Pub Date : 2015-12-20DOI: 10.1142/S0219607715500044
D. H. Giap, T. Lam
Fish is one of the major sources of animal protein. Due to rising world populations, increasing income and urbanization, demand for fish has been increasing. In order to meet the need for more fish, aquaculture has become increasingly important as wild populations and production from capture fisheries have declined due to overfishing and poor management. In recent years, production from aquaculture has increased rapidly to address the shortfalls in capture fisheries, especially in Asia where aquaculture production accounts for about 90% of world aquaculture production by volume. This paper reviews the status of the world’s fish production, provides an update on Asian aquaculture, and highlights developments that are contributing to sustainable fish production, particularly integrated multi-trophic aquaculture and aquaponics.
{"title":"MEETING THE NEEDS FOR MORE FISH THROUGH AQUACULTURE","authors":"D. H. Giap, T. Lam","doi":"10.1142/S0219607715500044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607715500044","url":null,"abstract":"Fish is one of the major sources of animal protein. Due to rising world populations, increasing income and urbanization, demand for fish has been increasing. In order to meet the need for more fish, aquaculture has become increasingly important as wild populations and production from capture fisheries have declined due to overfishing and poor management. In recent years, production from aquaculture has increased rapidly to address the shortfalls in capture fisheries, especially in Asia where aquaculture production accounts for about 90% of world aquaculture production by volume. This paper reviews the status of the world’s fish production, provides an update on Asian aquaculture, and highlights developments that are contributing to sustainable fish production, particularly integrated multi-trophic aquaculture and aquaponics.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"48 1","pages":"55-68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83420787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-20DOI: 10.1142/S0219607715500032
Vivek Verma, Rengasamy Ramamoorthy, A. Kohli, Prakash P. Kumar
The world’s population continues to expand and it is expected to cross 9 billion by 2050. This would significantly amplify the demand for food, which will pose serious threats to global food security. Additional challenges are being imposed due to a gradual decrease in the total arable land and global environmental changes. Hence, it is of utmost importance to review and revise the existing food production strategies by incorporating novel biotechnological approaches that can help to break the crop yield barriers in the near future. In this review, we highlight some of the concerns hampering crop yield enhancements. The review also focuses on modern breeding techniques based on genomics as well as proven biotechnological approaches that enable identification and utilization of candidate genes. Another aspect of discussion is the important area of research, namely hormonal regulation of plant development, which is likely to yield valuable regulatory genes for such crop improvement efforts in the future. These strategies can serve as potential tools for developing elite crop varieties for feeding the growing billions.
{"title":"Rice Research to Break Yield Barriers","authors":"Vivek Verma, Rengasamy Ramamoorthy, A. Kohli, Prakash P. Kumar","doi":"10.1142/S0219607715500032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607715500032","url":null,"abstract":"The world’s population continues to expand and it is expected to cross 9 billion by 2050. This would significantly amplify the demand for food, which will pose serious threats to global food security. Additional challenges are being imposed due to a gradual decrease in the total arable land and global environmental changes. Hence, it is of utmost importance to review and revise the existing food production strategies by incorporating novel biotechnological approaches that can help to break the crop yield barriers in the near future. In this review, we highlight some of the concerns hampering crop yield enhancements. The review also focuses on modern breeding techniques based on genomics as well as proven biotechnological approaches that enable identification and utilization of candidate genes. Another aspect of discussion is the important area of research, namely hormonal regulation of plant development, which is likely to yield valuable regulatory genes for such crop improvement efforts in the future. These strategies can serve as potential tools for developing elite crop varieties for feeding the growing billions.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"499 1","pages":"37-54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80034992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400059
A. Tan, A. L. L. Lim, Yiting Zhu, Yi Yan Yang, Majad Khan
Advances in medical research have shed light on the genetic cause of many human diseases. Gene therapy is a promising approach which can be used to deliver therapeutic genes to treat genetic diseases at its most fundamental level. In general, nonviral vectors are preferred due to reduced risk of immune response, but they are also commonly associated with low transfection efficiency and high cytotoxicity. In contrast to viral vectors, nonviral vectors do not have a natural mechanism to overcome extra- and intracellular barriers when delivering the therapeutic gene into cell. Hence, its design has been increasingly complex to meet challenges faced in targeting of, penetration of and expression in a specific host cell in achieving more satisfactory transfection efficiency. Flexibility in design of the vector is desirable, to enable a careful and controlled manipulation of its properties and functions. This can be met by the use of bolaamphiphile, a special class of lipid. Unlike conventional lipids, bolaamphiphiles can form asymmetric complexes with the therapeutic gene. The advantage of having an asymmetric complex lies in the different purposes served by the interior and exterior of the complex. More effective gene encapsulation within the interior of the complex can be achieved without triggering greater aggregation of serum proteins with the exterior, potentially overcoming one of the great hurdles faced by conventional single-head cationic lipids. In this review, we will look into the physiochemical considerations as well as the biological aspects of a bolaamphiphile-based gene delivery system.
