iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Nick Desnoyer

Niko McCarty @nikomccarty.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I'm in the UK with @NickDesnoyer studying flower design. This is my favorite creation of his. Left: Normal Arabidopsis with small white flowers. Right: The same species of Arabidopsis, but designed to form spectacular micro-Roses. (Just a few mutations + one gene inserted.)

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Reposted by Nick Desnoyer

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I just published: The night shift in the greenhouse A night-blooming cactus, a time-lapse, and the case for hosting artists in the lab. kamounlab.medium.com/the-night-sh...

kamounlab.medium.com

The night shift in the greenhouse

A night-blooming cactus, a time-lapse, and the case for hosting artists in the lab.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Montage of the Petunia lines I am currently growing 🌸 More on these in the podcast with @nikomccarty.bsky.social later this week!

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Arabidopsis has never looked so good. Micro-rose imaged under the SEM by staff & students @johninnescentre.bsky.social bioimaging facility. Mag 15x. Image ~8mm. Left: false-colored.

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Reposted by Nick Desnoyer

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Two seemingly unrelated sides of our lab collided today in the AWESOME new Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system poster: flowers 🌸 and phylogenomics 🧬 Need a new genome? Just pick up the phone and “dial-a-genome” 📞🧬 @getgenome.bsky.social www.tudelft.nl/en/hortus-bo...

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Lights, camera, action in the glasshouse tonight 📸 This dragon fruit flower blooms just once at night 🌙 ✨

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Lights, camera, action in the glasshouse tonight 📸 This dragon fruit flower blooms just once at night 🌙 ✨

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Ruby & Gold benthi flowers are blooming 🧬 ✨

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A healthy workspace is important for mental well being 🌱 I keep mine filled with plants, puppy, and natural light ☀️

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

clims4.genewiz.com Terms & Conditions: 25% off GENEWIZ Cloned Construct Services: ValueGENE and PriorityGENE. Offer expires 31 December 2026 and cannot be combined with other offers. Offer is valid for European customers only, excluding Russia and Belarus, and is single use per customer.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

ALSOO! @genewiz.bsky.social is offering 25% off gene synthesis services when you use the promo code "GS-NICK25-EU" Details below!

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

For fun we also grew carotenoids in E.coli using a Crt biosynthetic cluster :) Stay tuned for next week, when we test our next gene from @genewiz.bsky.social !

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

We found that after four days, benthamiana leaves showed yellow coloration but petunia petals didn't show consistent color. Perhaps because the leucoplasts in petals were unable to differentiate into chromoplasts.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

We synthesised crtB (Phytoene Synthase) from Genewiz and added a transit peptide to its N-terminus. We drove it under the 35S promoter and transiently expressed it in Benthi leaves and Petunia petals.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Carotenoids are yellow - red pigments produced by plants, algae, fungi, and many bacteria. They are long, lipid-soluble molecules whose biosynthesis starts with phytoene synthase (PSY/CrtB).

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Flower Bioengineering Toolkit Series [5] CAROTENOIDS 🟧 We continue our gene synthesis sponsored by @genewiz.bsky.social by testing a gene for carotenoids (🧵 1/5)

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Idk, all the leaves are different

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Beautiful gene silencing going on in this Tobacco leaf transformed with 35S:RUBY 🧬 Looks a bit like nightsky @jasongardneresq.bsky.social

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

And so the flower design crew begins. Welcome aboard JP!!!

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Apart from working, he’s become a great friend and is challenging me to think more deeply about my art. Also, to up my fashion.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

JP has been learning the ways of plants and being an incredible help with plant tissue culture. He’s now a petunia professional 🌱🌸🧬

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Juan Pablo (JP) comes from Colombia 🇨🇴 and has a MA/MSc in Innovation Design Engineering from RCA and Imperial College London. Now he's an RA in the @kamounlab.bsky.social His favorite flowers are orchids (Orchidaceae family) and flame lilies (Gloriosa Superba).

