Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering最新文献

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common bacterial infections affecting any part of the urinary system. Accurate and rapid UTI diagnosis is crucial for initiating appropriate and effective treatment and preventing further complications. Traditional diagnostic methods based on culturing require specialized expertise, controlled environments for culturing urine specimens, and specific analysis environments, and these methods are time-consuming. In contrast, optical devices offer tremendous advantages, including enhanced sensitivity, user-friendliness, and portability. These devices can be integrated with conventional methods to enhance the accessibility of diagnosis techniques, especially in resource-limited settings. Further research is needed to optimize optical devices' analytical performance and cost-effectiveness to harness their full potential in UTI diagnosis. This review delves into recent advancements in optics-based devices for urinary pathogen detection. After providing a succinct overview of UTIs and existing clinical practices for their detection, diagnosis, and treatment, the most recent studies about optical diagnostic technologies for UTI diagnosis were reviewed, and an exploration of the future prospects and conclusive insights were discussed. Unveiling the potential of optical technology for UTI diagnosis promises to revolutionize healthcare and exemplifies the inexhaustible possibilities at the intersection of science and medicine.

Base editors and prime editors have emerged as promising tools for the modeling and treatment of genetic diseases due to their ability to introduce targeted modifications in the genomic DNA of living cells. Several engineering approaches have been applied to improve their performance, ranging from simple protein design approaches to complex directed evolution schemes that can probe a vast landscape of mutational variants with minimal user intervention. These extensive efforts have led to new generations of editors with enhanced properties such as increased editing activity, tailored editing windows, increased targetability, smaller construct size for viral delivery, and decreased off-target effects. In this manuscript we review protein engineering technologies that have been recently utilized to create an ever-evolving landscape of high-performance gene editing tools specifically designed for genetic targets of interest and that have redefined what is possible in the field of precision medicine.

The biomanufacturing industry has experienced significant transformations in the past 10 years, driven by changing industry trends and rapidly maturing new technologies. However, the pace of process monitoring technology development has lagged behind. This review focuses on the current major gaps in critical monitoring technology required for industry advancement, with a particular focus on single-use biosensors. There is a large unmet need for single-use biosensors in upstream and downstream processing as the industry transitions to single-use bioreactors. Emerging fields like cell and gene therapy that are still lacking numerous satisfactory at-line product characterization sensors will also be covered.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) imaging is one of the most prevalent and efficient molecular imaging techniques that may provide enhanced Raman signals of samples such as cells or biomolecules for highly accurate measurement. Furthermore, SERS imaging-based techniques can be adapted to portable systems, making them sufficient to be used for POC applications. In this review, we focused on prominent publications based on SERS imaging techniques in combination with microfluidics platforms for POC analysis of proteins, biomarkers and pathogens over the past five years.

The delivery of gene editing tools has made significant advancements in recent years. This being said, the brain remains a challenging organ for the safe and efficient delivery of gene editing tools. As nonviral delivery vehicles have shown promise with their safety profiles and biocompatibility, there have been efforts to test nonviral delivery vehicles for gene editing tools in the brain. Here, we review recent advancements in gene editing tool development and discuss how they were tested using nonviral delivery vehicles, with a specific focus on brain applications.

Genome editing technologies generate targeted DNA lesions and rely on cellular DNA repair pathways for resolution. Understanding the DNA repair mechanisms responsible for resolving the specific damage caused by gene editing tools can significantly advance their optimization and facilitate their broader application in research and therapeutic contexts. Here we explore the cellular processes involved in repairing base and prime editor-generated DNA lesions and strategies to leverage and manipulate DNA repair pathways for desired genomic changes.

Humans depend on mobility for social interaction, cognitive development, and health maintenance. Successful mobility requires maintaining balance, which integrates sensory feedback, internal cognitive models of body dynamics, and musculoskeletal actions. There have been great strides in understanding these components of balance control in the last 20 years, but balance deficits persist in a large percentage of the population. We propose that combining non-invasive brain imaging using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) with behavioral and biomechanical measures could reveal unique insights about balance control. Source separation and localization of brain electrical activity during mobile tasks have improved with advancements in electrodes and motion artifact removal. This enables studying naturally occurring balance tasks with and without perturbations to identify the timing, magnitude, and quality of brain processing during balance. Along with efforts toward more inclusive EEG research and open resources, this approach could help diagnose and treat poor balance ability among more people.

Point-of-care tests (POCTs) have the potential to transform medical diagnostics by providing rapid and accurate results at the site of patient care. Of the many different types of POCTs being developed, lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are some of the most widely used due to their simplicity, low cost, and fast response time. Combining recent advances in nanotechnology with the LFIAs has drastically improved their performance in terms of their sensitivity, specificity, and limit of detection, as well as their long-term stability. Nanoparticles, both plasmonic and fluorescent, can be functionalized with antibodies/aptamers and other targeting moieties, thereby enabling the detection of a wide range of biomarkers. Here we discuss various strategies, utilizing nanotechnology, to enhance the performance of these LFIAs in order to break the limits of the currently used conventional assays. Successful deployment of these tests will facilitate widespread use, thereby revolutionizing the current diagnostic and treatment practices, as well as curb future pandemics. Extensive utilization of these tests will also reduce the high medical expenditures, which is a central object of health care reform in every country.