{"title":"CATIONIC BOLAAMPHIPHILES FOR GENE DELIVERY","authors":"A. Tan, A. L. L. Lim, Yiting Zhu, Yi Yan Yang, Majad Khan","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400059","url":null,"abstract":"Advances in medical research have shed light on the genetic cause of many human diseases. Gene therapy is a promising approach which can be used to deliver therapeutic genes to treat genetic diseases at its most fundamental level. In general, nonviral vectors are preferred due to reduced risk of immune response, but they are also commonly associated with low transfection efficiency and high cytotoxicity. In contrast to viral vectors, nonviral vectors do not have a natural mechanism to overcome extra- and intracellular barriers when delivering the therapeutic gene into cell. Hence, its design has been increasingly complex to meet challenges faced in targeting of, penetration of and expression in a specific host cell in achieving more satisfactory transfection efficiency. Flexibility in design of the vector is desirable, to enable a careful and controlled manipulation of its properties and functions. This can be met by the use of bolaamphiphile, a special class of lipid. Unlike conventional lipids, bolaamphiphiles can form asymmetric complexes with the therapeutic gene. The advantage of having an asymmetric complex lies in the different purposes served by the interior and exterior of the complex. More effective gene encapsulation within the interior of the complex can be achieved without triggering greater aggregation of serum proteins with the exterior, potentially overcoming one of the great hurdles faced by conventional single-head cationic lipids. In this review, we will look into the physiochemical considerations as well as the biological aspects of a bolaamphiphile-based gene delivery system.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"7 1","pages":"25-38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73428272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400060
S. Yoong, G. Pastorin
Mitochondria are indispensable in cellular functions such as energy production and death execution. They are emerging as intriguing therapeutic target as their dysregulation was found to be monumental in diseases such as neurodegenerative disease, obesity, and cancer etc. Despite tremendous interest being focused on therapeutically intervening mitochondrial function, few mito-active drugs were successfully developed, particularly due to challenges in delivering active compound to this organelle. In this review, effort in utilizing nanotechnology for targeted mitochondrial delivery of compound is expounded based on the nature of the nanomaterial used. The advantage and potential offered are discussed alongside the limitation. Finally the review is concluded with perspectives of the application of nanocarrier in mitochondrial medicine, given the unresolved concern on potential complications.
{"title":"NANODELIVERY SYSTEM FOR MITOCHONDRIAL TARGETING","authors":"S. Yoong, G. Pastorin","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400060","url":null,"abstract":"Mitochondria are indispensable in cellular functions such as energy production and death execution. They are emerging as intriguing therapeutic target as their dysregulation was found to be monumental in diseases such as neurodegenerative disease, obesity, and cancer etc. Despite tremendous interest being focused on therapeutically intervening mitochondrial function, few mito-active drugs were successfully developed, particularly due to challenges in delivering active compound to this organelle. In this review, effort in utilizing nanotechnology for targeted mitochondrial delivery of compound is expounded based on the nature of the nanomaterial used. The advantage and potential offered are discussed alongside the limitation. Finally the review is concluded with perspectives of the application of nanocarrier in mitochondrial medicine, given the unresolved concern on potential complications.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"144 1","pages":"39-51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80383461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400011
M. Ng, T. Hagen
RNA-based therapy is one of the most promising approaches to treat human diseases. Specifically, the use of short interfering RNA (siRNA) siRNA and microRNA (miRNA) mimics for in vivo RNA interference has immense potential as it directly lowers the expression of the therapeutic target protein. However, there are a number of major roadblocks to the successful implementation of siRNA and other RNA based therapies in the clinic. These include the instability of RNAs in vivo and the difficulty to efficiently deliver the RNA into the target cells. Hence, various innovative approaches have been taken over the years to develop effective RNA delivery methods. These methods include liposome-, polymeric nanoparticle- and peptide-mediated cellular delivery. In a recent innovative study, bioengineered bacterial outer membrane vesicles were used as vehicles for effective delivery of siRNA into cells in vivo.
