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321 records returned

Single cells as experimentation units in lab-on-a-chip devices.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
'Lab-on-a-chip' technology (LOC) has now reached a mature state and is employed commonly in research in the life sciences. LOC devices make novel experimentation possible while providing a sophisticated environment for cellular investigation. As a next step, we introduce here the concept of a 'lab-in-a-cell': the use of a single cell as a minimal and highly confined experimental unit, or experimentation in the simple, but still unequalled, platform provided by nature itself. LOC provides the appropriate format and set of tools for LIC experimentation, and we discuss here three types of LIC investigation: the elucidatio...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - November 13, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Le Gac S, van den Berg A Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Enzyme engineering for enantioselectivity: from trial-and-error to rational design?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The availability of tailored enzymes is crucial for the implementation of biocatalysis in organic chemistry. Enantioselectivity is one key parameter defining the usefulness of an enzyme and, therefore, the competitiveness of the corresponding industrial process. Hence, identification of enzymes with high enantioselectivity in the desired transformation is important. Currently, this is achieved by screening collections and libraries comprising natural or man-made diversity for the desired trait. Recently, a variety of improved methods have been developed to generate and screen this diversity more efficiently. Here, we p...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Otten LG, Hollmann F, Arends IW Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Elastin-like polypeptides revolutionize recombinant protein expression and their biomedical application.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are highly biocompatible and exhibit a potentially highly useful property: that of a thermally responsive reversible phase transition. These characteristics make ELPs attractive for drug delivery, appealing as materials for tissue repair or engineering, and improve the efficiency with which recombinant proteins can be purified. ELP fusion proteins (referred to as ELPylation) inherit the reversible phase transition property. ELPylation technology recently has been extended to plant cells, and a number of plant-based expression systems have been evaluated for the production of ELPylated p...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - November 6, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Floss DM, Schallau K, Rose-John S, Conrad U, Scheller J Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Immunochemical binding assays for detection and quantification of trace impurities in biotechnological production.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
New, highly sensitive, biosensor concepts make it possible to assay biomacromolecules at concentrations that previously were far below the limit of detection. The previous generation of assays used in quality control situations during biotechnological production was designed primarily for monitoring target molecules, which typically appeared in high concentrations. Hence, novel analytical techniques with high sensitivity should become increasingly important in meeting the demands from regulatory agencies with regard to declaring levels of impurities in biopharmaceuticals. Such techniques also open up opportunities for ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - November 5, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Mattiasson B, Teeparuksapun K, Hedström M Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Liposomal gene delivery mediated by tissue-engineered scaffolds.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the absence of any ideal gene delivery carrier despite the recent explosion of novel carrier systems, the current trend is to explore the complementary synergy promised by a combination of delivery systems such as liposomes, which are the most widely researched versatile non-viral carriers, and tissue-engineered scaffolds with macrostructures of defined architecture comprised of natural or synthetic macromolecules. Here, we discuss the recent advances in liposomal gene delivery and the possible benefits of a combined liposome-scaffold approach, such as long-term expression, enhanced stability, reduction in toxicity ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Kulkarni M, Greiser U, O'Brien T, Pandit A Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Caspase substrates: easily caught in deep waters?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Caspases are key players in various cellular processes, such as apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation, and in pathological conditions including cancer and inflammation. Although caspases preferentially cleave C-terminal of aspartic acid residues, their action is restricted generally to one or a few sites per protein substrate. Caspase-specific substrate recognition appears to be determined by the substrate sequences adjacent to the scissile bond. Knowledge of these substrates and the generated fragments is crucial for a thorough understanding of the functional implications of caspase-mediated proteolysis. In add...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Demon D, Van Damme P, Berghe TV, Vandekerckhove J, Declercq W, Gevaert K, Vandenabeele P Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Bioproduction of resveratrol and stilbene derivatives by plant cells and microorganisms.