Publications

2026

Articles

  1. Hyperspectral reporters for long-distance and wide-area detection of gene expression in living bacteria

    Y. Chemla*, I. Levin*, Y. Fan, A. A. Johnson, C. W. Coley, C. A. Voigt

    Nature Biotechnology · 44(2): 258–268

Reviews

  1. Responsible biotechnology: an analysis of the Asilomar 2025 entreaties

    Y. Chemla, C. A. Voigt

    Trends in Biotechnology · Feature Review, in press

    Synthesizes the 27 Spirit of Asilomar 2025 entreaties into action items on the environmental release of engineered organisms, biosecurity, AI in biology, governance, and regulation.

  2. Synthetic biology of plants and microbes for agriculture, environment, and future applications

    P. Clauer, A. X. Nou, T. Toth, Q. Yu, Y. Chemla, A. Boo, K. Yoon, C. A. Voigt

    Chemical Reviews

2025

Articles

  1. A two-protein chemoreceptor complex regulates oxygen thresholds in bacterial magneto-aerotaxis

    J. Herz, C. Weigel, L. Scheder, R. Zarivach, I. Algov, Y. Chemla, F. Popp, et al.

    Advanced Science · 12(34): e17315

Reviews

  1. Design and regulation of engineered bacteria for environmental release

    Y. Chemla, C. J. Sweeney, C. A. Wozniak, C. A. Voigt

    Nature Microbiology · 10(2): 281–300

Conference

  1. Biomolecular tools tailored to the environment: hyperspectral reporters to track engineered microbiomes across time and from space

    Y. Chemla, I. Levin, C. A. Voigt, C. W. Coley

    AIChE Annual Meeting

Policy

  1. Identifying and addressing the risk of the environmental release of organisms — engineered or natural

    Y. Chemla, T. Alexanian, F. M. Barrios, G. Demirer, A. Flores, S. Karthikeyan, et al.

    Spirit of Asilomar Workshop entreaty

2024

Reviews

  1. Expanding the genetic code of bioelectrocatalysis and biomaterials

    Y. Chemla, F. Kaufman, M. Amiram, L. Alfonta

    Chemical Reviews · 124(20): 11187–11241

Preprints

  1. Engineering bacteria for environmental release: regulatory challenges and design strategies

    Y. Chemla, C. J. Sweeney, C. A. Wozniak, C. A. Voigt

    Authorea Preprints

Patents

  1. Highly efficient and tunable system for the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins in Escherichia coli

    L. Alfonta, V. Noireaux, O. Schlesinger, Y. Chemla, E. Ozer

    U.S. Patent 12,163,173

2023

Conference

  1. Engineering the field microbiome for extreme remote biosensing using hyperspectral reporters

    Y. Chemla, C. A. Voigt

    SEED Conference (Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution & Design)

Patents

  1. Prediction, biosynthesis, and integration as biosensors of molecules with unique light-absorbance signatures and their in-field remote detection using multi- or hyperspectral cameras

    C. A. Voigt, Y. Chemla, I. Levin

    U.S. Patent App. 17/961,925

    Licensed to Fieldstone Bio

2022

Articles

  1. Parallel engineering of environmental bacteria and performance over years under jungle-simulated conditions

    Y. Chemla, Y. Dorfan, A. Yannai, D. Meng, P. Cao, S. Glaven, D. B. Gordon, et al.

    PLoS ONE · 17(12): e0278471

Patents

  1. Ribosome termination structures and use thereof

    T. Tuller, M. Peeri, Y. Chemla, L. Alfonta

    U.S. Patent App. 17/870,607

2020

Articles

  1. A possible universal role for mRNA secondary structure in bacterial translation revealed using a synthetic operon

    Y. Chemla, M. Peeri, M. L. Heltberg, J. Eichler, M. H. Jensen, T. Tuller, L. Alfonta

    Nature Communications · 11(1): 4827

    GenScript Citation of the Year, 2021

2019

Articles

  1. Simplified methodology for a modular and genetically expanded protein synthesis in cell-free systems

    Y. Chemla, E. Ozer, M. Shaferman, B. Zaad, R. Dandela, L. Alfonta

    Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology · 4(4): 189–196

2018

Reviews

  1. Context effects of genetic code expansion by stop codon suppression

    Y. Chemla, E. Ozer, I. Algov, L. Alfonta

    Current Opinion in Chemical Biology · 46: 146–155

2017

Articles

  1. Expanding the genetic code of a photoautotrophic organism

    Y. Chemla, M. Friedman, M. Heltberg, A. Bakhrat, E. Nagar, R. Schwarz, et al.

    Biochemistry · 56(16): 2161–2165

  2. In vitro suppression of two different stop codons

    E. Ozer, Y. Chemla, O. Schlesinger, H. Y. Aviram, I. Riven, G. Haran, L. Alfonta

    Biotechnology and Bioengineering · 114(5): 1065–1073

  3. Tuning of recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli by manipulating transcription, translation-initiation rates, and incorporation of noncanonical amino acids

    O. Schlesinger*, Y. Chemla*, M. Heltberg*, E. Ozer, R. Marshall, V. Noireaux, et al.

    ACS Synthetic Biology · 6(6): 1076–1085

Patents

  1. Genetically expanded cell-free protein synthesis systems, methods and kits

    L. Alfonta, Y. Chemla

    U.S. Patent App. 15/320,714

2016

Articles

  1. Mitochondrial 16S rRNA is methylated by tRNA methyltransferase TRMT61B in all vertebrates

    D. Bar-Yaacov, I. Frumkin, Y. Yashiro, T. Chujo, Y. Ishigami, Y. Chemla, et al.

    PLoS Biology · 14(9): e1002557

2015

Articles

  1. Genetically expanded cell-free protein synthesis using endogenous pyrrolysyl orthogonal translation system

    Y. Chemla, E. Ozer, O. Schlesinger, V. Noireaux, L. Alfonta

    Biotechnology and Bioengineering · 112(8): 1663–1672