News, Views, and Happenings. We're @NorthwesternU, @NuSynBio, @NorthwesternEng, @CLP_Institute. Opinions (and nearly all puns) are my own.

Joined June 2011
67 Photos and videos
Josh Leonard retweeted
Excited to co-found @Merge Labs! TLDR: We’re developing a new paradigm for BCI using molecules instead of electrodes. If you’re excited about this and want to contribute in protein engineering, synbio, delivery, immunology, ultrasound, devices, neuroscience, or data/ML/AI, we’d love to hear from you. merge.io/blog merge.io/careers 🧵

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Josh Leonard retweeted
⏰Tick-tock!⏰ Abstract deadline for SynBio for Future Health Jan 17th #synbio Heads up to @MoKhalilLab @RosserLab @barbara_synbio @LeonardoMorsut @rjerala @XueSherryGao @SynBioGaoLab @ElowitzLab @genegirl007 @BintuLacra @TheLeonardLab @Geneticdesigner @kunjapur @ProfTomEllis
Our #SynBioFH23 team have brought together an exciting programme to showcase how #bioscience technologies are impacting global healthcare approaches. #GlobalHealth Submit an abstract by 17 Jan 2023 for an opportunity to share your work.📅 Full details➡️bit.ly/3Dj2HHp
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Josh Leonard retweeted
Building on these insights, we used DIAL to titrate expression and program cell fate. Now published online at Nature Biotechnology. Links below👇 @science_sneha @mitch
🚨New paper alert!🚨 Cells integrate signals into decision-making. But how do levels of signaling influence cell-fate transitions? Is more always better? Or is there an “optimal” level for cell-fate programming? If we could tune signaling, could optimize production of neurons? Read on! (1/n)🧵
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Josh Leonard retweeted
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 It started from my frustration with the depressing effect that the current publishing system has on the well-being of myself, my team, and pretty much every scientist I know (maybe you’ve noticed from my stupid jokes… :) I was exhausted of dealing with the huge delays, reviewers that can be abusive, and how arbitrary it all is. Unfortunately, the most important factors are often WHO your reviewers are and who YOU are... It’s clear we need alternatives or at least ways to improve the situation. So, together with a really special and talented team we worked to develop this idea into “qed” a platform where you can get CONSTRUCTIVE feedback on your own work or CRITICALLY assess other people’s papers. It can be a real difference maker if many of you join us (thousands have tried it already, but today we release a NEW and much stronger version ;) Let’s harness qed to put the power back in the scientists’ hands, to do, to read & to publish science on our own terms. I’m dying for you to TRY IT, and it’s very simple - just drop a paper (the link to the website is in the replies👇) - it’s completely secure, private, and free, and you get results fast. Please show your support, SHARE, tell your friends, and let’s be the revolution 🫵!
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Josh Leonard retweeted
Arc is looking for an outstanding early-career scientist to be our next Science Fellow. This program provides resources and freedom for those looking to transition into a principal investigator role immediately after doctoral training. Apply here: arcinstitute.org/programs/se…
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Josh Leonard retweeted
As a wetlab experiments guy, a lot of DL/ML/AI baffles me, so I'm learning a lot supervising @tdsone3 in his PhD to bring AI-based design to synthetic biology in Baker's yeast. His first output 'Yorzoi' is now on BioRxiv. Here are my thoughts on this... biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Josh Leonard retweeted
Inspired by condensates that form on specific DNA loci, we ask: Can we design multicomponent fluids to form distinct condensates on diff. surfaces? i.e., perform a type of information processing (surface classification) through condensation! arxiv.org/abs/2509.08100 (1/2)
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Josh Leonard retweeted
Very excited to share our paper "De novo Design of All-atom Biomolecular Interactions with RFdiffusion3", now on BioRXiv. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… 1/n
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Josh Leonard retweeted
Delighted to share the final version of this paper out now! I led this project with @amparo_cosio during my PhD in @TheLeonardLab to investigate how we could program smart cell therapies to sense and respond to markers of disease—taking inspiration from natural human receptors!
How can we combine the exquisite function of natural receptors with the programmability of synthetic biology? Check out this exciting new story led by @HaileyEdelstein and @amparo_cosio out today in @nchembio
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How can we combine the exquisite function of natural receptors with the programmability of synthetic biology? Check out this exciting new story led by @HaileyEdelstein and @amparo_cosio out today in @nchembio
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Finally we show how these synthetic receptors can be multiplexed to evaluate soluble signals in the environment to create tailored activation programs that can enable "smart" cell therapies
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We then leverage the modularity of these converted receptors to link biosensor output to genetic programs, creating new and useful cellular behaviors
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Examples: cytokine-induced CAR expression on T cells to create a logic gate - the cell is activated only if it sees BOTH a specified soluble cue and surface feature (e.g., tumor antigen), and rewiring cytokine sensing into native pathways that modulate cell state in desired ways
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