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Trans-resveratrol is a phenolic plant compound that has been recognized for its benefits on human health. Currently, increasing demand for trans-resveratrol for nutraceutical, cosmetic, and putatively pharmaceutic uses makes its production from sustainable sourcing a necessity. In this context, the use of biotechnology through recombinant microorganisms and plant cell suspensions is particularly promising because it represents a reliable alternative method of trans-resveratrol production under controlled conditions. Tailoring yeast or bacteria with genes that encode enzymes of the trans-resveratrol pathway and further ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 27, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Donnez D, Jeandet P, Clément C, Courot E Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Keeping the genie in the bottle: transgene biocontainment by excision in pollen.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Gene flow from transgenic plants is an environmental and regulatory concern. While biocontainment might be achieved using male sterility or transgenic mitigation tools, we believe that perhaps the optimal solution might be simply to remove transgenes from pollen. Male sterility might not be ideal for many pollinators, and might not be implementable using standardized genes. Transgenic mitigation might not be useful to control conspecific gene flow (e.g. crop to crop), and relies on competition and not biocontainment per se. Site-specific recombination systems could allow highly efficient excision of transgenes in polle...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 24, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Moon HS, Li Y, Stewart CN Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

FTIR microspectroscopy for improved prostate cancer diagnosis.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Accurate diagnosis and prognosis is essential for cancer management but is subject to sampling and inter-observer error. In a recent study, Baker et al. compared Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy with histological pathology to evaluate prostate tissue for disease severity. The authors found that biochemical changes associated with prostate cancer could be discriminated by FTIR to classify confined and locally invasive prostate cancers. These findings could enable the development of improved diagnostic and prognostic methods for the detection and treatment of prostate cancers. PMID: 19853940 [PubMe...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 22, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Mackanos MA, Contag CH Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Acoustic wave biosensors: physical models and biological applications of quartz crystal microbalance.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Piezoelectric sensors are acoustic sensors that enable the selective and label-free detection of biological events in real time. These sensors generate acoustic waves and utilize measurements of the variation of the wave propagation properties as a signal for probing events at the sensor surface. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) devices, the most widespread acoustic resonators, allow the study of viscoelastic properties of matter, the adsorption of molecules, or the motility of living cells. In a tutorial-like approach, this review addresses the physical principles associated with the QCM, as well as the origin and ef...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 22, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Ferreira GN, da-Silva AC, Tomé B Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Genetically engineered wheat, redux.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19853942 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 22, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Miller HI, Carter CA Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Follow-on Protein Products: Scientific Issues, Developments and Challenges.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Scientific and regulatory issues around approval of follow-on protein products, referred to as biosimilars in Europe, have been a topic of great interest and debate recently. The central issue is our limited understanding of how the different quality attributes of a product have an impact on its safety and efficacy. Crucial gaps in our knowledge include a lack of standardization in the way in which data are collected, analyzed and reported, and limitations in the ability of non-clinical tools for predicting clinical safety and efficacy. Complexity of protein products with respect to the numerous quality attributes and ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 18, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Rathore AS Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Rational and systematic protein purification process development: the next generation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Current biopharmaceutical manufacturing strongly relies on using purification platform processes, offering harmonization of practices and speed-to-market. However, the ability of such processes to respond quickly to anticipated higher quality and capacity demands is under question. Here, we describe novel approaches for purification process development that incorporate biothermodynamics, modern high throughput experimentation and simulation tools. Such development leads to production platform-specific databases containing thermodynamic protein descriptors of major host cell proteins over a range of experimental conditi...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - October 5, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Nfor BK, Verhaert PD, van der Wielen LA, Hubbuch J, Ottens M Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Crop improvement using small RNAs: applications and predictive ecological risk assessments.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Crops can be modified by engineering novel RNA interference (RNAi) pathways that create small RNA molecules to alter gene expression in crops or plant pests. RNAi can generate new crop quality traits or provide protection against insects, nematodes and pathogens without introducing new proteins into food and feed products. As a result, stakeholders and regulators need to construct credible ecological risk assessments (ERAs) that characterize potential exposure pathways and hazards for RNAi crops, including off-target effects, non-target effects and impacts from genetic mutations and polymorphisms. New methods are neede...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 28, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Auer C, Frederick R Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

