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Researchers from the University of Bristol say they have combined synthetic biology and chemistry to create a modern technology platform to allow the production of novel antibiotics to combat increasing microbial drug resistance. The team is working on derivatives of pleuromutilin, with the core pleuromutilin isolated from the mushroom Clitopilus passeckerianus. Pleuromutilin derivatives are potentRead more

Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have invented a new method for controlling gene expression across bacterial colonies. The method involves engineering dynamic DNA copy number changes in a synchronized fashion. Until now, methods for controlling or programming bacterial cells involved transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. The UCSD team, led by Jeff Hasty,Read more

    The synthetic biologists from Imperial College London have re-engineered yeast cells to manufacture the nonribosomal peptide antibiotic penicillin. In laboratory experiments, they were able to demonstrate that this yeast had antibacterial properties against streptococcus bacteria.         The authors of the study (“Biosynthesis of the Antibiotic Nonribosomal Peptide Penicillin in Baker’s Yeast”), which is published in Nature Communications,Read more

    Engineering proteins to detect specific DNA, RNA, or peptide sequences may not be a new idea, but a new approach taken by synthetic biology engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is as interesting as it is elegant.       The MIT researchers developed a flexible system of proteins that sense particular sequences of DNA,Read more