Prof. @ Harvard University, Broad Institute, and Wyss Institute. Understanding the natural world by building a synthetic one. website: bu.edu/khalillab/
Boston, MA
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Attn eVOLVER users & enthusiasts. 2 BIG developments!
1) New open-source eVOLVER wiki, which will be a hub for guides and documentation: khalil-lab.gitbook.io/evolve…
2) eVOLVER software version 2.0 is now available! Read about the new features on the forum: evolver.bio/t/evolver-wiki-s…
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Synthetic circuits that program new capabilities into human cells have tremendous potential to expand emerging gene and cell-based therapies. Our latest work, out today in @ScienceMagazine, reports a platform to accelerate these developments: (1/n)
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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1/n PAPER ALERT: In collaboration with @davidrliu, we combined eVOLVER + PACE (= ePACE) to facilitate the evolution of compact Nme2Cas9 variants that can target single-nucleotide (previously-inaccessible) PAM sequences for precision genome editing.
go.nature.com/3d1A9Y3
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How it started (11 years ago TODAY, left). How it’s going (right). Happy Anniversary, Katie ❤️
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1/ Synbio has potential to enhance next-gen therapies, but how can we make clinically-viable, therapeutic circuits in human cells a reality? Excited to unveil 1st of several papers trying to address this question, led by the brilliant @phdivya & Huishan Li
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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We have fun & surprising news! Incredibly honored to share I've been selected as recipient of the Schmidt Science Polymath Award, which supports recently-tenured profs. with desire to explore risky new research ideas across disciplines. @SchmidtFutures
schmidtfutures.com/our-work/…
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NEW PREPRINT: SO proud and excited to share our latest work, many years in the making! Come on a journey and learn about the power of COOPERATIVITY for encoding specificity in cells and engineering evolutionarily stable genetic circuits. [1/n]
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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1/n There have been an EXCITING recent papers highlighting the importance of LOW-AFFINITY binding and COOPERATIVITY among TFs. Let me highlight a few – come take a quick ride!
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PROTIP: Probably ill-advised to have a folder on your desktop titled "GIRLS" when Zoom screen-sharing in front of a class of undergrads
For the record, I have 2 elementary school daughters saving school work / files on my computer 🤣
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Cat’s out of the bag. Official tenure news arrived! Many great mentors to thank within @BU_Tweets and in the #synbio and broader communities. Most of all thanks to my amazing group, who signed up for this crazy ride and were willing to drink champagne this AM in group meeting!
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I used to paint a lot. Don’t like revisiting many of my paintings, with a few exceptions. ❤️ this one. Watercolor ~20 years ago: couple having a peaceful moment overlooking an area that has historically not had many -- Golan heights viewed from 3x border of Jordan, Israel & Syria
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Thank you, @SenWarren! And thanks for your unwavering support of science! Proud to call you my senator.
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PAPER! Come learn how we used synthetic circuits to investigate how specificity is achieved in gene networks, and how to apply these insights to engineer gene circuits with stable, evolutionarily-robust functions. Reported today in @CellCellPress!! 1/n
authors.elsevier.com/sd/arti…
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Non-neural cells can make memories too! To figure out how, we built a fully synthetic epigenetic system. Thrilled to share our newest work out today. Congrats to the whole team, and especially the inimitable @minheepark8, the driving force of the work!
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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Delighted & honored to be elected into the @aimbe College of Fellows, joining so many outstanding medical & biological engineers! I'm indebted to all my mentors and most of all to #khalillab members past and present, who make this possible! 🙏
aimbe.org/2021-aimbe-fellows…
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It's official - the @NIH has funded a new #SynBio T32 biotech training program at @BU_Tweets, which I will Co-Direct! My colleagues and I are looking forward to recruiting & training #SynBio PhDs right here in the biotech hub of the world. More information soon.
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Colin Kunze and I wrote a perspective in @ScienceMagazine on the elegant work led by @RonZhu2015 & @ElowitzLab to engineer a synthetic multistable system in mammalian cells. Check it out!
