When we launched Nucleus as an open platform for synthetic cell engineering, our focus was clear: eliminate the infrastructure bottlenecks that keep researchers from reaching the starting line. Too often, teams spend months dealing with restrictive licensing, tracking down missing components, or re-verifying basic vector backbones before they can run a single experiment. Progress speeds up when validated, open infrastructure is freely accessible out of the box.
That is why we are thrilled that the 2026 iGEMÂ Distribution kit now includes synthetic cell components from Nucleus.
The iGEM distribution kit provides thousands of researchers across the globe with foundational DNA parts to launch their projects. As highlighted in this year's handbook:
"The 2026 kit is built upon the 2025 kit. The main changes for this year's kit are new controls, regulatory sequences, and plasmids for Mammalian chassis, Open Yeast GFP and RFP parts, and pT7-based vectors from Nucleus."
The Nucleus components we developed give the global community a complete, modular set of functional control circuits designed specifically for cell-free expression and dynamic regulation. By contributing these ready-to-use, open-access tools, we are helping teams skip months of designing standard expression architectures from scratch so they can immediately prototype, test, and scale their work within a unified platform:
- Cell-Free Optimized Reporting (
plamGFP): A green fluorescent protein reporter specifically engineered for robust expression and clear signal readout in PURE cell-free systems. - LacI-IPTG Detector Module: Comprises
pT7-lacI(encoding the LacI repressor) andpT7-lacO-plamGFP(a reporter controlled by a lacO operator site). LacI represses expression by sterically occluding T7 RNA polymerase, while adding IPTG allosterically releases repression to recover expression. - TetR-Inducible Expression Module: Features
pT7-tetRandpT7-tetO-plamGFP. Adding anhydrotetracycline (aTc) triggers allosteric release of TetR, enabling membrane-permeable induction without requiring pore proteins. - Combinatorial Logic & Dual Repression: Includes dual-repressed constructs controlled simultaneously by TetR and LacI, allowing teams to build multi-input logic directly into cell-free reactions.
- MoClo Assembly Compatibility: Inducible promoters such as
pT7-lacOandpT7-tetOfunction as modular Level 0 'P' parts, allowing researchers to easily assemble them into Level 1 transcription units with other MoClo-compatible genes.
Strengthening Community Standards
In tandem with this distribution milestone, b.next's Anton Molina has been appointed to the iGEM Registry Steering Committee.
Establishing truly open and interoperable tooling for synthetic cells requires close coordination between industry and the broader science ecosystem. Antonâs appointment reinforces b.nextâs long-term commitment to stewarding a global ecosystemâconnecting open registries, standardized part specifications, and extensible infrastructure so researchers everywhere can solve complex challenges using synthetic cells.
Building the Foundation Together
Whether we are engineering complete open plasmid sets, standardizing protocols, or manufacturing Cytosol at our SF facility, b.next remains dedicated to making synthetic cell research faster, more predictable, and fully open. Getting Nucleus directly into the hands of the next generation of builders is another step toward a shared, interoperable scientific foundation.
If your team is using the Nucleus DNA parts in the 2026 kit, we want to hear from you. Explore the Nucleus docs, share your feedback, and letâs keep building together.
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