Bio-Tipping Points: What to Watch, Build, and Back

AlphaFold workshop moves ahead, NSF fallout, and new tools for molecular design.

May 06, 2025

In partnership with

This week, we follow where things break, and where something better might emerge.

Dear reader,

This week at Biodesign Academy, we're balancing momentum and disruption:
We’re planning new ways to learn, tracking critical science policy shifts, and spotlighting tools that could shape tomorrow’s workflows.

Let’s get into it:

1. AlphaFold for Designers: What You Told Us

Strong interest, we’re moving forward.

Last week, we ran a poll to gauge interest in a design-focused workshop using AlphaFold. The results showed a clear and encouraging level of interest, enough to move ahead with planning.

We’re aiming for an early July launch. The workshop will be exploratory and practical, geared toward creative minds, without requiring biology and/or design expertise.

We're currently building a dedicated webpage with all the details, coming soon.

And for those who’ve already emailed to express interest: thank you. I’ll be following up with next steps shortly.

→ Want early access? reply to this email

2. NSF Freeze Fallout: Global Impact, Local Damage

We’re tracking the disruption, and building a bridge.

On April 30, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) froze all new funding decisions due to congressional budget gridlock.

That means no new grants, no extensions, and no clear timeline for resolution.

While this primarily hits US-based labs, the consequences are already rippling globally, delaying co-authored work, halting infrastructure sharing, and putting collaborative projects in limbo.

We’ve launched a public Labs in Limbo map to track the fallout and increase visibility.

But we’re also thinking beyond visibility:

If your lab (US-based or international) is affected, we can feature your research and needs in upcoming newsletters.

If you're open to collaboration: offering co-funding, hosting visiting researchers, or helping paused work continue, reply and let us know.

We’re now offering a matchmaking service to connect disrupted labs with potential collaborators and allies.

3. Foundational Tier Exclusive Article

Should We Compute or Cultivate?

Two competing instincts are emerging in synthetic biology:

  • The computational mindset — driven by models, automation, and prediction

  • The cultivational mindset — rooted in ecosystems, care, and biological timescales

This week’s Foundational Tier article explores both, and asks what kind of design futures we’re actually building toward.

4. Publication Spotlight: Syn57 + CANYA

Programmable microbes and predictive tools for biodesign workflows.

Two standout papers this week:

Syn57: Programmable Minimal E. coli

SynCTI’s new preprint introduces Syn57, a fully recoded E. coli strain where seven DNA codons have been removed and replaced across ~100,000 sites. The result? A microbe that still grows, but acts as a kind of genetic firewall.

For biodesigners, this opens up intriguing possibilities:

  • Safer co-cultures with cellulose-producing bacteria or algae

  • Cleaner workflows in fungal systems like mycelium

  • Microbes that switch off or disappear post-fabrication

CANYA: AI for Predicting Protein Clumps

Just published in Science Advances, CANYA is an AI model trained on 100,000 random protein snippets tested in the lab. It doesn’t just predict if a segment will jam — it identifies why it jams, down to the sticky motif.

If you're working with bioinks, cellular scaffolds, or living materials, this is essentially a pre-print clump detector — making your design flow before it hits the nozzle.

New to reading biotech papers like these?
We’ve got you. Our latest premium article breaks down how to read technical biotech papers as a designer.

Final Note

Thanks for being part of this community.
Biodesign Academy is here to connect, inspire, and equip those shaping the future of life-based design, across labs, startups, studios, and systems.

Forward this to a colleague if you think they'd benefit, and consider upgrading to a paid tier to support our work and get deeper insights.

More soon,
Raphael

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