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Mo Khalil

@mokhalil.bsky.social
1.3K followers 932 following 53 posts

Prof @ Harvard University, Broad Institute, and Wyss Institute. Synthetic & systems biology. Trying to understand the living world by engineering a synthetic one. Lab website: khalillab.github.io

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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Initial set of our new T1 T-DNA vectors now available on @addgene.bsky.social: pT1 (no selection marker): lnkd.in/dcnTN8Rj pT1-B (BASTA selection marker): lnkd.in/dgTZmuCx pT1-K (kan selection marker): lnkd.in/dqgv4QRc pT1-H (hygro selection marker): lnkd.in/dhrs5Tsg
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
🌱🚨 Very proud and excited to share our PREPRINT, unveiling an advance for plant science, biotech, & synthetic biology in the first (of many) Khalil <> Gehring collaborations! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Rational design of T-DNA vectors enables predictable, single-copy integration in Arabidopsis thaliana
Agrobacterium -mediated transformation is the dominant method for plant transgenesis, yet it frequently produces multi-copy, structurally complex T-DNA insertions associated with transgene silencing, ...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
And here is another direct link to the preprint. Enjoy! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Rational design of T-DNA vectors enables predictable, single-copy integration in Arabidopsis thaliana
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is the dominant method for plant transgenesis, yet it frequently produces multi-copy, structurally complex T-DNA insertions associated with transgene silencing, u...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
🌱 NEW PREPRINT & SPECIAL day! We unveil an advance for plant science, engineering, and synbio in first (of many) Khalil <> Gehring collabs, led by the one-and-only @willshaw.bsky.social. Thread below on principles + design of a new, single-integrating T-DNA vector for precision plant xformation! 👇
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Tom Ellis @proftomellis.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
5 days left now to apply for the postdoc opportunity in my lab at Imperial in London 🇬🇧 - there’s a chance that we can hire 2 people into the team on this synthetic biology and materials theme. Application link is here - www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
🚨 An exciting frontier is bringing synthetic biology to MULTIcellular systems. To effectively engineer them, we need design principles. What are the benefits of group formation? What are the costs? See our new preprint led by @heidiklumpe.bsky.social to learn more!👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB 2026-10817)
What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
What an honor to receive the Kuwait Prize! A testament to the remarkable achievements and hard work of #Khalil-Lab members past and present. It’s always an honor to be recognized as a scientist, and especially meaningful to celebrate my background as a Palestinian-Jordanian 🙏 tinyurl.com/2jvrjszb
tinyurl.com
تعلن مؤسسة الكويت للتقدم العلمي (KFAS) أسماء الفائزين بجائزة الكويت في دورتها الرابعة والأربعين لعام 2025، والتي تمنحها المؤسسة سنويًا للعلماء الكويتيين والعرب ممن حققوا إنجازات بارزة ومساهمات علمية… ...
تعلن مؤسسة الكويت للتقدم العلمي (KFAS) أسماء الفائزين بجائزة الكويت في دورتها الرابعة والأربعين لعام 2025، والتي تمنحها المؤسسة سنويًا للعلماء الكويتيين والعرب ممن حققوا إنجازات بارزة ومساهمات علمية و...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Busy week for the Khalil lab getting ready of our big move next week! P.s. Graveyard of Oligos 🧬 from our prolific former postdoc @willshaw.bsky.social
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Interrupting the regular (science) broadcast to brag about my wife and Hisel Flynn Architects on having their beautiful work featured in the @bostonglobe.com! 🏠😍 www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/26/m...
bostonglobe.com
A glassy addition to a split-level home gives an Arlington family more space - The Boston Globe
Adding 850 square-feet to the back of the ranch home brings in sunlight and views of greenery.
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Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 23/03/2026
Startups are providing tantalizing glimpses of AI-assisted antibody discovery and claiming game-changing potential, even as new models remain hidden and industry awaits full disclosure and benchmarking www.nature.com/articles/s41... [🔓read free with login]
nature.com
AI turbocharges antibody hunt for binders with drug-like qualities - Nature Biotechnology
Startups are providing tantalizing glimpses of AI-assisted antibody discovery and claiming game-changing potential, even as new models remain hidden and industry awaits full disclosure and benchmarkin...
