BactToTheFuture brought a lot of Synbio debate and amazing applications in May. Did you miss them? Don’t worry, we selected the Top10 for you!

1. If we want #Synbio in our lives, we have to talk about it. Applications, benefits, concerns, regulation. Let’s debate! Genetically modified organisms have been a very controversial topic for decades, and if we want #Synbio not to suffer the same fate we have to foster debate before all it’s products reach the market. How are Synbio products regulated? What do consumers know about synbio and what are their concerns? This post reflects on the matter Read more >

2. As #biohacking and #DIYBiology gain popularity, the debate about #biosecurity and #Synbio regulation reignites.@konvavitsas wrote this post about it. Do you think that synthetic biologist should have a license to operate?Synbio is getting out of the labs and spreading rapidly among science enthusiast that want to explore the potential of this field. How are the biosafety and biosecurity issues regulated in this cases? Kostas Vavitsas wrote this interesting post in the PLOS Synbio community blog, and inspired by this debate we did our own poll. This are the results! What do you think? Read the story >

3. This is how #Microorganisms can revolutionise the dyeing industry. @StellaMcCartney & @colorifix are giving it a try! #Synbio #SustainableFashion
The Fashion designer Stella McCartney and the biotech Colorifix are collaborating in a project to make the textile dyeing process much more sustainable using pigment-producing microbes instead of chemical dyes! But this is not the first #synbio alliance of the artist, she also collaborated recently with BOLT Threads using yeast-made vegan silk for her fashion collection! Interested about sustainable fashion? Read more >

4. The latest plastic-degrading machine is a #microbe
Its name is Ideonella sakaiensis, and it just got an upgrade. This bacterium that was previously reported to naturally degrade PET – a widely used type of plastic – has now been engineered with a more efficient variant of its plastic degrading enzyme. This engineered variant of the enzyme opens new horizons in the fight against plastic pollution. Read more >

5. Turning E.coli into an efficient drug factory with #Synbio
Growth or production? The everlasting dilemma of bacterial manufacturing. But maybe not for much longer. Researchers from the Imperial College in London have equipped E. coli with a feedback system that allows the bacterium to better allocate its resources during the production time achieving higher yields. A promising method that could highly improve our manufacturing capacity of proteins and drugs! Read more >

6. Real animal-free dairy products soon available at your grocery store thanks to @Perfectday #SynBio #CellularAgriculture
Real dairy, but without the cows. This is one of the many applications that #Synbio can have in the food sector. At @Perfectday they produce a wide variety of vegan dairy products engineering yeast to express dairy proteins! Are you ready to try them? Read more >

7. Feel like ice cream? What about yeast-made vanilla? A #Synbio treat for the sweet toothed
We continue the journey of #synbio foods! This time with vanilla and again thanks to yeast! Companies like Evolva have reprogrammed these microorganisms to produce vanillin, the same molecule extracted from vanilla orchids for its flavour. Read more >

8. Reprogrammed #microbes among these 5 #Synbio approaches that can help us fight cancer!
Synbio milk and vanillin sound good, but synbio anti cancer treatments even better! Engineering probiotic strains of bacteria, these microbes can serve as biosensors to help us detect and fight cancers! Colouring the urine or directly releasing anti-tumor toxins, microbes can become a promising non-invasive therapy to help us fight cancer. Read more >

9.Engineered #microbes, the ultimate way to get rid of our #antibiotic waste?
Antibiotic resistance poses a big threat for public health and microbes can help us fight it. It may sound counter-intuitive to use microbes to eliminate anti-microbial substances but at the end of the day antibiotics are nothing but a carbon source that some bacteria can digest. Identifying and exploiting the genes responsible for this feature can allow researchers to engineer microbes to serve as tiny antibiotic degrading machines. Read more >

And last but not least, a very special tweet this month!

10. 2000 followers! We can’t think of a better way to start the week! Thanks to all our #Synbio friends out there!
Time to celebrate our first 2000 followers! We are glad you like our stories and we will keep working to tell you all about synbio, biotech and microbes!