The importance of engineering physiological functionality into microbes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Good physiological performance of industrial microbes is crucial for successful bioprocesses. Conventional metabolism-oriented engineering strategies often fail to obtain expected phenotypes owing to focusing narrowly on targeted metabolic capabilities while neglecting microbial physiological responses to environmental stresses. To meet the new challenges posed by the biotechnological production of fuels, chemicals and materials, microbes should exert strong physiological robustness and fitness, in addition to strong metabolic capabilities, to enable them to work efficiently in actual bioprocesses. Here, we address the...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 27, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Zhang Y, Zhu Y, Zhu Y, Li Y Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Microbial biofilms: a concept for industrial catalysis?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Biofilm reactors have long been commercially used in the treatment of wastewater and off-gas. New opportunities are arising with the rapid expansion of our understanding of biofilm biology over the last few years. Biofilms have great potential as industrial workhorses for the sustainable production of chemicals because of their inherent characteristics of self-immobilization, high resistance to reactants and long-term activity, which all facilitate continuous processing. A variety of biofilm reactor configurations have been explored for productive catalysis and some reactors have been operated continuously for months. ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 21, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Rosche B, Li XZ, Hauer B, Schmid A, Buehler K Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Transgenic plants as vital components of integrated pest management.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although integrated pest management (IPM) strategies have been developed worldwide, further improvement of IPM effectiveness is required. The use of transgenic technology to create insect-resistant plants can offer a solution to the limited availability of highly insect-resistant cultivars. Commercially available insect-resistant transgenic crops show clear benefits for agriculture and there are many exciting new developments such as transgenic plants that enhance biological control. Effective evaluation tools are needed to ascertain that transgenic plants do not result in undesired non-target effects. If these conditi...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 21, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Kos M, van Loon JJ, Dicke M, Vet LE Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Therapeutic application of peptides and proteins: parenteral forever?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Varied therapeutic peptides and proteins represent a rapidly growing part of marketed drugs and have an undisputed place alongside other established therapies. Nevertheless, such biodrugs have several drawbacks that hinder their therapeutic application. These are undesirable physicochemical properties, such as variable solubility, low bioavailability and limited stability. These issues can be overcome by addition of stabilizing agents and directed injectable administration, which can however result in low patient compliance. Hence, there is a drive in the biotechnology industry to produce needle-free and more user-frie...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 16, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Antosova Z, Mackova M, Kral V, Macek T Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Importance of technical operations: lessons from evolving biotherapeutics production methods.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Research and development connect technology and innovation to product design. However, the term is often used to refer to only a subset of the necessary disciplines to the exclusion of technical operations. Here, we argue that the importance of technical operations is undeniable, offering possible solutions by drawing on lessons from outdated biotherapeutics production methods and highlighting advances in the field. PMID: 19765844 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 15, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Jaluria P, Adams DN Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Plant biotechnology: the importance of being accurate.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19758719 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 13, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Twyman RM, Ramessar K, Quemada H, Capell T, Christou P Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Hitting the mark or falling short with nanotechnology regulation?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Regulation of all new technology ebbs and flows between periods of under- and over-regulation, often dependant on the viewpoint of the observer and the underlying objectives of the particular regulation. As illustrated by genetic modification (GM) applications, defining what constitutes appropriate regulation for a rapidly evolving technology can be difficult. Drawing upon the lessons of GM, we argue that nanotechnology will go through similar periods of inappropriate regulation. As with GM, future regulatory responses to nanotechnology will be shaped by perceptions of risk and willingness to accept varying levels of r...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 6, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Ludlow K, Bowman DM, Kirk DD Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Perspectives for on-site monitoring of progesterone.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The steroid hormone progesterone is the primary biomarker of the reproductive status of female mammals. Current techniques of monitoring progesterone are based predominantly on (enzyme) immunoassays, but these are too expensive to be affordable in daily screening programmes because of their associated labour costs and the need for laboratory facilities and/or equipment. Here, we discuss existing methods as well as new perspectives for (automated) application at point of care/need, e.g. the milking parlour. These make it apparent that a low-cost, fully automated progesterone assay system to monitor the reproductive stat...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - September 3, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Posthuma-Trumpie GA, van Amerongen A, Korf J, van Berkel WJ Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

