Biotechnologists are increasingly planning not only to engineer microbes in the lab — but to then release them into the field. These microbes can fix nitrogen for plants or clean up pollutants. Good or bad, this review is the most substantive piece ever written on the issue.

Engineered cells are finding their way into agriculture, living materials, consumer products and medicines. How do we design these cells and adapt regulatory rules to facilitate their safe and efficient use? #synbio #biotech rdcu.be/d8xLG

New review on engineered microbes for environmental release. Includes examples where this has already been done, and explains all the regulatory hurdles involved.

🚨 Finally out!! Here's the article I wish existed when I started in sybio: - Every past time engineered microbes left the lab - Why some worked (and some failed) - How to actually get regulatory approval Required reading for founders/VCs/students who want their bioengineered

Interesting and important review by Yonatan Chemla, Connor J. Sweeney, Christopher A. Wozniak & Christopher A. Voigt Christopher Voigt Yonatan Chemla Nature Microbiology nature.com/articles/s4156…

🔬 #HFSP offers 2 types of Postdoctoral Fellowships: 👉Long-Term-For researchers shifting into life sciences 👉Cross-Disciplinary-For those moving from non-life science fields into biology Want to know how to succeed? Join our webinar for expert tips! bit.ly/4bSSY9P

Seeing what bacteria see from a flying UAV 👁️ rdcu.be/ehkQB #synbio #biotech Itai Levin Yonatan Chemla

> bacteria were engineered to make molecules that absorb light in unique ways. > the microbes were buried in soil. > using a drone with a hyperspectral camera, one can "see" where the microbes are buried from ~300 feet away. one of the most sci-fi papers I've seen in awhile.

Hyperspectral reporters for long-distance and wide-area detection of gene expression in living bacteria - Christopher Voigt go.nature.com/3XRs7Ft

Finally, this paper is out! Cool paper by Chris Voigt, Yonatan Chemla et al. Christopher Voigt Yonatan Chemla Nature Biotechnology nature.com/articles/s4158…

Going in, I did not imagine that my PhD would involve UAVs… Very happy to see this work out!

MIT engineers engineered bacteria to produce hyperspectral signals that can be detected as far as 90 meters away. Their work could lead to the development of ba… Source: MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Shared via the Google app search.app/hxLbkPe4wxDo8d…

We were excited to find this work from the DARPA side. Obviously many use cases! Well done Christopher Voigt MIT Dept of BE 👏👏👏👏 More to come here…

Nice article about our work designing hyperspectral reporter systems out in Nature Biotechnology today! "Imagine a world in which agricultural fields self-report their nutrient status, forest ecosystems signal early warnings of pathogen outbreaks, or engineered bacteria detect

Christopher Voigt MIT Dept of BE MIT ChemE Dept MIT EECS Yonatan Chemla Itai Levin Environmental monitoring from the air with hyperspectral reporters #NBTNV go.nature.com/3GwRh6k

Great job!

In a new Nature Biotechnology paper, a team of researchers, led by MIT Dept of BE Professor Christopher Voigt, has engineered bacteria to emit signals that can be detected up to 90 meters away. These bacteria could help farmers monitor their crops. news.mit.edu/2025/engineere…

The bacteria are watching. techcrunch.com/2025/05/15/fie…

This is important work in synthetic biology. Great work by Francesca Ceroni, Tom Ellis, Katie Galloway et al. in Trends in Biotechnology! Francesca Ceroni Tom Ellis Katie Galloway cell.com/trends/biotech…

I put 119 of (some of) my favorite papers I've read over the years on my Substack! (Titles, links, many with commentary, images). Enjoy! Link: loganthrashercollins.substack.com/p/logans-selec…