Our new paper is out in PNAS! We engineered bacteria to display enzymes that sea sponges use to mineralize their glass skeletons. These bacteria can self-assemble a bioglass coating around themselves, and focus light into bright, photonic nanojets. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... - ThreadSky

meyerroc.bsky.social • 127 days ago

Our new paper is out in PNAS! We engineered bacteria to display enzymes that sea sponges use to mineralize their glass skeletons. These bacteria can self-assemble a bioglass coating around themselves, and focus light into bright, photonic nanojets.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409335121

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meyerroc.bsky.social•127 days ago

The glass-coated cells capture and scatter light into long jets that are focused a few um away from the cells. The cells remain alive for several months after encapsulation, creating the possibility to sense and respond to their environment.

meyerroc.bsky.social•127 days ago

Thank you to all of the amazing students on my 2016 TU Delft iGEM team who kicked off this project, plus our incredible team of collaborators at U Rochester and CU-Boulder that made it all happen! @abbondanzieri.bsky.social @igemhq.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social

igemcommunity.bsky.social•125 days ago

Let's goooo, new publication from iGEMers!!!

proftomellis.bsky.social•127 days ago

Great work ! Well done to your team.

nivinnystrom.bsky.social•127 days ago

I remember listening to your talk at SEED(?) on this project and being so fascinated by it. Looking forward to reading the full paper! Congrats!

thomasafranz.bsky.social•127 days ago

Oh rad!

eswara.bsky.social•127 days ago

Great paper similar to the 2011 PNAS paper on silicatein by Daniel Morse.

meyerroc.bsky.social•127 days ago

Yes, the incredible biochemistry work from the Morse Lab showed that these enzymes could mineralize glass outside of the sea sponge context. Those papers gave us the courage to see if we could use the sponge enzymes to give our bacteria cells new optical properties.

eswara.bsky.social•127 days ago

Indeed. Also, was there a specific rationale for not employing M13 phage for surface display of Silicatein. It is a much easier platform to manipulate! The paper is pay-walled. How do we access it.

meyerroc.bsky.social•126 days ago

You are welcome to check out our preprint for this work: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597164v1

eswara.bsky.social•126 days ago

Thanks will do.

barbarasybio.bsky.social•127 days ago

Sounds super cool! Congratulations

hassnainbokhari.bsky.social•125 days ago

This is soo coool!

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