How to overcome limitations in biotechnological processes - examples from hydroxynitrile lyase applications.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
During the last decades, enzymes became very versatile catalysts for a variety of reactions including natural and unnatural compounds. However, many enzyme-catalysed reactions suffer from diverse restrictions because of limitations related to process parameters or the enzyme. The understanding and overcoming of those undesired side effects is therefore mandatory for the implementation of optimal process parameters. To achieve this aim, various methods from molecular biology and reaction engineering can be employed. By focusing on the hydroxynitrile lyase-catalysed synthesis of enantiopure cyanohydrins, we give an overv...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 26, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Andexer JN, Langermann JV, Kragl U, Pohl M Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Integrated microfluidic systems for high-performance genetic analysis.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Driven by the ambitious goals of genome-related research, fully integrated microfluidic systems have developed rapidly to advance biomolecular and, in particular, genetic analysis. To produce a microsystem with high performance, several key elements must be strategically chosen, including device materials, temperature control, microfluidic control, and sample/product transport integration. We review several significant examples of microfluidic integration in DNA sequencing, gene expression analysis, pathogen detection, and forensic short tandem repeat typing. The advantages of high speed, increased sensitivity, and enh...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 23, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Liu P, Mathies RA Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Compositional assessment of transgenic crops: an idea whose time has passed.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Compositional studies comparing transgenic crops with non-transgenic crops are almost universally required by governmental regulatory bodies to support the safety assessment of new transgenic crops. Here we discuss the assumptions that led to this requirement and lay out the theoretical and empirical evidence suggesting that such studies are no more necessary for evaluating the safety of transgenic crops than they are for traditionally bred crops. PMID: 19699543 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 19, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Herman RA, Chassy BM, Parrott W Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Cell-to-cell communication between osteogenic and endothelial lineages: implications for tissue engineering.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There have been extensive research efforts to develop new strategies for bone tissue engineering. These have mainly focused on vascularization during the development and repair of bone. It has been hypothesized that pre-seeding a scaffold with endothelial cells could improve angiogenesis and bone regeneration through a complex dialogue between endothelial cells and bone-forming cells. Here, we focus on the paracrine signals secreted by both cell types and the effects they elicit. We discuss the other modes of cell-to-cell communication that could explain their cell coupling and reciprocal interactions. Endothelial cell...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 13, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Grellier M, Bordenave L, Amédée J Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Potential of immunomodulatory host defense peptides as novel anti-infectives.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A fundamentally new strategy for the treatment of infectious disease is the modulation of host immune responses to enhance clearance of infectious agents and reduce tissue damage due to inflammation. Antimicrobial host defense peptides have been investigated for their potential as a new class of antimicrobial drugs. Recently their immunomodulatory activities have begun to be appreciated. Modulation of innate immunity by synthetic variants of host defense peptides, called innate defense regulators (IDRs), is protective without direct antimicrobial action. We discuss the potential and current limitations in exploiting th...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 13, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Easton DM, Nijnik A, Mayer ML, Hancock RE Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Organizing for innovation: towards successful translational research.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article explains how organizational changes in industry and academia can complement each other. Successful translation of research into innovative drugs needs to take account of the increasing organizational complexity of drug discovery as the knowledge to be integrated becomes more diffuse, specialized and valuable. PMID: 19683820 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 13, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: West W, Nightingale P Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Exploiting plant-microbe partnerships to improve biomass production and remediation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although many plant-associated bacteria have beneficial effects on their host, their importance during plant growth and development is still underestimated. A better understanding of their plant growth-promoting mechanisms could be exploited for sustainable growth of food and feed crops, biomass for biofuel production and feedstocks for industrial processes. Such plant growth-promoting mechanisms might facilitate higher production of energy crops in a more sustainable manner, even on marginal land, and thus contribute to avoiding conflicts between food and energy production. Furthermore, because many bacteria show a na...