Christopher Voigt Profile Banner
Christopher Voigt Profile
Christopher Voigt

@Geneticdesigner

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848
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1,710
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Composing DNA / Professor and Department Head @ MIT Biological Engineering

MIT
Joined September 2017
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 months
Detective bacteria programmed to sense problems in soil to warn plants. Research and art by @alicebioboo @tdtaz #biotech #synbio
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Watching a circuit function inside a cell
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
11 months
Biotechnology has entered a period of rapid growth, where cellular engineering will touch every aspect of society. I look forward to working with my colleagues to lead MIT BE through this era. @MIT @MITdeptofBE
@MITdeptofBE
MIT Dept of BE
11 months
Prof Christopher A. Voigt will be the next head of the MIT Department of Biological Engineering. Learn more about Prof Voigt at @Geneticdesigner
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Number of plasmids in individual cells, measured for a populations of bacteria. Shockingly high cell-to-cell variability and % without plasmid, even under antibiotic selection. Time to stop using them. @ShaoBin_phy @NIST #syntheticbiology #Biotechnology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Bacteria control you by releasing mimics of human signaling molecules. Using automation to discover chemicals made by gut microbes from food, we map fatty acid amides as mimics to fool the immune system. @NovartisScience @MITdeptofBE #syntheticbiology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
7 months
Bacteria programmed to respond to human DNA used for AI forensic facial reconstruction #synbio #biotech @mit @MITdeptofBE
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
5 months
When you smell a flower or extract a medicine from a plant, it is often a terpene, of which there are 10,000s of varients. A "terpene ready" E. coli with >30 recombinant genes led to the production of molecules with anticancer or immunotherapy potential.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
6 months
Postdoc openings: I am hiring for a wide range of projects, including genetic circuit design, fungal/plant engineering and synthetic biology applied to food and agriculture. @MIT @MITdeptofBE @gatesfoundation #biotech Instructions here:
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Diatom genes, with a dash of human enzymes, in bacteria to build silica structures.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Programming your beer/bread/whatever, enabled by Cello 2.0 @DouglasDensmore
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Arrived at #SEED2022 . Over 400 attendees! Pam Silver is kicking us off.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Postdoc positions are available in my lab @MIT for those excited to push genetic engineering as far as it will go... ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงช๐Ÿงซ๐Ÿ”ฌ #biotech #synbio #microbiome #agriculture #environment #medicine @MITdeptofBE Apply here:
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
@ACSSynBio is now 10 years old! After >2000 papers, I have decided to step down to let others grow it to the next level. Tomorrow, Michael Jewett ( @NUSynBio ) will become Editor-in-Chief. With @cate_goodman , I am excited to see where it, and the field, goes next! #biotech #synbio
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Postdoc applicant sent me Covid antibody tests she made ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿง‘๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ”ฌ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Poop has 10 billion Bacteroides per gram; now, they can be programmed.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Bacteria containing DNA that makes them function as a calculator display introduced in 1971
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
2022 SEED (Synthetic Biology, Engineering, Evolution and Deign) in D.C. What should we be talking about? #SynBio #Biotechnology #SEED2022
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Genetic circuits designed for the genome are stable for weeks without selection
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
OMG.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
4,674,808 new DNA-binding proteins! Should be enough; let's start building. Found with deep learning. @mbelmbel99 @kaistpr @cidar_lab #geneticcircuit #cello
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
I'm organizing a "Future Agriculture" keystone meeting. Considering speakers, what are the most exciting advances 2019-20? It could be synthetic biology, chemistry, AI, imaging, whatever, I don't care.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
A genetic circuit to screen 100,000,000 modified peptides to find one that hits a therapeutic target. Applied to find a binder to SARS-CoV-2 Spike. @MITdeptofBE @Novartis #biotech #COVID19
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Engineered Living Materials. @ecovative grows architectural bricks by mixing mycelia and biomass. Here, we engineered a contaminating bacterium to make melanin, a UV-protectant, during production. #syntheticbiology #Biotechnology @MITdeptofBE @DARPA
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Human-made materials now outweigh all life on Earth. Will we be better off when the next 1.1 trillion tons is made with Engineered Biology? #synbio #Biotechnology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
The Synthetic Biology Young Speaker Series (SynBYSS) is accepting applications/nominations for virtual talks. Untenured faculty or those seeking faculty positions soon (grad students or postdocs) can apply by sending your CV to to Tae-Seok Moon (tsmoon @wustl .edu). #SynBio
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
7 months
Synthetic Biology 4.0, 15 years ago; so much has changed...
