OpenPlant PI Professor Paul Dupree recently published work in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, The Andrés Bello National University, University of Warwick and Massachusetts Institute of Technology describing the identification of putative transporters that import SAM into the Golgi lumen in plants, providing new insights into the paramount importance of polysaccharide methylation for plant cell wall structure and function. Henry Temple, Pyae Phyo, Weibing Yang, Jan J. Lyczakowski, Alberto Echevarría-Poza, Igor Yakunin, Juan Pablo Parra-Rojas, Oliver M. Terrett ..read more

Postdoc Postion, Elina Lab, Crop Science Centre, Cambridge A post-doctoral position in Dr Natasha Yelina’s lab working on meiosis in model and crop plants at the Crop Science Centre, University of Cambridge. Closing date: January 23rd. For more information visit the University of Cambridge website. https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/32757 ..read more

The John Innes Centre are welcoming applications from who either hold, or wish to apply for Independent Research Fellowships (such as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, or a Royal Society University Research Fellowship). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a seminar at the Fellows Conference, which will be held on 7 February 2022. To apply email a two-page summary of your research plan, a copy of your CV and arrange for three letters of recommendation to be emailed to fellows@jic.ac.uk Closing date December 3rd 2021 For more information - https://www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/independent-r ..read more

Proper labelling practices in the lab is one of the first things students are taught at the practical courses. As a matter of fact, labelling is an essential part of data management for scientists while working in the laboratory. And if you ever worked in a lab, you must know how much time you usually spent to label every single tube, falcon, vial, bottle etc. The Problem Appropriate labelling is an essential research practice. It is fundamental to day-to-day operation and long-term sample storage in laboratories. Creating labels with handwriting is convenient, adaptable, and often the standar ..read more

Biofoundry Manager Applications are invited for a Biofoundry Manager to join the Engineering Biology Programme at the Earlham Institute, based in Norwich. Closing date: November 25th. For more information visit the Earlham Institute website. https://www.earlham.ac.uk/biofoundry-manager ..read more

Synthetic Biology UK 2021 will be hosted by Synthetic Biology Research Centre Nottingham, and will focus on a number of burgeoning new areas of activity, including the engineering of microbial communities, microbial-plant interactions and applications for the sustainable manufacture of materials, the circular economy and climate mitigation strategies. Date: November 22nd For more information and to register visit: https://www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=53019&eventID=108&CSPCHD=0000010000005HOPapInI12EMFR969aLR0xa4Zi1NHfz6Lg5Pw ..read more

OpenPlant and the SynBio IRC are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Biomaker Challenge Winter 2021. The Biomaker Challenge is run annually to encourage, support and fund small interdisciplinary teams of researchers to develop projects and prototypes at the intersection of biology, engineering and computer science.  The 2021 Challenge “Exploring Plants, Soil and the Environment” will support teams to develop hardware and/or software projects in 3 categories: Sensors, field communication and machine learning for environmental survey and monitoring ..read more

OpenPlant PI Alison Smith and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge have recently published a new paper describing their use of synthetic biology tools to screen for improved levels of gene expression in the algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Their work provides a new approach for systematic testing of genetic elements for optimal transgene design, and identifies an optimal terminator size for use in Chlamydomonas. Exploring the Impact of Terminators on Transgene Expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with a Synthetic Biology Approach Katrin Geisler, Mark A Scaife, Paweł M Mordaka, Andr ..read more

OpenPlant PI Jim Haseloff recently published collaborative work with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, China and the USA describing a new system for expressing high concentrations of protein in the chloroplasts of the simple plant system Marchantia polymorpha. Their work provides a new tool for plant based production of biomolecules, with cholorplasts providing the potential for very heigh levels of transgene expression. Construction of DNA Tools for Hyperexpression in Marchantia Chloroplasts Eftychios Frangedakis, Fernando Guzman-Chavez, Marius Rebmann, Kasey Markel, Ying Yu, Artem ..read more

OpenPlant PI Anne Osbourne recently published work in collaboration with colleagues from the John Innes Centre, Shanghai, the Czech Republic and Aberystwyth describing the structure and organisation of the avenacin antimicrobial gene cluster in oats, and their subsequent work reconstituting this antimicrobial pathway in the tobacco plant. Subtelomeric assembly of a multi-gene pathway for antimicrobial defense compounds in cereals Li Y, Leveau A, Zhao Q, Feng Q, Lu H, Miao J, Xue Z, Martin AC, Wegel E, Wang J, Orme A, Rey MD, Karafiátová M, Vrána J, Steuernagel B, Joynson R, Owen C, Reed J, Lou ..read more