ArticleNature2015
Biocontainment of genetically modified organisms by synthetic protein design.
Article in Nature, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 219 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
219 citing papers in PubMed.
- Barrier immune memory is programmed by intestinal epithelial cell presentation of cytosol-delivered bacterial antigens.Nature immunology · 2026Article
- Automated prototyping of genetic codes.Nature · 2026Article
- Firewalled synthetic commensal blocks horizontal gene transfer in the gut.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Systems engineering of engineered live biotherapeutics: A discovery-to-translation framework for streamlining microbiome therapeutic development.Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society · 2026Review
- Soft, Reactive, and Alive: A Dynamic Framework for Degradation and Functional Stability of Polymeric Biomaterials.Polymers · 2026Review
- Describing the persistence landscape for introducing microbes into complex communities.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- A Metagenome-Based Methodology to Track Genomically Recoded Strains and Assess Their Effects on Indigenous Microbes.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Engineering commensal microbes for host health.Cell host & microbe · 2026Review
- Probing the limits of genetic recoding using multi-omics-guided evolution.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Engineering the microbiome: A novel frontier in inflammatory bowel disease treatment.Chinese medical journal · 2026Article
- Multiplexing antibiotic screening assay in droplet microfluidics.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Advances in biocontainment strategies of engineered microbes for use in humans.Current opinion in microbiology · 2026Review
- Combined biosynthesis and site-specific incorporation of phenylalanine derivatives from aryl aldehydes or carboxylic acids.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Nutrient-Driven Modulation of Microbial, Plant, and Rhizosphere Processes for Heavy Metal Remediation.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Multiplexed CRISPR base editing enables pulse-activated irreversible biocontainment of engineered bacteria.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- From lab to law: emerging applications, potential benefits, evolving regulatory framework and challenges for engineered probiotics.Microbial cell factories · 2026Review
- Protecting cells at the genetic level and simulating unauthorized access via a biohackathon.Science advances · 2026Article
- Harnessing engineered cyanobacteria for next-generation therapeutics.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Associate toxin-antitoxin with CRISPR-Cas to harness (ATTACH) engineered microbes.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Engineering non-exponential proliferation in Escherichia coli using functionalized protein aggregates.Nature communications · 2026Article
159 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are increasingly deployed at large scales and in open environments. Genetic biocontainment strategies are needed to prevent unintended proliferation of GMOs in natural ecosystems. Existing biocontainment methods are insufficient because they impose evolutionary pressure on the organism to eject the safeguard by spontaneous mutagenesis or horizontal gene transfer, or because they can be circumvented by environmentally available compounds. Here we computationally redesign essential enzymes in the first organism possessing an altered genetic code (Escherichia coli strain C321.ΔA) to confer metabolic dependence on non-standard amino acids for survival. The resulting GMOs cannot metabolically bypass their biocontainment mechanisms using known environmental compounds, and they exhibit unprecedented resistance to evolutionary escape through mutagenesis and horizontal gene transfer. This work provides a foundation for safer GMOs that are isolated from natural ecosystems by a reliance on synthetic metabolites.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.