Tobias J. Erb

The paper presents a cell-free system for studying Sec translocon function, identifies super-active variants, and demonstrates applications in improving membrane protein and nanobody export.

The paper reconstructs minimal pyrenoids using EPYC1 proteins to study their evolution and carbon concentration mechanisms.

This study enhances Fe-nitrogenase's ability to convert CO2 to hydrocarbons through directed evolution, increasing CH4 production and expanding the product spectrum to include ethane and CO.

This paper develops a method to tune nanopore permeability using chemically modified alpha-hemolysin in synthetic cells.

The paper identifies Form IF Rubiscos that are highly active, specific, and function without the small subunit, challenging the necessity of subunit complexity in Rubisco evolution.

This paper combines adaptive laboratory evolution and machine learning to engineer a methylsuccinate module for synthetic C1 metabolism in E. coli, achieving growth in three weeks versus six months with evolution alone.

This paper designs and tests synthetic CO2 fixation pathways in E. coli, demonstrating their potential to outperform natural pathways.

This study establishes the formyl phosphate route for formate assimilation in E. coli through adaptive evolution and rational engineering, enabling formate-dependent growth.

The paper investigates the evolutionary origin of chaperone dependence in Rubisco biogenesis and finds that this dependence evolved neutrally and can be reversed without affecting catalytic function.

This paper develops a system for controlling in vitro DNA replication using genetically encoded circuits and demonstrates its replication and repression capabilities.

This study engineers synthetic serine cycles in Pseudomonas putida to improve methanol assimilation, revealing novel metabolic topologies for C1 compound utilization.

This paper demonstrates the efficient conversion of formate into methyl groups in engineered Escherichia coli using SAM-dependent methyltransferases, achieving over 70% formate-derived methyl groups.

This study investigates why engineered E. coli strains for formate utilization do not reach theoretical biomass yields and identifies metabolic bottlenecks and evolutionary changes to improve them.

The paper shows that multiple mechanisms of essentiality in protein-protein interactions can persist over time, even if individual mechanisms are lost, using Rubisco as a case study.

This paper presents a computational workflow for designing and testing E. coli metabolic sensors that detect glyoxylate and glycolate across a wide concentration range, with applications in bioengineering and environmental monitoring.

This study identifies multiple transcriptional regulators controlling glycolate metabolism in Paracoccus denitrificans, revealing a complex regulatory network for carbon assimilation.

This study establishes Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a platform for chloroplast synthetic biology, enabling high-throughput engineering of plastomes and demonstrating improved biomass production through synthetic pathways.

This paper develops an in vitro transcription-based biosensing workflow to quantify glycolate production in the CETCH cycle, showing high correlation with LC-MS at lower cost and faster speed.

This study constructs a metabolic and genetic linked in vitro network that generates its own building blocks from non-living matter and demonstrates life-like behavior.

Autoencoder design plus a roughly 24-hour cell-free screen tested 500 candidates over five rounds, finding 30 functional AMPs; six were broad-spectrum with no resistance emerging in E. coli.

This study replaces the glycerate pathway with the β-hydroxyaspartate cycle in Pseudomonas putida, resulting in faster growth and higher biomass yield on ethylene glycol.

The paper engineers a synthetic one-carbon fixation pathway in Cupriavidus necator that achieves higher biomass yield than the native Calvin Cycle.

The paper studies the flexibility of the amination network in E. coli by identifying key enzymes and amino acids involved in ammonium assimilation and glutamate production.

The paper introduces METIS, an active learning workflow for optimizing genetic and metabolic networks, demonstrating significant improvements in efficiency with minimal experiments.

This paper develops stringent gene expression systems by regulating both transcription and translation, achieving high induction ratios and reduced leakiness in both in vivo and cell-free systems.

This study identifies a new carbon fixation pathway in E. coli using only native enzymes and demonstrates its in vivo feasibility through genetic engineering.