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Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Unstructured transcription factor interactions enable emergent specificity | @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Unstructured transcription factor interactions enable emergent specificity
How intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) influence chromatin binding and nuclear organization of transcription factors (TFs) remains unclear. We employed proximity-assisted photoactivation (PAPA), ...
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Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
🧬🔬🎥 @science.org Live-cell single-molecule dynamics of eukaryotic RNA polymerase machineries | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Live-cell single-molecule dynamics of eukaryotic RNA polymerase machineries
Eukaryotic gene expression is orchestrated by RNA polymerases (RNAPI, II, and III) and associated factors, yet their real-time dynamics remain obscure. Using single-molecule tracking in living yeast, ...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Our company has a new name, Eira Bio (www.eirabio.com) (formerly K2 Therapeutics), but the same important mission to apply our advanced synthetic biology, directed evolution, and protein design technologies to discover and develop next-generation antibody-based medicines for a range of diseases!
eirabio.com
EiraBio
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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
This is a beautiful paper examining the molecular genetics of facultative multicellularity in a marine black yeast. I also love that they figure out the ecological context for the behavior (MC form when in sponges, where there are nutrients, & uni when starving!). www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Client Challenge
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Al-Sady lab @al-sadylab.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Took us a bit, but proud of this published version. We now examine the genetic interaction of phosphorylation with oligomerization and where bulk and phospho-Swi6 localize. Wonder if chromatin affinity tuning to enable Suv39 H3K9me3 spreading is a conserved mechanism ? doi.org/10.1093/nar/...
doi.org
Phosphorylation of HP1/Swi6 relieves competition with Suv39/Clr4 on nucleosomes and enables H3K9 trimethyl spreading
Abstract. Heterochromatin formation in Schizosaccharomyces pombe requires the spreading of histone 3 (H3) Lysine 9 (K9) methylation (me) from nucleation ce
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American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE) @aimbe-official.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
🚨 AIMBE calls on the scientific community to urge Congress to ensure timely passage of the FY2026 budget 👇 Strong, sustained funding for our nation's health and science agencies is essential for economic prosperity, U.S. global competitiveness, and public heath. takeaction.io/aimbe/protec...
takeaction.io
Protect Research: Finalize FY2026 Budget Now
Use AIMBE's letter template below to send an email to your Members of Congress on issues that matter. We encourage you to edit and personalize the note, sharing your individual experience. Please note...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Years ago, we set out to develop new synbio technology to solve a major drug discovery challenge: generating precision antibodies for challenging membrane proteins. It's a DREAM COME TRUE to report that we've launched K2 Therapeutics (k2-tx.com) to advance this into transformative medicines!
k2-tx.com
K2 Therapeutics
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Hiten Madhani @hitenmadhani.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
In today's issue of Cell-->if you are looking for a good distraction from the news (who isn't), check it out! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Phenotypic landscape of an invasive fungal pathogen reveals its unique biology
The construction and high-precision fitness profiling of a C. neoformans knockout library reveals a high-resolution functional map of its genome and allowed for the identification of fungal analogs of...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
We traveled to DC to talk to Congressional Staffers about the impact of NIH and NIBIB funding. It enables us to develop synthetic biology tools to advance cell & genetic medicines for patients in need. REPOST to deliver the message that SCIENCE saves lives & makes America GREAT!
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
7 years old! 🎂🎉🎈Happy birthday to our adventurous twins!
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I hailed a Tesla Model 3, according to Uber-equivalent in Cairo, Egypt 😂😂
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Emily Kolenbrander Ho @emkolen.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Excited to share that our work building in vivo biosensors for receptor tyrosine kinases (pYtags!) is now out www.cell.com/cell-reports...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
1/n Morocco 🇲🇦 is magical. A few pics from our whirlwind tour through this beautiful country. Enjoy!
