The subject technology relates generally to compositions and methods for producing plasmid DNA of a desired quality. In addition, it relates to the discovery of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria with a constitutive methylase gene stably incorporated into the chromosomal DNA and uses thereof.

Disclosed herein include methods, compositions, and kits suitable for robust and tunable control of payload gene expression. Some embodiments provide rationally designed circuits, including miRNA-level and/or protein-level incoherent feed-forward loop circuits, that maintain the expression of a payload at an efficacious level. The circuit can comprise a promoter operably linked to a polynucleotide encoding a fusion protein comprising a payload protein, a protease, and one or more self-cleaving peptide sequences. The payload protein can comprise a degron and a cut site the protease is capable of cutting to expose the degron. The circuit can comprise a promoter operably linked to a polynucleotide comprising a payload gene, a silencer effector cassette, and one or more silencer effector binding sequences.

The invention relates to genetic incorporation of 2,3-diamino propionic acid (DAP) into polypeptides, to unnatural amino acids comprising DAP, to a tRNA synthetase for charging tRNA with unnatural amino acids comprising DAP, and to methods of using the resulting polypeptides, for example in capturing substrates and/or intermediates in enzymatic reactions. The invention also relates to compounds of formula (I) or (II):

##STR00001##

or salts, solvates, tautomers, isomers or mixtures thereof.

Provided are polypeptides that include, from N-terminus to C-terminus, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), a protease, and a degron, where the polypeptide further includes a cleavage site for the protease disposed between the CAR and the degron. Also provided are cells that include such polypeptides (e.g., where the cells express the CAR on their surface) and pharmaceutical compositions including such cells. Nucleic acids that encode the polypeptides, cells including such nucleic acids, and pharmaceutical compositions including such cells, are also provided. Also provided are methods for controlling the expression of a CAR on the surface of a cell, and methods of using the cells of the present disclosure, including methods of using such cells to administer a regulatable CAR cell-based therapy (e.g., a regulatable CAR T cell therapy) to an individual.

The technology described herein is directed to regulated synthetic gene expression systems. In one aspect described herein are synthetic transcription factors (synTFs) comprising a DNA binding domain, a transcriptional effector domain, and a regulator protein. In other aspects described herein are gene expression systems comprising said synTFs and methods of treating diseases and disorders using said synTFs.

The present invention provides a compound exhibiting coronavirus 3CL protease inhibitory activity or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same. Provided is a compound represented by Formula (I): ##STR00001## wherein Ring A is a ring represented by: ##STR00002## wherein X is a single bond or the like, R.sup.2 is substituted or unsubstituted aromatic carbocyclyl or the like, R.sup.3c is substituted or unsubstituted aromatic carbocyclyl or the like, R.sup.3 is substituted or unsubstituted aromatic carbocyclyl or the like, R.sup.3a is a hydrogen atom or the like, R.sup.3b is a hydrogen atom, R.sup.8a is substituted or unsubstituted aromatic carbocyclyl or the like, and R.sup.8b is a hydrogen atom or the like, R.sup.1 is a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic heterocyclyl, m is 0 or the like, R.sup.5a is each independently a hydrogen atom or the like, R.sup.5b is each independently a hydrogen atom or the like, R.sup.6 is cyano or the like, and R.sup.7a and R.sup.7b are each independently a hydrogen atom or the like, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the compound.

Tobacco etch virus protease (TEV) is one of the most widely used proteases in biotechnology because of its exquisite sequence-specificity. A limitation of TEV is its slow catalytic rate, which limits product generation and therefore signal output. Provided is a generalizable yeast-based platform for directed evolution of protease catalytic properties. Protease activity is determined via proteolytic release of a membrane-anchored transcription factor, and access to TEV's cleavage site is temporally regulated using a photosensory LOV domain. By gradually decreasing light exposure time, faster variants of TEV were selected over multiple rounds of selection. The mutant TEV proteases and the directed evolution platform are useful in a wide range of biotechnology applications, such as FLARE and SPARK tools.

Provided are polypeptides that include, from N-terminus to C-terminus, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), a protease, and a degron, where the polypeptide further includes a cleavage site for the protease disposed between the CAR and the degron. Also provided are cells that include such polypeptides (e.g., where the cells express the CAR on their surface) and pharmaceutical compositions including such cells. Nucleic acids that encode the polypeptides, cells including such nucleic acids, and pharmaceutical compositions including such cells, are also provided. Also provided are methods for controlling the expression of a CAR on the surface of a cell, and methods of using the cells of the present disclosure, including methods of using such cells to administer a regulatable CAR cell-based therapy (e.g., a regulatable CAR T cell therapy) to an individual.