Maximilien S. Baas-Thomas

This study uses synthetic genomes to investigate how synonymous codon recoding affects organismal fitness and develops a workflow to overcome lethal effects of codon swaps.

The paper improves a MAGE protocol to repair mutations in synthetic genome segments, enabling successful complementation of gene deletions in Escherichia coli.

The paper demonstrates a genetic code reassignment strategy that makes cells resistant to viral infections and prevents horizontal gene transfer by mistranslating viral proteins and relying on synthetic codons.