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
Illegal lab containing bioengineered mice and infectious agents discovered in California โ€œโ€ฆthe mice inside the warehouse had been genetically engineered to catch and spread the COVID19 virus.โ€
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
The Seventh Wonder of Synthetic Biology are the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. For those in the field, a great review of their design and in vitro production: #syntheticbiology #biotechnology #COVID19
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Poison dart frogs are going extinct due to a skin fungal infection. We isolated a skin bacterium, programmed it to make an anti-fungal and re-colonized the frog. Engineering worked; frogs still die ๐Ÿ˜ข. #SynBio with @smithsonian and @jennbrophy7 .
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
75kb is how much DNA synthesis it took @daander7 to get his PhD with me. When is it going to be so good that we don't need sequencing to check our work? #Synbio #Biotechnology @rob_carlson
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Plastic-eating enzymes discovered using an assay that requires hole-punching a plastic sheet. Fun collaboration led by Linda Zhong. #DARPA #syntheticbiology #directedevolution
@MITBiology
MIT Biology
3 years
Did you know thereโ€™s a bacterium that degrades plastic? A new study by the Sinskey lab & @Geneticdesigner examines the kinetics of the plastic-degrading enzyme from this bacterium, in order to aid recycling and bioremediation efforts. Via @SciReports :
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
MIT @MITdeptofBE is hiring faculty! High priority areas: materials, chemicals, agriculture, sustainability, energy and the environment, as well as innovative new areas for the application of biotechnology.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
Black belt today ๐Ÿฅ‹... 10 years and 10^4 fights later... and now @MIT Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is gaining momentum () come get beat up by nerds #GFTeam #MaumauBJJ #Submityourfriend
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Our oligos must be in one of those containers...
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Turning a gene off is hard; some always "leaks." Bennett and co-workers use a feedforward loop and alternative codons to turn off the tap. @biodesign_lab #syntheticbiology #geneticcircuit
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
I was asked: "What are #synbio / #biotech books (for a lay audience) you recommend? Maybe books that talk about the potential for creating materials/products for sustainability or on 'building with biology,' something along those lines." IDK... I told her I would ask the Twitter.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
11 months
Postdoc positions available at the interface of filamentous fungi and synthetic biology, somewhat odd application spaces. #biotech #synbio #MIT @MITdepofBE
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
8 months
Searching for lost bacterium in Estonia ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Engineered spores impart function to materials; dry them out, irradiate them, douse them in chemicals and they are just fine.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Controlling battery properties by genetically engineering the phage used to scaffold metal nanofoams. With Belcher lab @MITdeptofBE . #DARPA Thousand Molecules (1KM).
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Goodness, the things I would have done with this as a grad student.
@naturemethods
Nature Methods
4 years
The Meltome Atlas compiles the thermal stability of 48,000 proteins across 13 species ranging from archaea to humans, providing a resource for analyzing protein stability in the context of function and interactions. @kusterlab @savitski_lab
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Architectural bricks that are alive and can heal themselves and communicate. Led by @harriswangnyc and @ecovative . #SynBio #biotech
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
A Manufacturing Innovation Institute will greatly accelerate the transition of products from Synthetic Biology to society. Success requires a collective approach. To find the best path forward, EBRC is hosting an open meeting in Houston Jan 24. Join us!