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 12, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Weyens N, van der Lelie D, Taghavi S, Newman L, Vangronsveld J Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Next-generation sequencing technologies and their implications for crop genetics and breeding.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Using next-generation sequencing technologies it is possible to resequence entire plant genomes or sample entire transcriptomes more efficiently and economically and in greater depth than ever before. Rather than sequencing individual genomes, we envision the sequencing of hundreds or even thousands of related genomes to sample genetic diversity within and between germplasm pools. Identification and tracking of genetic variation are now so efficient and precise that thousands of variants can be tracked within large populations. In this review, we outline some important areas such as the large-scale development of molec...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 10, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Varshney RK, Nayak SN, May GD, Jackson SA Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Dynamic template-assisted strategies in fragment-based drug discovery.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Fragment-based methods for drug discovery are increasingly popular because they provide drug leads with greater ligand efficiency than conventional high-throughput screening. However, established methods for fragment detection do not address the central question in fragment-based ligand discovery: how can a primary ligand be optimally extended by a secondary fragment? Dynamic screening methods solve this issue by using a protein target as a template for ligand assembly, thus yielding high-affinity binders from low-affinity fragments. This review summarizes recent work on dynamic screening methodology, which resulted in...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 10, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Schmidt MF, Rademann J Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Enhancement of the surface expression of G protein-coupled receptors.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate physiological responses to a diverse array of stimuli and are the molecular targets for numerous therapeutic drugs. GPCRs primarily signal from the plasma membrane, but when expressed in heterologous cells many GPCRs exhibit poor trafficking to the cell surface. Multiple approaches have been taken to enhance GPCR surface expression in heterologous cells, including addition/deletion of receptor sequences, co-expression with interacting proteins, and treatment with pharmacological chaperones. In addition to providing enhanced surface expression of certain GPCRs in heterologous ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 10, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Dunham JH, Hall RA Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Novel opportunities for computational biology and sociology in drug discovery.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Current drug discovery is impossible without sophisticated modeling and computation. In this review we outline previous advances in computational biology and, by tracing the steps involved in pharmaceutical development, explore a range of novel, high-value opportunities for computational innovation in modeling the biological process of disease and the social process of drug discovery. These opportunities include text mining for new drug leads, modeling molecular pathways and predicting the efficacy of drug cocktails, analyzing genetic overlap between diseases and predicting alternative drug use. Computation can also be...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 9, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Yao L, Evans JA, Rzhetsky A Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Structural instability of plasmid biopharmaceuticals: challenges and implications.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The global increase in the number of applications involving therapeutic plasmid DNA (pDNA) is creating a need for large amounts of highly stable and purified molecules. One of the main obstacles during the developmental stages of a new therapeutic DNA molecule involves tackling a wide array of structural instability events occurring in/with pDNA and therefore assuring its structural integrity. This review focuses on major instability determinants in pDNA. Their elimination could be considered an important step towards the design of safer and more efficient plasmid molecules. Particular emphasis is given to mutations tr...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - August 2, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Oliveira PH, Prather KJ, Prazeres DM, Monteiro GA Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Bioreactor-based roadmap for the translation of tissue engineering strategies into clinical products.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Despite the compelling clinical need to regenerate damaged tissues/organs, impressive advances in the field of tissue engineering have yet to result in viable engineered tissue products with widespread therapeutic adoption. Although bioreactor systems have been proposed as a key factor in the manufacture of standardized and cost-effective engineered products, this concept appears slow to be embraced and implemented. Here we address scientific, regulatory and commercial challenges intrinsic to the bioreactor-based translation of tissue engineering models into clinical products, proposing a roadmap for the implementation...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 31, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Martin I, Smith T, Wendt D Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Roadmap for implementation of quality by design (QbD) for biotechnology products.