Since the dawn of computer science, researchers have speculated about replacing electronics with physical and biological systems for computation. With the recent creation of large AI models and the associated rising energy- and resource-costs, the development of these alternative forms of computation have never been more relevant. In our new paper, now published in Nature, we report on the discovery and implementation of a chemical reservoir computer based on the prebiotic formose reaction. We investigated how this system processes information and demonstrated how it can perform complex computations similar to neural networks. Our work shows the intrinsic computational power of chemical networks and paves the way for a new kind of computer based on chemistry instead of electronics.

Congratulations to Mathieu Baltussen, Thijs de Jong, Quentin Duez, William Robinson and Wilhelm Huck! 🥳🎊

You can read the paper online now here.

In order to build a synthetic cell, it is crucial to know how to access the genetic information carried in large DNA molecules. In this work, we used rational analysis and an active learning tool to explore a broad parameter space and to adapt in vitro gene expression to E. coli’s chromosomes, discovering that these molecules can be expressed with a surprisingly high efficiency. We hope that this work will move the SynCell community one step further. Published now in ACS Omega!

Congratulations to Leonardo and all co-authors!! 🎉🥳

You can read the paper here.

Cells live in constantly changing environments. To truly understand how cells process information in their complex natural environment, it is essential to recreate such dynamic environments in the lab and study cell responses. In our work, we have studied how B-cells respond to dynamic environments by creating gradients of increasing hydrogen peroxide levels over time. This research revealed that B-cells are sensitive to the rate at which hydrogen peroxide is added! We hope this exciting result will spark more research on dynamic environments of cells.

You can read the paper here.

Congratulations to Melde, Emma, Bas, Jessie, and Wilhelm! 🎉🥳

We are happy to announce that the CFE system derived from JCVI-syn3A cells is functional, after 3 years of unsuccessful attempts. We used a machine learning tool to optimize this novel system. We hope it can serve as a new CFE platform for synthetic biologists. Thanks to all collaborators involved!

Read the paper here.

Congratulations to Andrei, Bob and all the collaborators!

Before Life arose, the Earth, just as it is now, hosted an ever-changing environment. Our latest work published in JACS investigates what effect such dynamic conditions impose on the formose reaction, a model prebiotic reaction network. By applying random fluctuations to the formose reaction in a flow reactor, we show in detail how its composition responds to varying timescales and magnitudes in these perturbances. Our investigation further led us to discover that the reaction behaves in a modular manner, a remarkable characteristic which it shares with biological reaction networks. These observations demonstrate the importance of understanding the role of environmental dynamics in sculpting the composition, structure and behaviour of the chemical processes destined to form the first Life.

You can find the paper here.

Congratulations to Peer, Lena, Will and Wilhelm!