Our project for experimentally testing planetary regulation (Lovelock & Margulis) on the test tube, using a synthetic microbial Gaian system (+1 PhD), has been funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación. A great adventure that started at Santa Fe Institute 2 yrs ago with victor & Jordi Pla

What are the limits for engineering multicellular complexity? Can we create proto-organisms, new organs or new forms of MC intelligence? What can be predicted? Check our new paper with Nuria Conde, Jordi Pla Jordi Garcia Ojalvo Nuria Montserrat & Michael Levin preprints.org/manuscript/202……

This "frugal CRISPR kit" costs about $2. It includes a cell-free extract (no living cells), plasmids encoding colorful proteins, and Cas9 + guide RNAs. Students express colorful proteins in the extract & then use CRISPR to cut the protein-coding genes, leading to loss of color.

The overall characterization of the motion of a particle in heterogeneous two-phase systems depends on the interpretation (Itô, Stratonovich, or Hanggi-Klimontovich) of the Langevin equation go.aps.org/3WRYy6n

What are the bounds of complexity in living systems? How can synthetic biology and bioengineering be used to interrogate emergent properties or information processing in cells & organisms? Check my conversation with Michael Levin Michael Levin youtube.com/watch?v=lTzBW_…

Surprise! #OpenBSD 7.6 is released! 🐡 openbsd.org/76.html mail-archive.com/announce@openb…

The single greatest misunderstanding about science by the public is that scientists solve problems; in reality, scientists are primarily concerned with creating them.

Is evolution predictable or highly contingent? This new Royal Society Publishing paper explains why life here & elsewhere might be universal regarding its logic, from molecular information & cells to viruses &ecosystems. Santa Fe Institute @philipcball Sean Carroll royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

Why doesn’t evolution follow a path of constant adaptation? Over the past 50 years, punctuated equilibrium has expanded leading to a unified framework for punctuated evolution across scales—from genes to ecosystems & our planet. Our new collaboration at doi.org/10.1111/pala.1…

Excited to share latest work of Lab of Interdisciplinary Physics out in Physical Review Letters! We’ve taken a fresh look at ecological community dynamics by extending the generalized Lotka-Volterra (GLV) model to include temporal stochastic fluctuations in species interactions. Link: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/1… 1/3

SUCROSE SELECTION IS WORKING!!!! cscA flask has the sucrose invertase overexpressing. CscB flask has only the sucrose permease. Heavy innoculum on both sides so any slight cloudiness is due to initial innoc and trace LB from scooping. HUGE MILESTONE!!!

It's great to be back at Santa Fe Institute

How can synthetic biology help us to explore ecological complexity? What kind of ecosystems can be designed? How can #synbio help us prevent ecological collapse? Chk our paper (+ cover :) victor Daniel R. Amor Jordi Pla Fernando T. Maestre Víctor de Lorenzo pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.10…

Dual concurrent DNA builds going. Can create 192 plasmids / day at approx $20 per plasmid

What are the limits to engineering multicellular systems? Can we invent new organs or synthetic behaviour? We discuss these and other ideas in our latest paper with Jordi Pla Jordi Garcia Ojalvo Nuria Montserrat Michael Levin nature.com/articles/s4154…

The year ends with new, exciting research on synthetic biology and cognition, started at Santa Fe Institute with my student Jordi Pla. Reviewing the classic ideas (see my notebook) and moving them into single cells has been great—an excellent start for 2025.

Open problems in synthetic multicellularity Synthetic multicellular circuits nature.com/articles/s4154…

C. acnes is the most abundant bacterium on human skin. But what if we could make it the smarterst? 🦠✨ In our new Cell-Systems study, we programmed C. acnes to actively protect the skin for therapeutic applications! 🛡️ authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S24…

Super excited to share my first PhD preprint! Meet LySE - a novel phage-based system for directed evolution of entire gene clusters in E. coli, overcoming size limitations and off-target mutations in classical directed evolution 🧬 👉🏻 biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 1/

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please RT 💚