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article presents a roadmap for successful QbD implementation for therapeutic biotechnology products. The approach presented here is aligned with existing regulatory guidance documents. Key developments are reviewed and case studies are used to illustrate these concepts. It is concluded that although several QbD concepts are being practiced by the biotechnology industry, successful dialogue and partnership between the industry and its regulators will be the key to successful QbD implementation. PMID: 19647883 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 30, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Rathore AS Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Membrane protein expression: no cells required.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Structural and functional studies of membrane proteins have been severely hampered by difficulties in producing sufficient quantities of properly folded protein products. It is well established that cell-based expression of membrane proteins is generally problematic and frequently results in low yield, cell toxicity, protein aggregation and misfolding. Owing to its inherent open nature, cell-free protein expression has become a highly promising tool for the fast and efficient production of these difficult-to-express proteins. Here we review the most recent advances in this field, underscoring the potentials and weaknes...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 15, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Katzen F, Peterson TC, Kudlicki W Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Mastitis detection: current trends and future perspectives.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Bovine mastitis, the most significant disease of dairy herds, has huge effects on farm economics due to reduction in milk production and treatment costs. Traditionally, methods of detection have included estimation of somatic cell counts, an indication of inflammation, measurement of biomarkers associated with the onset of the disease (e.g. the enzymes N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and lactate dehydrogenase) and identification of the causative microorganisms, which often involves culturing methods. These methods have their limitations and there is a need for new rapid, sensitive and reliable assays. Recently, signifi...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 15, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Viguier C, Arora S, Gilmartin N, Welbeck K, O'Kennedy R Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Promoting creativity and innovation in biotechnology.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19592121 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 7, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Adams DJ, Beniston LJ, Childs PR Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Biogenerics: the hope and the hype.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19589608 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 6, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Miller HI Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Potential of silica bodies (phytoliths) for nanotechnology.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many plant systems accumulate silica in solid form, creating intracellular or extracellular silica bodies (phytoliths) that are essential for growth, mechanical strength, rigidity, predator and fungal defence, stiffness and cooling. Silica is an inorganic amorphous oxide formed by polymerization processes within plants. There has been much research to gain new insights into its biochemistry and to mimic biosilicification. We review the background on plant silica bodies, silica uptake mechanisms and applications, and suggest possible ways of producing plant silica bodies with new functions. Silica bodies offer complemen...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - July 2, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Neethirajan S, Gordon R, Wang L Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Copy-number variation: the end of the human genome?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article will present a somewhat biased and occasionally speculative discussion of the current and future significance of CNV with a particular focus on the potential of molecular copy-number counting in the analysis of small, damaged or heterogeneous samples. PMID: 19576644 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Trends in Biotechnology)
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 30, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Dear PH Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Advances in product release strategies and impact on bioprocess design.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Intracellular products such as recombinant insulin, which are typically produced in microbial host cells, demand a product release step to remove them from the cell. How this is performed determines the quantity of released contaminants, the particle size distribution of cell debris and the physical properties of the resultant process stream, which all impact on the performance of the downstream operations. Thus, achieving selective release of the desired product is crucial for improving the process economics. Advances in upstream processing (the bioreactor phase) have been successful in achieving high product titres, ...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 29, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Balasundaram B, Harrison S, Bracewell DG Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Biomedical applications of distally controlled magnetic nanoparticles.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Nano-sized magnetic particles are increasingly being used across a wide spectrum of biomedical fields. Upon functionalization to enable specific binding, magnetic particles and their targets can be conveniently positioned in vitro and in vivo by the distal application of magnetic fields. Furthermore, such particles can be magnetically heated after reaching their in vivo targets, thus inducing localized cell death that has a considerable therapeutic value in, for instance, cancer therapy. In this context, innovative biomedical research has produced novel applications that have exciting clinical potential. Such applicati...