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
How best to make a TNT precursor using biotechnology? With an enzyme found in an airplane in an ocean bacterium, of course. Army, Navy, Air Force collaborating.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Program cis-regulatory logic upstream of genes without needing to insert DNA operators #CRISPR #synbio
@MolSystBiol
Mol Syst Biol
2 years
A transcriptional control mechanism based on the competitive binding of #dCas9 to DNA by two guide RNAs --> @Geneticdesigner @MITdeptofBE #SynBio #CRISPRi #GeneticCircuit
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Wallpapering my kitchen with this
@chofski
Thomas Gorochowski
3 years
If you are building software to visualise genetic constructs using SBOL Visual you might find our new #Python library paraSBOLv useful. Our paper covering its core functionality is now out in @OUPSynBio : @jamesscottbrown @SBOLstandard @BrisBioDesign
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
We are developing a process to convert plastic waste, an environmental blight, to products through chemistry and synthetic biology. I am hiring a program manager to run a DARPA-funded program between MIT, Conagen and Bio-cellectionโ€ฆ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Rocket powered by fuel from engineered yeast #amyris #biotechnology #synbio
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@ameekapadia
Amee Kapadia
3 years
Wish biotech had more physically โ€œcoolโ€ imagery associated with it like other frontier tech has. Assays and gels just donโ€™t have the same visual effect as rockets do๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Tinder not working for you? My (15 yo) son's first manuscript applies game theory to map the matching problem to Sudoku to optimize mutual happiness and stability.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
5 years
Postdoc positions! These are opening in my lab over the next 2-12 months. I'm looking for a wide range of backgrounds, from systems/synthetic biology, microbiology, materials, computation and everything in between. Instructions are on my website.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
After a 15 minute talk, I once got one question and only one question: โ€œDo you have trouble finding people who know what you are talking about?โ€ It was serious, too.
@andrewwhite01
Andrew White crow/acc
3 years
Heard this zinger after my talk: "I wish I was confident enough to give a talk that disorganized." ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐Ÿ”ฅ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
5 years
fish cytometer
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
The MIT-Broad Foundry has evolved into Asimov Labs. Better life, by design. @SynBioFoundry @AsimovBio @MIT @broadinstitute @MITdeptofBE
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
#AI fail
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Lead a team to use Synthetic Biology to address the scourge of plastic waste. Will coordinate efforts across academia ( @MITdeptofBE ) and industry ( @conagen @BioCellection ). Apply here:
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
10 months
We worked with @synlogic to make therapeutic bacteria easier to program. The era of living medicines is coming fast.
@CellSystemsCP
Cell Systems
10 months
Clinically relevant engineered E. coli Nissle for treating phenylketonuria (PKU) has been redesigned for improved activity and simplified manufacturing @AlexTriassi @SynBioFoundry @Geneticdesigner
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Why am I paying $54 for a liter of RNAse-free water, when RNA can survive in the SEWER?
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Interested in Synthetic Biology? Interested in Malice? Come and see. @EngBioRC #biotechnology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
1 year
Army Center for Synthetic Biology launched; exited to co-direct it with @MichaelCJewett . Logo suggested by DALL-e. @MIT @MITdeptofBE #biotech
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
โฆโฆ @AsimovBio โฉ founders enjoying warm evening
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
1 year
A marriage between Synthetic Biology and Synthetic Chemistry! Computationally design pathways to molecules by combining enzymatic and chemistry steps.
@itai_levin
Itai Levin
1 year
I'm happy to share our work on computer-aided synthesis planning of hybrid enzymatic/synthetic reaction pathways with @Geneticdesigner and @cwcoley !
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Those continuing to work in lab. Thanks, mom, for the masks!
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
How many human proteins need to be transferred before you become a cannibal?
@PKU1898
Peking University
3 years
#PKU chemical biologist Jia Guifang and collaborators found an unusual trick for growing bigger, heartier crops: inserting a human protein related to promoting growth into plants, according to their study published by @NatureBiotech . Know more:
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
I wonder who it is?