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

For the past few months, I’ve had a new teammate helping me design flowers: Juan Pablo! Here’s what he’s taught me—and how he’s helping (1/5 🧵)

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Making 3D models of our flowers, so that their morphology and pigmentation can be explored online ✨

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Filmed a podcast with @nikomccarty.bsky.social yesterday. We talked for four hours about flowers, beauty, and the next big project I’m working on.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The old glasshouse @thesainsburylab.bsky.social has a real mysterious and retro charm. Somewhere in here are the magical petunias I am cooking up…

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Picasso petunia with its pink center and green margins is a masterpiece of breeding 🧬 🖌️ Too bad it is largely sterile…

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Despite the disappointing flower results, the chromoproteins worked great in bacteria... so we had some fun with them :) Stay tuned for next week, when we test our next gene from @genewiz.bsky.social

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

After transient expression in tobacco leaves and petunia petals, we didn't see any visible color :( However, we did see fluorescence as expected.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

We tested two fluorescent proteins (AmilGFP, AmilRFP) and three chromoproteins (aeBlue, eforRED, and AmilCP). We drove them under promoters for expression in plants (35S) and bacteria (T7)

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Chromoproteins are colorful, non-fluorescent proteins found in corals and anemones. They absorb visible light, producing vivid colors useful as visual markers in synthetic biology.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Flower Bioengineering Toolkit Series [4] CHROMOPROTEINS 🌈 We continue our gene synthesis sponsored by @genewiz.bsky.social by testing protein-based color (🧵 1/6)

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Reposted by Nick Desnoyer

Niko McCarty @nikomccarty.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I'm spending two weeks studying flower design in the UK with @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social He's teaching me how to use breeding, genetic engineering, and even pathogen infections to change the shapes, colors, and smells of flowers. Excited!

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

However, expression in bacteria did indeed produce a decent amount of violacein and nicely dyed stretched silk a beautiful purple! Stay tuned for next week, when we test our next gene from @genewiz.bsky.social !!

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

When both 35S:VioACD + 35S:VioBE were infiltrated into into tobacco leaves we saw strong cell death, perhaps due to the hydrophobicity of violacein. Interestingly, this cell death was less apparent when infiltrated in petunia petals.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We synthesized plant codon-optimized VioA+C+D and VioB+E genes as two polycistronic transcriptional units, with individual genes separated by P2A linkers, through @genewiz.bsky.social Both constructs were co-transformed into bacteria and plants for heterologous expression.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Violacein is a purple, water-insoluble pigment produced by several bacterial species. In Chromobacterium violaceum, violacein biosynthesis is regulated by the VioABCDE enzyme pathway, which converts L-tryptophan into the purple pigment violacein.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Flower Bioengineering Toolkit Series [2] VIOLACEIN 🟪 We continue our gene synthesis sponsored by @genewiz.bsky.social by testing some genes regulating a purple pigment: Violacein! (🧵1/5)

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Timelapse chamber is finally back up and running! Cool plant timelapses on the way 🌱📸

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

One month later, miss Ruby Petunie has moved from tissue culture to the glasshouse ☀️ Let’s hope she enjoys her new home 🏡

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Lastly, we found that the indigoidine was nicely absorbed by silk and dyed it a beautiful baby blue! Thanks to Juan Pablo for making images in this post and conducting experiments. Stay tuned for next week, when we test our next gene from @genewiz.bsky.social

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

However, expression in bacteria did indeed produce a decent amount of indigoidine! We noticed that the indigoidine is secreted out of the bacteria cells and very unstable as the color faded quickly outside the growth chamber.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

After infiltrating the construct into tobacco leaves and petunia petals we saw cell death, perhaps due to the hydrophobicity of indigoidine. Unlike the ACS paper we referenced, we didn’t see strong blue pigmentation except for a slight tint of blue in some samples...

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

We synthesized Indigoidine synthetase (BpsA) and the PPTase (Sfp) separated by a 2A linker and codon optimized for plants from @genewiz.bsky.social Sequences were taken from this ACS paper: doi.org/10.1021/acss...

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Indigoidine is a blue, water-insoluble pigment produced by several bacterial species. In Streptomyces lavendulae, indigoidine biosynthesis is catalysed by an Sfp-activated non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), which converts L-glutamine into the blue pigment indigoidine.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Flower Bioengineering Toolkit Series [2] INDIGOIDINE 🟦 We continue our gene synthesis sponsored by @genewiz.bsky.social by testing some genes regulating a blue pigment: Indigoidine! (Thread 1/6)

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Hidden away in a little corner on our research park is a garden where I grow my (wildtype) flowers.

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

With this I can easily take ~150 pics of the flowers from all angles. This then goes into software like Polycam for 3D reconstruction 😎

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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I made an imaging device for making 3D flower models (Photogrammetry) 🌹 📸

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