. Simplicity in biology, Uri Alon, 2007 21. A breakthrough from 60 years ago: “General nature of the genetic code for proteins” (1961), Matthew Cobb, 2021 22. Molecular “Vitalism”, Marc Kirschner, John Gerhart, Tim Mitchison, 2000 23. The Coming Technological Singularity, Vernor Vinge, 1993 24. Review of Scientific Self-Experimentation, Brian Hanley & William Bains & George Church, 2018 25. Coming full circle-from endless complexity to simplicity and back again, Robert Weinberg, 2014 26. Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky, 1973 27. The Impersonator: The Fake Data Were Coming From Inside the Lab, Uri Simonsohn, 2024 28. The Longevity FAQ, José Luis Ricón (Nintil), 2020 29. The Perfect Human is Puerto Rican, Lior Pachter, 2014 30. No Evidence of Disease, Stephanie Bourque, 2012

Our new discovery that bacteria utilize extracellular vesicles to deliver RNAs into fungi substantially broadens the paradigm of Cross-Kingdom RNA communication! Big congrats to ⁦@J_NinoSanchez⁩, ⁦@HuaitongW⁩ and all! Thanks for your hard work! cell.com/molecular-plan…

"MultiCAST, a streamlined platform for rapid and scalable gRNA-directed transposon insertion in bacteria."

Our latest work in @J_A_C_S! Artificial system that can sense, grow, and adapt—just like cells! Our droplets form directional filopodia in response to chemical cues- a step toward life-like materials. #ActiveMatter #SoftMatter #Emulsions #SelfAssembly 🔗pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja…

My first review and first publication whilst in the lab of @ProfTomEllis! "Rewiring holobiont systems with synthetic biology" Here we cover core techniques to manipulate holobiont interactions and discuss a potential future for de novo holobiont design sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

SBOL Visual has been a lot of fun contributing to over the past decade. I also think it’s had a real positive benefit in helping improve the readability of genetic designs and am excited to see how the team develops it going forward! doi.org/10.1021/acssyn…

Our latest paper is now out in @MolBioEvol! In this work we show that T:A→G:C mutational hotspots in bacteria are created by short nucleotide sequences (≥8bp), which we call GnT motifs. [doi.org/10.1093/molbev…]. A short 🧵 below:

Rewriting the genetic code with synthetic genomes nytimes.com/2025/07/31/sci…

Online now @ Cell is the yeast multicellular engineering paper from @DrFankangMeng - the fruits of his productive PhD. He developed modular synthetic biology tools to bring multicellular behaviours to yeast - adhesion, juxtacrine signalling and more. cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

New stickers 🧬🩷 I will be giving these out at the Genome Science conference later this week!

Please RT and share! We have up to two PhD positions available in my group for entry in fall 2026, applications expected in fall 2025. DM me if interested!

It's 25 yrs to the day since the Human Genome Project & Craig Venter declared joint victory in sequencing the human genome - an ideal time for @wellcometrust to annouce their new project, involving our lab, to begin work towards synthesising human genomes wellcome.org/news/researche…

📢📢 UK researchers in Engineering Biology of all levels (students, technicians, postdocs, PIs, CTOs and CEOs) - what are your thoughts about using AI in your work? The UK government is looking to gather views to shape policy via a survey. If you have 10 min spare please do it.

Looking for a PhD ? I have a fully funded one for UK nationals on engineering gene circuits in probiotic microbes. Will bring together a lot of existing stands of #synbio research in my group and push towards some exciting applications! Start date will be Sept 2025. Pls RT