Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham working on synthetic genomics. Views are my own.
Joined May 2018
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We're recruiting 3 postdocs to come and join the GlycoCell UKRI Mission Hub. Interested in using Engineering Biology and Synthetic Genomics to engineer bacteria and yeast for new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics? Apply here: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacanc…
Ben Blount retweeted
Delighted our GlycoCell Engineering Biology Mission Hub has been funded by @UKRI_News @BBSRC Technology Missions Fund! So excited to apply Engineering Biology to unlock the applied potential of glycans for biomedicines and beyond ukri.org/news/new-100m-fund-… nottingham.ac.uk/news/glycoc…
I’m delighted to be part of the GlycoCell UKRI Engineering Biology Hub. We’ll be using synthetic genomics to develop new therapeutics/diagnostics and enable microbes to make advanced biomedicines. My lab will be recruiting a postdoc and PhD student soon!
ukri.org/news/new-100m-fund-…
Ben Blount retweeted
We were awarded a grant to use machine learning & synth biology to predict how to make successful synthetic genomes. We’ll use pangenomes to train ML models then make the predicted constructs
BBSRC injects £12m into pioneering frontier bioscience research ukri.org/news/bbsrc-injects-…
Ben Blount retweeted
Scientists @BABlount @UoNLifeSci & @ProfTomEllis @Imperialcollege are poised to create the most advanced “synthetic” organism ever made — a baker’s yeast that is controlled entirely by human-made genetic instructions.
Read more @thetimes ▶️ ow.ly/hTEb50Q6nZ9
We finally finished our synthetic chromosome! @ProfTomEllis @glen_gowers I'm just going to collapse in this corner now... cell.com/cell-genomics/fullt…
Ben Blount retweeted
Happy Sc2.0 day. 10 new papers published today in Cell Genomics, Cell and Molecular Cell. Telling the story of 8 more completed chromosomes (including ours) and a tRNA neochromosome and bringing more than half the syn genome together into a single cell.
cell.com/cell-genomics/curre…
Ben Blount retweeted
It's Sc2.0 day! 10 new papers to check out in Cell, Molecular Cell, and Cell Genomics! @ProfTomEllis @JefBoeke @ChantalSHEN @caiyizhi @BABlount @MatthewWChang plus all everyone involved!
We’ve got a technical post open to join our team for a project mining natural and synthetic microbial diversity: jobs.ac.uk/job/DBX730/techni…
I'm delighted to have written a @NatureNV piece describing some great new work led by @geochurch on modifying E. coli synthetic genome cells for improved biocontainment and resistance to phage infection nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
Ben Blount retweeted
A synthetic bacterial genome has been upgraded for viral defence and biocontainment. Read this terrific N&V by @BABlount to learn more go.nature.com/42hrFkg
Ben Blount retweeted
We made a synthetic yeast chromsome! @BABlount and I just posted a preprint @biorxiv describing our contribution to Sc2.0: the 660kb SynXI chromosome.
1000s of synonmous mutations in coding genes caused no issues at all, unlike edits to non-coding DNA. 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
After a decade of hacking away at the molecular coalface, we've finally completed and preprinted chromosome XI of the Sc2.0 yeast @SynGenome. We’ve been celebrating so much that even the chromosome has been throwing shapes...
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Ben Blount retweeted
Out today in @NatureComms! Our work using artificial selection pressure to rapidly search libraries of millions of variants for useful biocatalysts with new or improved properties nature.com/articles/s41467-0… @UniofNottingham @imperialcollege @LaraSellesVidal #synbio #meteng #engbio
Ben Blount retweeted
Programming your beer/bread/whatever, enabled by Cello 2.0 @DouglasDensmore
nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
