Thrilled to share this new Adv. Sci. paper by @dianatanasedt with Dino Osmanovic @rogerrubio Layla Malouf and Elisa Franco. We demonstrate a modular approach to program internal phase separation in DNA condensates 1/n .

We can control phase behaviour by changing linker and nanostars concentrations, without re-designing nanostructures. This is convenient, and allowed us to map a large phase diagram and identify an order parameter controlling the transition between 1- and 2-phase condensates 3/n

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Condensates assemble from two populations of tetravalent DNA nanostars, and three types of divalent linkers that mediate nanostar-nanostar interactions, either within the same nanostar population or across populations 2/n

Thanks also @rogerrubio Layla Malouf, @FabriniGiacomo Sabrina Pia Nuccio @cebcambridge and funding from @ERC_Research @BBSRC @royalsociety n/n.

The MLO platform is robust, inducible and modular and many design modifications can be applied to the nanostars to capture different proteins or change MLO properties. Hopefully you’ll find this useful, and we look forward to your feedback! 7/n.

Finally, we show that condensation is thermally reversible. The MLOs melt upon heating and re-assemble upon cooling, releasing and re-capturing GFP in the process 6/n

The nanostar designs are modular and allow for embedding of protein binding aptamers. We show that GFP can be selectively captured by the MLOs when a GFP-binding aptamer is included 5/n

We can express two non-interacting nanostars within the same cell, creating two orthogonal MLOs. This is only possible thanks to the selectivity of base pairing. Also here, most cells will have both MLOs, located at or near the poles 5/n

MLOs are located at the cell poles but small RNA clusters may appear near the centre before moving towards the poles. MLOs also tend to appear in the central section as cells approach division. The new MLOs may end up in one of the daughter cells, or be split between both 4/n

We express RNA “nanostars” interacting with kissing loops (KL) in E. coli and show that these form MLOs located at the poles of the cell. Expression is inducible and very efficient! Making the nanostars non-sticky stops condensation, indicating specificity 3/n

Eukaryotic cells use membrane-less organelles (MLOs) to control many processes. Being able to engineer “designer” MLOs in prokaryotes could be useful for optimising metabolic and biomanufacturing pathways. We think that RNA nanotechnology could be the key to achieving this 2/n.

Thrilled to share our latest preprint on expressing synthetic organelles made from RNA nanostructures in bacterial cells. Great work from @BrianNgSH, Catherine Fan, @milandordevicc, Adam Knirsch, coll. Graham Christie @TakinoueLab @CicutaGroup 1/n.

RT @YuvalElani: Check out our PhD student Hannah Sleath’s paper on vesicle-based synthetic cells that can crawl up surface concentration gr….

RT @A_Clowsley: Check out @evelucinskaite's recently published work reducing non-specific interactions of DNA-PAINT secondary antibodies. Y….

Erratum - apparently October 2024 is in the past, so we will start in October 2025 😅.

Please RT and share with relevant candidates! @SynCellEU @buildacell @fabriCELL_UK.

Candidates should hold a strong master degree in physics, physical chemistry or engineering and fit the residency requirements of MSCA doctoral networks (not have spent more than 1 year in the UK in the last 3). Salary is pretty good😉.

The candidate will use Synthetic Cell models and DNA nanotechnology to study interactions between lipid membranes and condensates. The project involves exciting training opportunities across Europe and placements with @SchwilleLab in Munich and @ContiniClau in London.

Happy new year everyone, and some great news!.We have an opening for a PhD candidate to join our lab @cebcambridge @Cambridge_Uni in October 2024 as part of the new exciting @MSCActions Doctoral Network @ComeInCell .

RT @EngBioIRC: Great talks from from Juliette @BucciJuliette @DiMicheleLAB1 and Honghao Su @HonghaoS @plantsci at our EngBio ECR Meet today….