Elise D. Ficaretta

Optimized directed evolution of E. coli leucyl-tRNA synthetase adds many noncanonical amino acids into the eukaryotic genetic code including ornithine and Nepsilon-acetyl-methyllysine

This study optimizes a yeast-based directed evolution platform to expand the substrate scope of EcLeuRS, enabling incorporation of noncanonical amino acids like ornithine into mammalian cells.

Structural robustness affects the engineerability of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases for genetic code expansion

The paper shows that structural robustness of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetases affects their ability to be engineered for genetic code expansion, with MjTyrRS being more robust than EcTyrRS.