In a recent study published in Nature Communications, Dr Rode's lab developed an RNA-based synthetic biology tool, which offers conditional gene regulation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

In this study, one of the most abundant and biotechnologically relevant natural riboswitches, the FMN riboswitch, is reengineered into an orthogonal riboswitch to selectively respond to synthetic flavin derivatives.

This versatile tool opens the door to programmable genetic circuits and dynamic regulation of multi-gene pathways for advanced biosynthesis, paving the way for next-gen therapeutics and synthetic biology applications.