Environmental Microbiome Engineering
Editing agricultural and environmental microbiomes
We are exploring how microbial delivery and editing tools could be adapted to agricultural and environmental communities. Through the IGI BIOME initiative, one goal is to change microbial activities associated with methane production in livestock.
Exploring microbiome engineering approaches to climate challenges.
In Situ Programming
Develop tools to edit DNA within microbial communities.
Published methods in this area
- MAGICDelivers genetic payloads to native gut bacteria by conjugation, inside the host.Ronda et al. · Nature Methods · 2019
- INTEGRATERNA-guided transposition for accurate, multiplexed, kilobase-scale insertion.Vo, Ronda et al. · Nature Biotechnology · 2021
- MetaEditCombines conjugative delivery with RNA-guided DNA insertion to modify selected gut bacteria within communities, demonstrated in mice.Gelsinger, Ronda et al. · Science · 2025
Other directions in this area
Generative Protein Design
AI-Designed Biological Tools
The lab explores generative AI approaches for designing novel biological tools and programmable functions. The goal is to improve the performance of our current tools, broaden the range of microbial hosts, and expand the reach of microbiome engineering.
Mobilome Engineering
Genetic delivery with mobile elements
We engineer conjugative plasmids, transposons, and phage-derived systems for targeted genetic delivery. The aim is to deliver cargo to selected bacterial species that current microbiome editing tools cannot readily reach.