Blueprints for Becoming: AlphaFold and the Architecture of Living Matter

Dear reader,

As summer approaches, so does a new chapter in the design of life itself.

This week, we invite you check these out: a 3-day AlphaFold workshop where molecules become more than data; and replication is no longer the domain of nature alone.

From AI-guided protein folding to programmable synthetic cells, we’re not just observing biology, we’re beginning to shape it.

Whether you’re a student, designer, or scientist, this is your moment to engage with tools, ideas, and futures that are redefining what it means to build with life.

AlphaFold Futures Workshop: Registration Now (Almost) Open

The dates are locked, the page is set, and we're ready to go. AlphaFold Futures, our 3-day online workshop exploring AI-powered molecular design is officially happening:

📅 July 2–4, 2025
🌐 Online
🎟️ Limited to 25 participants

You’ll learn how to use AlphaFold 3 without coding, translate molecular structures into design insights for mycelium, algae, bacterial cellulose, and more; and walk away with practical tools, workflows, and a new molecular lens on regenerative and living materials.

Who Can Register Now?

• ✅ Foundational Tier members: check your inbox for your 20% off code

• ✅ Those who requested early access: you’ve got a 48-hour head start

• 🚧 Everyone else: hang tight, general registration opens this Wednesday

Want Early Access + 20% Off Next Time?

Join the Foundational Tier (just €5/month) and get:

• 20% off all live workshops

• Free tools + early access drops

• Exclusive updates from inside the Biodesign Academy archives

Custom GPTs for Biodesign Course Interviews

Rethinking Biodesign Interviews

Over the past few years, I’ve had the chance to sit on both sides of biodesign course interviews. Sometimes interviewing applicants, sometimes helping students prepare. One thing has become clear: Biodesign course interviews don’t follow usual rules.

They often ask more of both applicant and interviewer; not just technical or design knowledge, but the ability to navigate biology, systems thinking, uncertainty, and ethical reflection at once.

And yet, there aren’t many resources out there to help either side prepare for these conversations in a way that reflects what biodesign actually is.

So I’ve been experimenting with something that might help.

🎛 Two Custom GPTs for Biodesign Course Applicants and Interviewers

For Students/Applicants:
Who are preparing for biodesign, regenerative design, or synthetic biology course interviews, with prompts and feedback tailored to what these programs tend to value (e.g., three dimensions of biodesign readiness: interdisciplinary thinking, systems awareness, ethical sensitivity).

👉 Here is the Biodesign Interview Coach – Student Edition

For Educators/Interviewers:
Who are designing or running interviews, offering a flexible way to generate questions, assess answers, and reflect on the kinds of qualities they’re looking for.

They’re based on the kinds of interviews I’ve been involved with through places like RCA, UAL, TU Delft, and Imperial College, and shaped by what I wish I had when supporting others through the process.

👉 Here is the Biodesign Interview Builder - Educator Edition.

Hope these help and guide you through your respective journeys - would be nice to know how you got on with these.

Orchestrating Self-Replication in Artificial Cells

Coming This Week for Foundational Tier Members:
How do you design life that can copy itself, without mimicking nature’s complexity?

This week’s deep dive and toolkit explores a breakthrough from King’s College London, where researchers use digital microfluidics to program DNA replication and droplet division in synthetic cells. It’s minimal, modular, and entirely programmable.

For designers, this isn’t just synthetic biology: it’s an invitation to rethink growth, feedback, inheritance, and fabrication from the ground up.

Inside, you’ll get:

• A breakdown of how programmable replication works

• Tools and platforms (like OpenDrop) you can actually use

• Design prompts for speculative and critical practice

• A new lens on artificial life as design material

Landing in your inbox this week.
Foundational Tier members, keep an eye out!

Publication Spotlight

Quijano, L., Fischer, D., Ferrero-Regis, T., & Navone, L. (2025). Exploring bacterial cellulose as an engineered living and programmable biomaterial across disciplines through qualitative thematic analysis. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 1-14.

Abstract:

Bacterial cellulose is an engineered living material which holds significant potential due to its material properties and broad applicability across scientific and design disciplines. However, challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration, scalability and commercialization have slowed its widespread adoption and integration into industry applications such as fashion and textiles.

This study addresses the gap in understanding how bacterial cellulose is perceived, developed, and utilized across scientific and design disciplines. Through 20 semi-structured interviews with scientists and designers around the world, this paper explores the following themes: (1) the human-living material relationship spectrum, which highlights the distinct ways science and design stakeholders interact with bacterial cellulose as a living material; (2) perceptions of a living material made from bacteria; and (3) bacterial cellulose’s potential as a programmable biomaterial.

Additionally, we employ Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory to map the complex network of human and non-human actors shaping bacterial cellulose’s trajectory, identifying critical factors such as consumer acceptance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and material culture.

By bridging perspectives from science and design, this study offers actionable insights into bacterial cellulose’s future as a sustainable and programmable engineered living material, guiding its responsible development and broader adoption across industries.

Read the full paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-01931-1

📉 The Disappearing Entry Point

Internships are vanishing. Junior roles are drying up. AI is accelerating the collapse of the entry-level.

SignalFire’s State of Talent Report 2025 confirms what many students already feel: the traditional launchpad into science, biotech, and design careers is breaking down.

At Biodesign Academy, we’re not claiming to have the answers, yet.
But we’re paying close attention, and beginning to sketch better pathways forward.

Here’s what we believe.

The next generation of biodesign and biotech talent must be AI-native, not AI-replaced. They’ll need fluency in tools and critical thinking, not just academic titles. And they must be grounded in real-world problems, and not stuck in theory.

We’re working on a response. Early ideas include short, AI-informed projects and toolkits to boost readiness; async, tool-supported internship alternatives for labs and startups; and playbooks to help companies define what they actually need from early-career hires.

👇 How you can get involved:

• 🎓 Students and recent grads: add your name here to hear first about experimental roles and new formats

• 🏢 Labs, companies, and educators: we want to co-create smarter pathways. What should entry-level training look like in this new era? Let’s chat.

Let’s not leave emerging talent behind.
Let’s shape the new launchpad together.

Let us not forget: the pulse of creation does not belong solely to nature.

With steady hands and searching minds, we too may compose the architectures of life: not to mimic its forms, but to understand its rhythms. This week’s work, from artificial cells that divide like echoes, to the quiet unfolding of molecular futures, reminds us that biodesign is not merely a discipline, but a dialogue between the known and the becoming.

May these tools and thoughts find you ready to shape, question, and imagine.

Until next week,

Raphael

Daily News for Curious Minds

Be the smartest person in the room by reading 1440! Dive into 1440, where 4 million Americans find their daily, fact-based news fix. We navigate through 100+ sources to deliver a comprehensive roundup from every corner of the internet – politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a quick, 5-minute newsletter. It's completely free and devoid of bias or political influence, ensuring you get the facts straight. Subscribe to 1440 today.

Sign up now!