{"title":"DELIVERY OF THERAPEUTIC RNAs INTO TARGET CELLS IN VIVO","authors":"M. Ng, T. Hagen","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400011","url":null,"abstract":"RNA-based therapy is one of the most promising approaches to treat human diseases. Specifically, the use of short interfering RNA (siRNA) siRNA and microRNA (miRNA) mimics for in vivo RNA interference has immense potential as it directly lowers the expression of the therapeutic target protein. However, there are a number of major roadblocks to the successful implementation of siRNA and other RNA based therapies in the clinic. These include the instability of RNAs in vivo and the difficulty to efficiently deliver the RNA into the target cells. Hence, various innovative approaches have been taken over the years to develop effective RNA delivery methods. These methods include liposome-, polymeric nanoparticle- and peptide-mediated cellular delivery. In a recent innovative study, bioengineered bacterial outer membrane vesicles were used as vehicles for effective delivery of siRNA into cells in vivo.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"41 1","pages":"3-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75904535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400023
Y. Wong, T. Hagen
{"title":"SAFE AND EFFICIENT REPROGRAMMING OF SOMATIC CELLS INTO STEM CELLS IN LIVING TISSUE","authors":"Y. Wong, T. Hagen","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"11 1","pages":"9-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74673337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400047
Y. Ho, H. Too
To date, low transfection efficiency remains the major drawback of polymer based gene delivery. Many cell types including stem cells, fibroblast and neurons are known to be poorly transfected with polymer based gene carriers and the high toxicity severely restrict their utility in gene delivery. Continual efforts are made to identify cellular barriers to efficient transfection as these carriers have low immunogenicity, ease of manufacturing and scalability. Here, we summarize the current status of understanding on uptake mechanism of polymer-DNA complexes (polyplexes), their endosomal escape, cytosolic transport and nuclear entry of pDNA.
{"title":"CATIONIC POLYMER BASED GENE DELIVERY: UPTAKE AND INTRACELLULAR TRAFFICKING","authors":"Y. Ho, H. Too","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400047","url":null,"abstract":"To date, low transfection efficiency remains the major drawback of polymer based gene delivery. Many cell types including stem cells, fibroblast and neurons are known to be poorly transfected with polymer based gene carriers and the high toxicity severely restrict their utility in gene delivery. Continual efforts are made to identify cellular barriers to efficient transfection as these carriers have low immunogenicity, ease of manufacturing and scalability. Here, we summarize the current status of understanding on uptake mechanism of polymer-DNA complexes (polyplexes), their endosomal escape, cytosolic transport and nuclear entry of pDNA.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"85 1","pages":"17-24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77829581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607714400035
R. Minhat, T. Hagen
{"title":"A POSSIBLE APPROACH FOR ORAL DRUG DELIVERY OF NANOPARTICLES","authors":"R. Minhat, T. Hagen","doi":"10.1142/S0219607714400035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607714400035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"90 1","pages":"13-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75515688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-12-01DOI: 10.1142/S0219607713500055
F. Watt, Xiao Chen, Ce-Belle Chen, C.N.B. Udalagama, M. Ren, G. Pastorin, A. Bettiol
The way in which biological cells function is of prime importance, and the determination of such knowledge is highly dependent on probes that can extract information from within the cell. Probing deep inside the cell at high resolutions however is not easy: optical microscopy is limited by fundamental diffraction limits, electron microscopy is not able to maintain spatial resolutions inside a whole cell without slicing the cell into thin sections, and many other new and novel high resolution techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) are essentially surface probes. In this paper we show that microscopy using fast ions has the potential to extract information from inside whole cells in a unique way. This novel fast ion probe utilises the unique characteristic of MeV ion beams, which is the ability to pass through a whole cell while maintaining high spatial resolutions. This paper first addresses the fundamental difference between several types of charged particle probes, more specifically focused beams of