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
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We previously reported the synZiFTR toolkit (compact synthetic ZF regulators) for engineering “clinically-optimized” gene circuits to control therapeutic human cell function
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
FUN UPDATE: We have a synZiFTR2.0 with enhanced activity (coming soon) ... 1/n
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I am SO relieved and happy for my parents. On their Wedding Anniversary, they are receiving an incredible gift: 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine! 🙏🏽🙏🏽😭😭
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Years ago, we set out to create synbio tech to solve a major challenge: generating precision antibodies for challenging membrane proteins.
It's a DREAM COME TRUE to report we've now launched K2 Therapeutics (k2-tx.com/) to advance this into transformative medicines
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Thrilled to share our new (unredacted) report in @sciencemagazine with evidence for cooperation influencing outcomes! Led by Caleb Bashor & @nikitpatels, we built cooperative TF assemblies and showed how they enable complex signal processing in cells: science.sciencemag.org/conte…
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Ah yes! Our group likes to have fun at my expense 🤣 I encourage it -- because this is how we practice our Illustrator scientific figure-making! See below examples 1/n
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Super excited to share that our #eVOLVER paper is now online! Check out our new reconfigurable system for automated cell growth and laboratory evolution. Congrats to @brandogw @MancusoSci and the whole team for a beautiful paper!!
nature.com/articles/nbt.4151
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Our new work with @chang_c_liu in which we take a 1st step toward automating evolution in the lab by combining #orthoRep + #eVOLVER = ACE. Congrats to the team of Ziwei Zhong, @brandogw, Arjun Ravikumar, Garri Arzumanyan. Much more to come in this space!
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Automated continuous evolution of proteins in vivo biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor… #bioRxiv
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PAPER ALERT: Come read about how we used lab experiments w/ #eVOLVER, soil microbes, & theory to understand how #microbiomes assemble and how ecosystems respond to environmental changes! #tweetorial below (w/ bonus insights for your sourdough starter 🤣):
elifesciences.org/articles/6…
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Note from 7yo, which I love for many reasons:
1) Clearly wrote it for Mom, and then rapidly adapted it upon realizing I was picking her up from school
2) Evidence that I'm raising a true New Englander. "DD" = Dunkin Donuts. 🤣
* spelling needs serious work ...
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Welp, after much anticipation, 2yo son finally pooped out the necklace. Yes, you read that right. It's been a long week (like many before it)...
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Taking a break from science to share a fun milestone. We made it to 2 years! HBD to these loves!
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What an absolute delight to travel to Paris with just my two older daughters, who were amazing companions in a few magical days of science + site seeing + Parisian cuisine! 😋
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I am thankful for this great honor. Most of all I am thankful for all the amazing lab members and collaborators I've had the good fortune to work with! #khalillab @BU_Tweets @BUCollegeofENG
bu.edu/eng/2019/10/08/the-co…
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Thrilled to announce that Dr. Adam Sanford successfully and brilliantly defended his PhD dissertation today! Adam may hold the (enviable or unenviable?) distinction of having made the most yeast strains in Khalil lab history over the course of his PhD 🍾🥳
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OTD 12 years ago! My, what a joyous day it was, and what a magical 12 years it has been ❤️
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OK, we’re dropping another album cover! Enjoy folks, and have a wonderful and restful Memorial Day weekend.
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SO excited and proud of the program we've put together for the @GordonConf GRC Synthetic Biology conference this summer. This is your chance to apply -- spaces are filling very quickly!!
Keynotes: Beth Sattely (@Sattely_lab), Jason Chin
grc.org/synthetic-biology-co…
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Appalled and heartbroken by the violent escalation of military force in Gaza. Ashamed and disappointed by the woefully inadequate response of the US / Biden Admin.
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[PLEASE RT] With my awesome co-chairs, I'm excited to share the (nearly complete) program for one of my FAVORITE meetings: Synthetic Biology @GordonConf 2023. This meeting is special -- I highly encourage folks to register and attend! @microdynamic
grc.org/synthetic-biology-co…
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Boy, it's been a while since I posted! (distracted and busy). Let's kick off 2024 with a recent, lovely pic of the group. I am SO lucky to work with these talented individuals, and I can't wait to share their discoveries and stories with you this year!
