Researchers have announced creation of the first synthetic living cell—a landmark achievement in synthetic biology. The technology is being m… #Biotechinnovation #Biotechnology #Cellengineering #Scientificbreakthrough #Syntheticbiology

The first structures ever 3-D printed inside living cells point to applications for biology research.

Scientists have built atom-sized pores that act like living ion channels, opening the door to next-generation nanotech.

Synthetic receptors that mediate antigen-dependent cell responses are transforming therapeutics, drug discovery and basic research1,2. However, established technologies such as chimeric antigen receptors3 can only detect immobilized antigens, have limited output scope and lack built-in drug control3–7. Here we engineer synthetic G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are capable of driving a wide range of native or non-native cellular processes in response to a user-defined antigen. We achieve modular antigen gating by engineering and fusing a conditional auto-inhibitory domain onto GPCR scaffolds. Antigen binding to a fused nanobody relieves auto-inhibition and enables receptor activation by drug, thus generating programmable antigen-gated G-protein-coupled engineered receptors (PAGERs). We create PAGERs that are responsive to more than a dozen biologically and therapeutically important soluble and cell-surface antigens in a single step from corresponding nanobody binders. Different