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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
So cool, a novel archaeon with a super small genome and no metabolic genes! "An unprecedented level of metabolic dependence on a host, a condition that challenges the functional distinctions between minimal cellular life and viruses." www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome
Defining the minimal genetic requirements for cellular life remains a fundamental question in biology. Genomic exploration continually reveals novel microbial lineages, often exhibiting extreme genome...
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The Kueh lab @kuehlab.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Excited to share that our study, on how T cells selectively sense foreign antigens with single-molecule sensitivity, is out! This work was led by the brilliant Will White, and done in collaboration with Jay Groves and David Baker @uwproteindesign.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Furiously logging all the new budget news, laughing grimly that it landed *just after* we hit publish. Of course it did. Grateful that the entire point of @unbreaking.org is to give us a durable platform where we can keep integrating new developments. We'll digest, contextualize & update next week.
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Ed Yong is offline @edyong209.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding. It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
unbreaking.org
Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
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Chang Liu @chang-c-liu.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Happy to share the peer-reviewed and updated version of our work on OrthoRep-driven evolution of aaRSs for genetic code expansion with unnatural amino acids. Congrats to Yuichi Furuhata, a true master bioengineer, on leading this excellent work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Directed evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases through in vivo hypermutation - Nature Communications
Genetic code expansion (GCE) enables the incorporation of new amino acids into proteins. Here, authors demonstrate the rapid OrthoRep-driven evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases for GCE, increasing...
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Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
🧬🧫🦠 @science.org Bacterial reverse transcriptase synthesizes long poly-A–rich cDNA for antiphage defense | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #microbiology #bacteriophage #antiphage #immunity #DNA #RNAsky #RT #Cryo-EM #DRT9
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John Ngo @johntngo.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Honored to be the 2025 recipient of the ACS Synthetic Biology Young Innovator Award. Hope to see you in Houston for #SEED2025!
axial.acs.org
Meet John Ngo, Winner of the 2025 ACS Synthetic Biology Young Innovator Award | ACS Publications Chemistry Blog
Read an exclusive interview with Prof. Ngo covering his research, his history with the journal, and advice to early career researchers.
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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 09/04/2025
Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.” A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world. www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...
cnn.com
Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN
Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
I am 💔. We said goodbye to a beloved family member, our sweet dog Eloise. For 16+ years(!), she has been a constant source of joy, comfort, friendship, & humor. She was there for gradschool/postdoc, first jobs, wedding, 4 kids, ... She was my #1 companion. I will miss her dearly 😭. Pics/vids below
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Arjun Raj @arjunraj.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Super excited to be launching NimbusImage.com! Cloud-based image analysis to democratize machine learning! Documentation here! docs.nimbusimage.com
nimbusimage.com
NimbusImage
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
In this job, and especially these days, there is little that gives me more joy than watching one of your students crush their PhD defense. Huge congratulations to newly minted Dr. Colin Kunze -- we're all so proud of you!!
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Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
@science.org Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @joepeterslab.bsky.social
science.org
Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes
Eukaryotes have linear DNA and their telomeres are hotspots for transposons, which in some cases took over telomere maintenance. Here we identify several families of independently evolved telomeric tr...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
HUGE congratulations to @kaitong25.bsky.social, @wcratcliff.bsky.social and team on this incredible discovery enabled by one of my favorite experiments — the multicellularity long-term evolution experiment (MuLTEE). Check out Will’s great tutorial below👇 (and v happy to have played a small role)
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Xiaojing Gao @synbiogaolab.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
So we beat on. Gene/cell therapies would benefit many patients, but often use proteins that could be recognized as non-self by our immune system and cause problems. We combine algorithms to build proteins that are therapeutically relevant and can masquerade as our own parts doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org
Machine-Guided Dual-Objective Protein Engineering for Deimmunization and Therapeutic Functions
Cell and gene therapies often rely on the expression of exogenous proteins derived from nonhuman organisms. An emerging consensus is to reduce the potential immunogenicity of such therapies by instead...
