The grand challenge
Taking synthetic biology beyond the lab
Synthetic biology has reached the point where it can do extraordinary things in a tube — but moving its tools into the real, messy world is still a grand challenge. Engineered organisms have to function in soil, water, plants, and people; they have to be readable from the field, not just from a confocal scope; and they have to be deployed responsibly under regulatory frameworks the field is still actively defining.
Our lab works at this frontier — building the molecular tools, the readouts, and the design and deployment principles needed to make synthetic biology work outside the lab.
To meet that challenge, we focus on three interlocking research areas.
Our three research areas
- Theme 1 · Predictable
Genetic Design: mRNA Engineering
Sequence-to-function rules for mRNA structure, translation, and stability — and generative models that turn those rules into designs that work the first time.
- Sequence-to-function rules for mRNA secondary structure
- Generative models for mRNA design (MIT-seq)
- Genetic code expansion and stop-codon suppression
- Cell-free expression and modular protein synthesis
- Theme 2 · Observable
Hyperspectral Biology
Genetically encoded reporters readable from far away — even from satellites — so we can monitor engineered cells in the real environments they live in.
- Reporters readable from a distance
- Multiplexed spectral barcodes
- Field-deployable detection systems
- Satellite imaging of engineered bacteria
- Theme 3 · Deployable
Engineering × Ecology
Designing engineered bacteria that work — and stay safe — outside the lab. From regulatory frameworks to multi-decade field studies and microbiome-scale functional readouts.
- Design and regulation of engineered bacteria for environmental release
- Performance of engineered strains under jungle-simulated conditions
- Multi-decade field tracking of released strains (Estonia)
- Functional genotyping of microbiomes
- Bioremediation, agricultural enhancement, and microbial therapeutics