Ben Blount

We're recruiting for 3 funded PhD studentships! Join the GlycoCell UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub & use Engineering Biology, glycobiology and Synthetic Genomics for microbial production of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics! Apply by 5th May via email #engbio #synbio

PhD studentships, technical and Hub Chief of Staff positions to follow shortly!

The application deadline is 1st May

We're recruiting 3 postdocs to come and join the GlycoCell UKRI Mission Hub. Interested in using Engineering Biology and Synthetic Genomics to engineer bacteria and yeast for new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics? Apply here: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?r…

Delighted our GlycoCell Engineering Biology Mission Hub has been funded by @UKRI_News @BBSRC Technology Missions Fund! So excited to apply Engineering Biology to unlock the applied potential of glycans for biomedicines and beyond ukri.org/news/new-100m-… nottingham.ac.uk/news/glycocell…

I’m delighted to be part of the GlycoCell UKRI Engineering Biology Hub. We’ll be using synthetic genomics to develop new therapeutics/diagnostics and enable microbes to make advanced biomedicines. My lab will be recruiting a postdoc and PhD student soon! ukri.org/news/new-100m-…

We were awarded a grant to use machine learning & synth biology to predict how to make successful synthetic genomes. We’ll use pangenomes to train ML models then make the predicted constructs BBSRC injects £12m into pioneering frontier bioscience research ukri.org/news/bbsrc-inj…

@jomcinerney Very exciting to have this @BBSRC investment in our collaboration and novel approach applying AI/ML to Engineering Biology #EngBio #SynBio - our construction of large numbers of AI/ML-designed synthetic biological systems starts very soon!

Scientists @BABlount @UoNLifeSci & @ProfTomEllis @Imperialcollege are poised to create the most advanced “synthetic” organism ever made — a baker’s yeast that is controlled entirely by human-made genetic instructions. Read more @thetimes ▶️ ow.ly/hTEb50Q6nZ9

We finally finished our synthetic chromosome! @ProfTomEllis @glen_gowers I'm just going to collapse in this corner now... cell.com/cell-genomics/…

Happy Sc2.0 day. 10 new papers published today in Cell Genomics, Cell and Molecular Cell. Telling the story of 8 more completed chromosomes (including ours) and a tRNA neochromosome and bringing more than half the syn genome together into a single cell. cell.com/cell-genomics/…

It's Sc2.0 day! 10 new papers to check out in Cell, Molecular Cell, and Cell Genomics! @ProfTomEllis @JefBoeke @ChantalSHEN @caiyizhi @BABlount @MatthewWChang plus all everyone involved!

We’ve got a technical post open to join our team for a project mining natural and synthetic microbial diversity: jobs.ac.uk/job/DBX730/tec…

I'm delighted to have written a @NatureNV piece describing some great new work led by @geochurch on modifying E. coli synthetic genome cells for improved biocontainment and resistance to phage infection nature.com/articles/d4158…

A synthetic bacterial genome has been upgraded for viral defence and biocontainment. Read this terrific N&V by @BABlount to learn more go.nature.com/42hrFkg

We made a synthetic yeast chromsome! @BABlount and I just posted a preprint @biorxiv describing our contribution to Sc2.0: the 660kb SynXI chromosome. 1000s of synonmous mutations in coding genes caused no issues at all, unlike edits to non-coding DNA. 🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

After a decade of hacking away at the molecular coalface, we've finally completed and preprinted chromosome XI of the Sc2.0 yeast @SynGenome. We’ve been celebrating so much that even the chromosome has been throwing shapes... biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Out today in @NatureComms! Our work using artificial selection pressure to rapidly search libraries of millions of variants for useful biocatalysts with new or improved properties nature.com/articles/s4146… @UniofNottingham @imperialcollege @LaraSellesVidal #synbio #meteng #engbio

Programming your beer/bread/whatever, enabled by Cello 2.0 @DouglasDensmore nature.com/articles/s4156…

🎂Happy Birthday to Us!🎉 May 8th 2020 marked the 26th anniversary of the day the SGD website first went live, bringing #yeast #genome information to all! The SGD Team zoomed in to celebrate together with cupcakes and fuzzy budders. "26 years and still your best bud!" #APOYG !