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Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
The most achingly beautiful explanation of what science is, from @edyong209.bsky.social: “the idea that much of the world is hidden from us, that we don’t perceive it and don’t understand it, and that it is worth understanding and it is necessary to understand.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
nytimes.com
‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
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Sri Kosuri @srikosuri.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
It’s been a tough few weeks. My 10yo daughter was diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive cancer called interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma (IDCS). I’m reaching out to identify clinicians/patients who have encountered pediatric IDCS or other (non-LCH) dendritic or histiocytic sarcomas cases.
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Anders Sejr Hansen @andersshansen.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Excited to share James Jusuf's preprint: By integrating Micro-C with SuperRes Live-Imaging we can calibrate genomics&imaging to perform absolute quantification of looping (e.g. this loop is present 3%) We quantify mESC 36k loops: <loops> are generally rare (2.3%) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Xiaojing Gao @synbiogaolab.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Proteases might serve as versatile control knobs for gene and cell therapies, but there looms the risk of immunogenicity as we and others have been using viral proteases. We now report a control system based on a an engineered human protease and its clinically approved inhibitor. rdcu.be/d6kVt
rdcu.be
Orthogonalized human protease control of secreted signals
Nature Chemical Biology - Engineering of a human-derived protease controlled exogenously by its FDA-approved inhibitor enables control over cytokine activity in cell-based therapies with reduced...
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Patrick Phillips @patrickphillips.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Just out in @natrevgenet.bsky.social, led by @amywebster.bsky.social: Epigenetics and individuality: from concepts to causality across timescales. Access available via the Sharedit Initiative. rdcu.be/d5LYh
rdcu.be
Epigenetics and individuality: from concepts to causality across timescales
Nature Reviews Genetics - Recent genomic approaches are providing unprecedented opportunity to disentangle how genotype and environment affect organismal traits. The authors review the role of...
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Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Nora finished her paper with a sentence I like a lot "Our results show that even under extremely restrictive, competitive conditions, the simplest biological entities on Earth can still find paths to coexistence." There is a curious dichotomy in her experiments... 1/3 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Diverse phage communities are maintained stably on a clonal bacterial host
Bacteriophages are the most abundant and phylogenetically diverse biological entities on Earth, yet the ecological mechanisms that sustain this extraordinary diversity remain unclear. In this study, w...
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Mo Khalil @mokhalil.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Holiday time when you’re married to an architect. Let’s go!
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Zibo Chen @zibochen.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Excited to finally share Perceptein, a PERCEPtron made of proTEINs: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
A synthetic protein-level neural network in mammalian cells
Artificial neural networks provide a powerful paradigm for nonbiological information processing. To understand whether similar principles could enable computation within living cells, we combined de n...
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UCSF Cell Design Institute @cdi-ucsf.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
For our inaugural @bsky.app post – 2 papers and the cover of Science @science.org!! Dr. Nish Reddy et al. built T cells that suppress inflammation in specific tissues bit.ly/4fX8JxN Dr. Milos Simic, Dr. Payal Watchmaker et al. built T cells that deliver therapies to the brain bit.ly/4g0I5Ej
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Christa Buecker @chribue.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
By definition, enhancers can activate from a distance. But with increased distance between enhancer and promoter, the activation drops. To study this systematically, we build a synthetic locus: www.cell.com/molecular-ce... 1/12
doi.org
Redirecting
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Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
I am ***absurdly*** excited to announce the launch of a new funding opportunity through Experiment dot com!!! You have one month to pitch something wonderful in the realm of plant biology/biotech research and education. $10,000 max grant. PLEASE RE-POST + SHARE!!! 1/3 experiment.com/programs/pla...
experiment.com
Plant Biology Exploratory Research Microgrant | Experiment
For Science!
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Josh Tycko @joshtycko.com · 18/11/2024
New here and excited to share our new paper on transcriptional effectors! Interested to discuss context-specificity of gene regulation? Or how to get CRISPRi/a working in new contexts? 👋 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Development of compact transcriptional effectors using high-throughput measurements in diverse contexts - Nature Biotechnology
Improved effectors for CRISPRi/CRISPRa are developed following high-throughput screening of transcriptional domains.
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