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
COVID killed ~10^6 people in 2021; antibiotic-resistant bacteria could kill 10^7 per year by 2050 #AMR
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Flow is important in genetic engineering; like choreographing a dance in a very crowded room.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Instead of publishing my next paper, I will create a representative NFT, delete all files, burn the notebooks, and destroy the DNA/cell lines. The NFT will capture the value of this work, with stabilized supply due to my limited productivity.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
6 months
Programmable Planet, a great history of Synthetic Biology by @AntonChekhov
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Science wasn't my best subject in elementary school, but it wasn't my worst... @HKIS
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@conTaminatedsci
Tami Lieberman
3 years
I'd like to call bullshit on this. The claim is that performance in elementary and middle school science is predicted by Kindergarden science performance. Science was my worst subject in elementary school -- it was mostly memorization at that point, and I was not interested.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
9 months
I started as a professor exactly 20 years ago... ๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ. Guess what my first impression of the job was?
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
๐Ÿ…๐ŸงฌNominate for the ACS Synthetic Biology Young Investigator Award! Due April 5, 2021. ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ๐Ÿ† #synbio #biotech
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
6 months
A pharmacy stocked with antibiotics, living on and in you. @MITdeptofBE #Biotechnology #microbiome
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Before class, my daughter waits at the top of the stairs holding her laptop and waits for her teacher to log on because she is scared to go down to the basement alone.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Even a single-celled organism can look depressed
@ScienceChannel
Science Channel
3 years
You ever feel like you're just leaving little pieces of yourself behind? ๐Ÿฆ  #MicroscopicMonday ๐Ÿงซ ๐Ÿ”ฌby @ciliateco
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Metal nanoparticles through #syntheticbiology . Postdoc opportunity in my lab ( @MITdeptofBE ) with @Zymergen , @whitedoglabs and @LockheedMartin . With the new DoD MII @TheBioMADE @EBRC . #biotechnology Apply here:
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
Valuable metal nanocrystals are built naturally by Magnetospirillum, but harnessing this machinery to build new structures by design remains elusive.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Ca structures pervade biology, from transparent armor on bony fish to protective enamel on fangs. Here, Zhong and co-workers use bacteria to "3D print" calcium structures using genetically-encoded light sensors. #syntheticbiology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
2 years
Wow, this is a lot of enthusiasm for our Correction! ๐Ÿ˜’๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
My kids' virtual school has been canceled as a snow day. So .. uh.. yeah.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
1 year
It is only a bottleneck solved if the long DNA being synthesized can contain many active regulatory parts (e.g., promoters), repetitive sequences, multiple genes, and the like.
@johncumbers
John Cumbers
1 year
Has synthetic biology finally found the elixir to solve its biggest bottleneck? Read my latest piece in Forbes to find out how one company thinks theyโ€™ve cracked the code ๐Ÿงฌ /1
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Itโ€™s an inside meme
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Iโ€™m surprised they go this fast. I want one. But I donโ€™t want to become โ€œthat professor.โ€ Or is it too late?
@TechBurritoUno
Tech Burrito
3 years
Vintage bike race in 1928.
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Ready to go with appropriate garb! โฆ @ACSSynBio โฉ
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
1. A mixture consisting of a lipid, sweetening agent and powdered raw grain that is compressed into a shape and heat treated. 2. The method of claim 1 where the lipid is derived from an animal milk product. 3. The method of claim 2 where the animal is a cow.
@McLellan_Lab
Jason McLellan
3 years
If recipes were written like patents
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
5 years
Accelerating early synthetic biology startups
@petribio
Petri
5 years
The Frontier is Here. Excited to launch today to support the next generation of founders with our friends @pillar_vc @reshmapshetty @EmilyLeproust @DaphneKoller @alectricity @geochurch Chris Voigt, Pam Silver, Stan Lapidus, JP Mangeolle, Bernhard van Lengerich, Andy Beck!
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
4 years
"If they are not dividing at all, they are living for 100 million years, but that seems insaneโ€
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
1 year
Great beginning (flattered ๐Ÿ™), I did not see the middle coming, and then WHAT THE F&*(@%*?
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Meet Pedetidae, the springhare, a naturally-fluorescent mammal due to porphyrins. #Biology
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Considering RNA vaccines are doing so well, why did DNA vaccines developed 20-so years ago flounder?
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Amazing resource
@NatureBiotech
Nature Biotechnology
3 years
A genomic catalog of Earthโ€™s microbiomes
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@Geneticdesigner
Christopher Voigt
3 years
Or perhaps not, and we need to build them... #design
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