electrons and fast ions, as they penetrate organic material. Simulations show that whereas electrons scatter as they penetrate the sample, ions travel in a straight path and therefore maintain spatial resolutions. Also described is a preliminary experiment in which a whole cell is scanned using a low energy (45 keV) helium ion microscope, and the results compared to images obtained using a focused beam of fast (1.2 MeV) helium ions. The results demonstrate the complementarity between imaging using low energy ions, which essentially produce a high resolution image of the cell surface, and high energy ions, which produce an image of the cell interior. The characteristics of the fast ion probe appear to be ideally suited for imaging gold nanoparticles in whole cells. Using scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM) to image the cell interior, forward scattering transmission ion microscopy (FSTIM) to improve the contrast of the gold nanoparticles, and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) to determine the depth of the gold nanoparticles in the cell, a 3D visualization of the nanoparticles within the cell can be constructed. Finally a new technique, proton induced fluorescence (PIF), is tested on a cell stained with DAPI, a cell-nucleic acid stain that exhibits a 20-fold increase in fluorescence when binding to DNA. The results indicate that the technique of PIF, although still at an early stage of development, has high potential since there does not seem to be any physical barrier to develop simultaneous structural and fluorescence imaging at sub 10 nm resolutions.
{"title":"FAST ION BEAM MICROSCOPY OF WHOLE CELLS","authors":"F. Watt, Xiao Chen, Ce-Belle Chen, C.N.B. Udalagama, M. Ren, G. Pastorin, A. Bettiol","doi":"10.1142/S0219607713500055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219607713500055","url":null,"abstract":"The way in which biological cells function is of prime importance, and the determination of such knowledge is highly dependent on probes that can extract information from within the cell. Probing deep inside the cell at high resolutions however is not easy: optical microscopy is limited by fundamental diffraction limits, electron microscopy is not able to maintain spatial resolutions inside a whole cell without slicing the cell into thin sections, and many other new and novel high resolution techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) are essentially surface probes. In this paper we show that microscopy using fast ions has the potential to extract information from inside whole cells in a unique way. This novel fast ion probe utilises the unique characteristic of MeV ion beams, which is the ability to pass through a whole cell while maintaining high spatial resolutions. This paper first addresses the fundamental difference between several types of charged particle probes, more specifically focused beams of electrons and fast ions, as they penetrate organic material. Simulations show that whereas electrons scatter as they penetrate the sample, ions travel in a straight path and therefore maintain spatial resolutions. Also described is a preliminary experiment in which a whole cell is scanned using a low energy (45 keV) helium ion microscope, and the results compared to images obtained using a focused beam of fast (1.2 MeV) helium ions. The results demonstrate the complementarity between imaging using low energy ions, which essentially produce a high resolution image of the cell surface, and high energy ions, which produce an image of the cell interior. The characteristics of the fast ion probe appear to be ideally suited for imaging gold nanoparticles in whole cells. Using scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM) to image the cell interior, forward scattering transmission ion microscopy (FSTIM) to improve the contrast of the gold nanoparticles, and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) to determine the depth of the gold nanoparticles in the cell, a 3D visualization of the nanoparticles within the cell can be constructed. Finally a new technique, proton induced fluorescence (PIF), is tested on a cell stained with DAPI, a cell-nucleic acid stain that exhibits a 20-fold increase in fluorescence when binding to DNA. The results indicate that the technique of PIF, although still at an early stage of development, has high potential since there does not seem to be any physical barrier to develop simultaneous structural and fluorescence imaging at sub 10 nm resolutions.","PeriodicalId":80753,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin - Cosmos Club. Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.)","volume":"14 1","pages":"65-74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89610352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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