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 26, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Corchero JL, Villaverde A Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Blood cell manufacture: current methods and future challenges.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Blood transfusion depends on availability of donor material, and concerns over supply and safety have spurred development of methods to manufacture blood from stem cells. Current methods could theoretically yield therapeutic doses of red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets. However, due to the very large number of cells required to have any impact on supply (currently 10(19) RBC/year in the US), realization of routine manufacture faces significant challenges. Current yields are orders of magnitude too low for production of meaningful quantities, and the physical scale of the problem is a challenge in itself. We discuss th...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 3, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Timmins NE, Nielsen LK Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Mitigating release of the potent greenhouse gas N(2)O from the nitrogen cycle - could enzymic regulation hold the key?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When faced with a shortage of oxygen, many bacterial species use nitrate to support respiration via the process of denitrification. This takes place extensively in nitrogen-rich soils and generates the gaseous products nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N(2)O) and dinitrogen (N(2)). The denitrifying bacteria protect themselves from the endogenous cytotoxic NO produced by converting it to N(2)O, which can be released into the atmosphere. However, N(2)O is a potent greenhouse gas and hence the activity of the enzyme that breaks down N(2)O has a crucial role in restricting its atmospheric levels. Here, we review the curren...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 2, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Richardson D, Felgate H, Watmough N, Thomson A, Baggs E Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Biotechnology under high pressure: applications and implications.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Pressure is a thermodynamic parameter whose unique effects on biological systems are increasingly being studied in a growing number of scientific fields. As such, the effects of high pressure are currently being investigated at different levels, ranging from proteins, enzymes and viruses to microorganisms, mammalian cells and tissues. Together with the steadily growing knowledge and understanding of high pressure effects on these increasingly complex systems, the purposeful use of high pressure has found several unique applications in bioscience over the past few years, including the disaggregation of proteins, the pre...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 2, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Aertsen A, Meersman F, Hendrickx ME, Vogel RF, Michiels CW Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Production of self-assembling biomaterials for tissue engineering.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Self-assembling peptide-based biomaterials are being developed for use as 3D tissue engineering scaffolds and for therapeutic drug-release applications. Chemical synthesis provides custom-made peptides in small quantities, but production approaches based upon transgenic organisms might be more cost-effective for large-scale peptide production. Long lead times for developing appropriate animal clones or plant lines and potential negative public opinion are obstacles to these routes. Microbes, particularly safe organisms used in the food industry, offer a more rapid route to the large-scale production of recombinant self...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 2, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Kyle S, Aggeli A, Ingham E, McPherson MJ Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

Interrogating single proteins through nanopores: challenges and opportunities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A single nanopore represents an amazingly versatile single-molecule probe that can be employed to reveal several important features of polypeptides, such as their folding state, backbone flexibility, mechanical stability, binding affinity to other interacting ligands and enzymatic activity. Moreover, groundwork in this area using engineered protein nanopores has demonstrated new opportunities for discovering the biophysical rules that govern the transport of proteins through transmembrane protein pores. In this review, I summarize the current knowledge in the field and discuss how nanopore probe techniques will provide...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 1, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Movileanu L Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals

The complexity of cellular dedifferentiation: implications for regenerative medicine.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cellular dedifferentiation underlies topical issues in biology, such as regeneration and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and signifies the withdrawal of cells from a given differentiated state into a 'stem cell'-like state that confers pluripotency. Recently, there has been growing interest in exploiting the dedifferentiation process to obtain autologous stem cell lineages for use in regenerative medicine. This approach holds great promise, particularly in view of the ethical concerns invoked over the use of human embryonic stem cells in research and the problem of transplant rejection. However, new insights prov...
Source: Trends in Biotechnology - June 1, 2009 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Grafi G Tags: Trends Biotechnol Source Type: journals