Trends in biotechnology最新文献

Building on a productive two decades of advancements in synthetic biology, engineering biology now promises to enable the implementation and scale-up of novel biological systems tailored to tackle urgent global challenges. Here we explore the latest engineering biology approaches for the control and modification of bacterial biofilms with exciting new functionalities.

The fabrication of 3D bioconstructs using bioprinters will advance the field of regenerative medicine owing to its ability to facilitate clinical treatments. Additional stimulations have been applied to the bioconstructs to guide cells laden in the bioconstructs. However, the conventional bench-to-bedside delivery based on separate bioprinting and biostimulating processes may increase the risks of contamination and shape discordance owing to the considerably long process involved. In situ bioprinting is aimed at eliminating these risks, but stimulation strategies implied during in situ printing have not yet been extensively reviewed. Here, we present the concept of stimulus-assisted in situ bioprinting, which integrates the printing and biostimulation processes by directly applying stimuli to the bioink during fabrication.

Biogenic waste-derived feedstocks for production of fuels, chemicals, and materials offer great potential supporting the transition to net-zero and greater circularity. However, such feedstocks are heterogeneous and subject to geographical and seasonal variability. Here, we show that, through careful strain selection and metabolic engineering, Pseudomonas putida can be employed to permit efficient co-utilization of highly heterogeneous substrate compositions derived from hydrolyzed mixed municipal-like waste fractions (food, plastic, organic, paper, cardboard, and textiles) for growth and synthesis of exemplar bioproducts. Design of experiments was employed to explore the combinatorial space of nine waste-derived monomers, displaying robust catabolic efficiency regardless of substrate composition. Prospective Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) illustrated the climate change (CC) and economic advantages of biomanufacturing compared with conventional waste treatment options, demonstrating a 41-62% potential reduction in CC impact. This work demonstrates the potential for expanding treatment strategies for mixed waste to include engineered microbes.

The demand for therapeutic proteins is growing annually. Novel approaches for the production of these molecules on a large scale are necessary, especially in plants. Plant laticifers could help provide an in vivo cell system for protein production expression that can reduce costs of production and downstream processing.

A diverse array of natural products has been produced by cell biofactories through metabolic engineering, in which enzymes play essential roles in the complex metabolic network. However, the scope of such biotransformation can be limited by the capacities of natural enzymes. To broaden their scope, many natural enzymes have recently been engineered to activate non-native substrates and/or to employ new-to-nature reaction mechanisms, but most of these systems are only demonstrated for in vitro applications. To bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivo biocatalysis, we highlight recent progress in engineering enzymes with non-native substrates or new-to-nature mechanisms that have been successfully applied in living cells to create novel metabolic pathways.

The diagnosis of fungal infections presents several challenges and limitations, stemming from the similarities in symptomatology, diversity of underlying pathogenic species, complexity of fungal biology, and scarcity of rapid, affordable, and point-of-care approaches. In this review, we assess technological advances enabling the conversion of cutting-edge laboratory molecular diagnostic methods to cost-effective microfluidic devices. The most promising strategies toward the design of DNA sequence-based fungal diagnostic systems, capable of capturing and deciphering the highly informative DNA of the pathogen and adapted for resource-limited settings, are discussed, bridging fungal biology, molecular genetics, microfluidics, and biosensors.

Pigments are widely used in the food, cosmetic, textile, pharmaceutical, and materials industries. Demand for natural pigments has been increasing due to concerns regarding potential health problems and environmental pollution from synthetic pigments. Microbial production of natural pigments is a promising alternative to chemical synthesis or extraction from natural sources. Here, we discuss yeasts as promising chassis for producing natural pigments with their advantageous traits such as genetic amenability, safety, rapid growth, metabolic diversity, and tolerance. Metabolic engineering strategies and optimizing strategies in downstream process to enhance production of natural pigments are thoroughly reviewed. We discuss the challenges, including expanding the range of natural pigments and improving their feasibility of industrial scale-up, as well as the potential strategies for future development.

Cultivating oleaginous organisms in non-sterile conditions can reduce the energy and cost of microbial oil production. Recent studies use strategies that enable non-sterile cultivation without affecting bioprocess productivity. This forum article discusses the trends, strategies, and prospects of non-sterile cultivation, as successful non-sterile cultivation could make microbial oil production economically viable.

In seeking sustainable environmental strategies, microbial biophotoelectrochemistry (BPEC) systems represent a significant advancement. In this review, we underscore the shift from conventional bioenergy systems to sophisticated BPEC applications, emphasizing their utility in leveraging solar energy for essential biochemical conversions. Recent progress in BPEC technology has facilitated improved photoelectron transfer and system stability, resulting in substantial advancements in carbon and nitrogen fixation, degradation of pollutants, and energy recovery from wastewater. Advances in system design and synthetic biology have expanded the potential of BPEC for environmental clean-up and sustainable energy generation. We also highlight the challenges of environmental BPEC systems, ranging from performance improvement to future applications.

Engineering biomimetic tissue implants with human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) holds promise for repairing volumetric tissue loss. However, these implants face challenges in regenerative capability, survival, and geometric scalability at large-scale injury sites. Here, we present scalable vessel-integrated muscle-like lattices (VMLs), containing dense and aligned hiPSC-derived myofibers alongside passively perfusable vessel-like microchannels inside an endomysium-like supporting matrix using an embedded multimaterial bioprinting technology. The contractile and millimeter-long myofibers are created in mechanically tailored and nanofibrous extracellular matrix-based hydrogels. Incorporating vessel-like lattice enhances myofiber maturation in vitro and guides host vessel invasion in vivo, improving implant integration. Consequently, we demonstrate successful de novo muscle formation and muscle function restoration through a combinatorial effect between improved graft-host integration and its increased release of paracrine factors within volumetric muscle loss injury models. The proposed modular bioprinting technology enables scaling up to centimeter-sized prevascularized hiPSC-derived muscle tissues with custom geometries for next-generation muscle regenerative therapies.