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Yesterday, we did something special for group meeting :) There was a little science discussed; but mostly we enjoyed the sunshine and getting reacquainted after all this time. Love this group! #khalillab
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A very happy day in #khalillab, as we celebrate the amazing accomplishments of @emmalemmah in her PhD Defense. Congratulations to newly minted Dr. Emma Briars!
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Lots to be grateful for 🙏 Thanks to the W.M. Keck Foundation for selecting our labs for this award! Excited to launch this work with my friend and collaborator @chang_c_liu.
(@BU_Tweets news story to follow)
Congratulations to our own @MoKhalilLab and his
@UCIrvine colleague @chang_c_liu on their recent funding award from the Keck Foundation to study cell signaling! @BioDesignCenter
LEARN MORE >> engineering.uci.edu/news/202…
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I often have doubts about my parenting. The other day, somehow the topic came up: 'What are the biggest problems facing our world'. Without hesitation, my 9yo daughter blurts out: "COVID, climate change, racism". OK, we're not doing so bad ...
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6yo daughter just told my wife that she can now stop crying in the bathtub every evening 😭😭🍾🍾🤣🤣
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Khalil lab retreat in beautiful Vermont commences! Let the science (and fun) begin. (This retreat happens to also mark our 10-year anniversary 😀🎈)
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The #khalillab reminds everyone to #WearAMask! We will be sporting our new lab-themed bandanas, designed by the talented @emmalemmah, complete with #eVOLVER vials, yeasts, and TFs! 👇
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Filling out my annual report for my institution. Colleagues: which of these potential supplemental figures best summarizes accomplishments over the last year?!
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This is what you call a UNICORN in my house. All 4 kids this morning playing nicely and collaboratively. Shhhhh, nobody say anything — can’t risk disturbing …
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Greatly enjoyed being a "visiting scientist" for my daughters' science fair and talking to K-2 graders about their amazing science projects. My personal fav project sought to answer the following: Are cats afraid of cucumbers? 🐱🥒
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Here we go with another semester! In this very class — in this 9th year of being faculty — is my 1000th undergraduate taught. Hard to believe!
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Kicked off the new year by hiking to the highest point of our fair Lexington, MA — nevermind that the summit is 374 ft! 🤣🤣 Seems fitting for 2022
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SO nice to get a note this Thanksgiving from a former high schooler who worked in the #khalillab: "My time in the lab shaped the way I look at science, as well as gave me a better idea of what I may want to do in the future ... I plan on majoring in Bioengineering" #proudPI
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Our lab is SO grateful and fortunate to be supported by the @schmidtsciences Polymaths Award -- an absolutely transformative program! (check out this snazzy video made by @schmidtsciences about the work of several investigators)
piped.video/watch?v=MD1JNpH7…
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May be a new yeast plate record for #khalillab. 160 plates X 96 spots per plate = 15,360 spots. Can’t wait to share what Adam Sanford has been working on!
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[Please RT] The Khalil Lab is hiring! We are looking for a Lab Manager to support daily research activities for our group of ~20 scientists. Ideal candidates can independently create, implement, and enforce workflows for molecular biology labs. Full job post in thread below 👇
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How we run experiments in the #khalillab has evolved! Courtesy of the brilliant @MancusoSci. @brandogw #evolver
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Congrats to the brilliant @minheepark8 for defending her thesis! In honor of her outstanding work to create the first epigenetic system capable of self-propagation and inheritance, I spent too much time on photoshop making this👇. Congrats Minhee! #khalillab
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My daughter: a budding engineer and chronic interruptor of Zoom lectures. Love the use of LEGO pieces! 🤣
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Want to study #synbio w/ @DunlopLab, @DouglasDensmore, #WilsonWong, @AllysonSgro, @MoKhalilLab, @johntngo in Boston? Consider BU! We launched the first @NIH Biotech PhD Training program in #synbio! Plus great industry partners @Ginkgo, @moderna_tx, etc.
sites.bu.edu/sb2/
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No better way to end the week than with a successful PhD Defense in the lab! Congrats to @phdivya on a fantastic talk and PhD! And thanks to her amazing committee: @JKeithJoung, @johntngo, Wilson Wong and Chris Chen. @BUCollegeofENG #khalillab 🍾🍾 time!
