On 1 August 2025, QAMSS was delighted to host Prof. Lorenzo Di Michele (University of Cambridge) for a thought-provoking seminar titled “Engineering Nano-Structured RNA Organelles in Synthetic and Living Cells.” The lecture drew a strong audience from across disciplines, highlighting the growing interest in synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering.
Prof. Di Michele introduced his group’s cutting-edge work on designing synthetic, membrane-less RNA organelles—structures formed via programmed condensation of RNA and proteins. These synthetic organelles hold immense potential for metabolic engineering and the creation of advanced synthetic cells with finely tuned functions.
A key focus of the lecture was the development of a modular RNA platform, enabling the co-transcriptional self-assembly of multiple orthogonal RNA condensates within synthetic cells. These engineered structures can be functionalised with fluorescent aptamers, used to capture proteins, and even tuned to create bi-phasic morphologiesthrough RNA-based linkers. Impressively, the team has demonstrated that these synthetic organelles can also be expressed in E. coli cells, where they reversibly sequester proteins, paving the way for innovative intracellular control strategies.
This lecture showcased how nucleic acid nanotechnology is rapidly evolving into a versatile toolkit for building responsive, programmable biological systems—aligning strongly with QAMSS’s mission to support fundamental and translational research in quantum and advanced materials for science and society.
