DEEP DIVE
Updated Experimental Plan
A sequenced experimental progression for testing autonomous firefly bioluminescence in tobacco, with a real deliverable at each milestone and informative negatives as legitimate results.
20 min read
Currently engineering bioluminescent plants
Experimental Synthetic Biology
I’m Iman. I’m building the first firefly-pathway bioluminescent plant.
What I’m working on
Active projects & areas of focus
ACTIVE RESEARCH
The Enzyme Hunt
Tracking down the enzyme that could unlock autonomous bioluminescence in plants. AlphaFold predictions to wet-lab validation.
In progress
BIO ENGINEERING
Bioluminescent Plants
Engineering firefly-inspired gene circuits into N. benthamiana. Building toward plants that glow on their own.
In progress
EXPERIMENTS
Lab Notes
Transformations, gel electrophoresis, and molecular cloning. Raw documentation of learning by doing.
5 entries
FUNDAMENTALS
Deep Dives
First-principles breakdowns of CRISPR, restriction enzymes, and the core molecular biology toolkit.
3 articles
Latest from the lab
Recent experiments & writing
DEEP DIVE
PTS1 Mining Reveals Two Missing Pathway Steps
Using peroxisome-targeting signal analysis to identify the two enzymatic steps in luciferin biosynthesis that have never been cloned.
15 min read
LAB NOTE
Phase 1: Luciferase + Exogenous D-Luciferin
5 min read
LAB NOTE
Phase 0: RUBY-RED Agroinfiltration Practice
Use RUBY-RED as a visual reporter to confirm agroinfiltration works in N. rustica before attempting bioluminescence constructs.
8 min read
DEEP DIVE
Firefly Bioluminescence: The Chemistry and Plant Engineering
A comprehensive reference covering firefly light chemistry, the luciferin biosynthesis pathway, and the engineering strategy for autonomous bioluminescence in plants.
30 min read
DEEP DIVE
Mining Fallon et al. for Luciferin Pathway Candidates in Photinus pyralis
Filtering 15,773 firefly genes down to five candidate enzymes that may be involved in luciferin biosynthesis.
22 min read