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The next COVID Khalil home improvement project begins! The kids think it’s a treehouse for them, but really I’m just upping my #WFH game even more. Prepare for some spectacular sylvan Zoom backgrounds 🌿🤣
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Happy to share that Boston University @BU_Tweets is recruiting new faculty members in life sciences/engineering across MULTIPLE searches:
1. @BioDesignCenter (w/ bio, chem, phys)
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…
2+3. @BostonU_BME
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…
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A truly magical day of science! Was uplifted to hear from so many talented young researchers at our @BioDesignCenter annual symposium, which was capped off by the one-and-only @davidrliu delivering the Charles Cantor Lecture! And if that wasn’t enough, I got vaccine-boosted 💉🙏
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This week in our Quantitative Bio class, we are covering one of my favorite topics: Epigenetics. Starting with this lovely classic paper from @BintuLacra, @ElowitzLab, and co.
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Wohoo! First in-person full group meeting in many many months. SO nice to see all these lovely faces talking science together in a room.
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I had a (ahem) rare, uncharacteristic, and brief bout of road rage at a driver who v dangerously passed my car, which was full of kids, in an apparent rush.
My 3yo son has since been walking around calling out FUSSING GASHOLE! I know it’s bad — but I can’t help laughing 😂
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Me (pre-pandemic): Disgusting!
Me (1 year into pandemic with 4 young kids at home): This checks out. Let me have some of that!
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Incredibly proud of latest #khalillab undergrad alums, who are off to grad school @MITdeptofBE, @Caltech and @UCSF_BioE / @BerkeleyBioE. Thank you for your contributions, perseverance in challenging circumstances, and thanks PB for the amazing #DIY #evolver card👇🏻!
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We're excited that many labs have begun to adopt our #eVOLVER platform (and we're working hard to get more labs on-board!). To facilitate your own #eVOLVER-based experiments, we worked with @JoVEJournal to film a detailed protocol. #khalillab @brandogw @MancusoSci #zackheins
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When is 1+1>2? With cooperativity of course! See how we built cooperative TF assemblies from first principles, and showed how a small # of parts can produce a large # of complex regulatory behaviors. Out in @sciencemagazine. #khalillab #synbio
science.sciencemag.org/conte…
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SO excited and proud to be sharing this new preprint! Amazing work by the whole team. Ping me with any fb or if you want to talk eVOLVER!
biorxiv.org/content/early/20…
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Pulled over during my commute yesterday to snap this photo of beautiful #Boston sky near the @newbalance building.
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Hey, it's here -- journal cover featuring our work! Designed by the great Katie Flynn. #eVOLVER #khalillab @brandogw @MancusoSci
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My office whiteboard following a visit from the kids. Kid #2 sums it all up pretty darn well: ‘… blah blah Bioengineering blah blah …’ 😂
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A few pics from our wonderful recent trip to Banff and Jasper, starting with the magical lakes! 1/n
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It is the BIG weekend of the year! (No, not the weekend before the Oct R01 deadline). It’s double birthday time (11yo, left; 9yo, right). 🎂😃🎈
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Introducing the newly minted, Dr. Sam Gan! Congrats to Sam on a wonderful PhD Defense talk, complete with classic Sam memes and dry humor 😂👨🎓🍾
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My life is complete. My absolute fav dessert growing up, now in TJs ready-to-eat format. Hot tip: this Kunefe is surprisingly pretty good.
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Our Preview of recent work by @JswLab, @LukeGilbertSF, and team in @CellCellPress on developing and applying CRISPRoff, a programmable epigenetic memory writer. Kudos to #khalillab postdocs Hagar Moussa and @JamesAngstman.
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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As a human being, it's hard to watch what's happening and remain silent. It's especially hard being of Palestinian descent, whose family fled in '48. #EndOccupation
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Undoubtedly the right call, nonetheless sad to report the #Synbio @GordonConf will be deferred until 2023. My co-chairs (@microdynamic, @SynBioGrant, #karenpolizzi) & I have developed an exciting, diverse program. W/ 2 more years, talks will be amazing 🤣
grc.org/synthetic-biology-co…
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