Several studies investigated the development of a non-invasive and early diagnostic method for cancer. Recently, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exhaled from cancer patients have been shown to act as a potential biomarker for cancer. However, the gas profile of breath is highly variable and not conducive to identification of biomarkers accurately. Accordingly, we identified a cancer-specific

Biodiesel was produced from waste coffee grounds (WCGs) using solid catalysts manufactured from waste scallop shells through a one-step direct process (OSDP) comprising lipid extraction and simultaneous transesterification in a reactor. To facilitate the reuse of the solid catalysts, a cartridge containing the solid catalysts was devised, and the optimal conditions of the OSDP with the cartridge were

Anticancer drugs, including doxorubicin (DOX), have been widely used for cancer treatment, but these chemotherapeutic drugs have some issues to address because of their associated side effects, such as cytotoxicity. Various synthetic delivery vehicles for anticancer drugs have been developed to encapsulate and transfer them to cancer cells. However, these delivery vehicles also have high cytotoxicity

Cell surface engineering is a rapidly developing technology of microorganism that achieves modification of cell surface function by joining external functional peptides with surface anchoring proteins, for example, Outer Member Protein (OMP). On account of these proteins possessing metal responsive motifs, they can be specifically used for metal adsorption and dissociation. To elucidate the problems

As expenditure on drug development increases exponentially, the overall drug discovery process requires a sustainable revolution. Since artificial intelligence (AI) is leading the fourth industrial revolution, AI can be considered as a viable solution for unstable drug research and development. Generally, AI is applied to fields with sufficient data such as computer vision and natural language processing

Non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) are a family of secondary metabolites with the highest number among entire secondary metabolite types. They are biosynthesized by a multi-modular enzyme complex called non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), which is encoded by a biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) in plants and a special group of microorganisms. NRPs are structurally and functionally diverse with numerous

Genome-scale models (GEMs) are predictive tools to study genotype-phenotype relationships in biological systems. Initially, genome-scale models were used for predicting the metabolic state of the organism given the nutrient condition and genetic perturbation (if any). Such metabolic (M-) models have been successfully developed for diverse organisms in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In this review

Natural polymer materials have high biocompatibility and are not toxic because they can decompose into metabolites in the body; thus, they are widely used as medical polymer materials as well as porous support materials. As a biopolymer, alginate has a negative charge; in contrast, chitosan has a positive charge. Therefore, when the two substances are mixed, they form a relatively stable structure

The development and innovative use of next-generation sequencing technologies have opened the doors for genetic and epigenetic research at the next level. These technologies can be used to study gene expression regulation at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. In this review, we focused on the various tools and techniques for DNA-binding proteins

Programming a new function into cells and balancing new functions with native cellular metabolism or program related to cell growth have long been a challenge in metabolic engineering. In this regard, advances in synthetic biology and systems biology have broadly expanded the cell growth control strategies, empowering the strategies to be applied in metabolic engineering more effectively. In this review

Polyketides such as the antibiotic erythromycin or the immunosuppressant rapamycin, and non-ribosomal peptides, such as the antibiotics penicillin or vancomycin, are important classes of natural products. The core of these molecules are biosynthesized by large polyketide synthases (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), respectively. The modular architecture of these enzymatic assembly

Lignin, a complex aromatic polymer, is a structural component of plant biomass. It decomposes with difficulty because of its rigidity properties, however, lignin valorization is essential for the economics of lignocellulosic biorefineries. Pseudomonas putida has been extensively investigated as a promising host strain for lignin valorizations due to intrinsic traits, such as low nutritional requirement

Bacillus subtilis has been studied for more than half a century, ever since the dawn of molecular biology, as a representative Gram-positive bacterium and cell factory. Two characteristic capacities of B. subtilis, namely its natural competence for DNA uptake and high-level enzyme secretion, have been investigated and exploited intensively during these long years. As a consequence, this bacterium has

Recent advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology have enabled a variety of genetically modified microorganisms (GMOs) designed for open environmental applications. The use of GMOs in these applications, however, raised concerns about the spread of artificial biological matters into the natural environment. To address the issue, genetic biocontainment system has emerged as a way to prevent

Cell-free systems utilize a subset of cellular components without intact cell wall and/or membranes. The system was first invented for use in fermentation. Subsequent improvements enabled its application in protein synthesis, which is still the most common use of the system. Lately, attempts have been reported where metabolic engineering concepts and techniques were applied to cell-free systems and/or

Biopolymers consisting of at least one monomer, which are produced from renewable carbon sources, are being highly sought out since ubiquitous plastics are mainly produced from petrochemical processes causing severe environmental pollution. Therefore, the development of microbial cell factories, which can efficiently synthesize diverse types of monomers and polymers, is also becoming increasingly important

Galactan is a major sulfate polysaccharide in the red seaweed, Pyropia yezoensis. In the present study, the prebiotic potential and anticancer activities of three sulfate galactans with different molecular weights (GPYcrude, GPY300, and GPY10) were evaluated in vitro. Monosaccharide composition and structural analyses of these sulfate galactans showed that all polysaccharide fractions contained the

Succinic acid (SA), a four-carbon dicarboxylic acid utilized as a platform chemical for valuable industrial products, is a major fermentation product of Actinobacillus succinogenes cells, synthetized during anaerobic metabolism. In this study, cell-recycled continuous fermentation (CRCF) was carried out in order to maximize the appreciably stable biocatalytic activity of SA-producing cells and the

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that can directly convert CO2 into several bio-products for industrial use, such as alcohols and diols, terpenes, acids, and sugars. However, some of these compounds are either produced in low amounts or are absent in cyanobacteria, and thus strain development is required to achieve optimal production of these bio-products for industrial applications. Metabolic

There are concerns regarding the toxicity of household detergents to humans and aquatic organisms. There are various types of surfactants, which are the main components of detergents, and each detergent product has a different formulation. Therefore, high-throughput technologies capable of analyzing a large number of samples rapidly and accurately are required for research on detergent toxicity. In

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a promising candidate for production of organic acids as it is more tolerant to these acids than the prokaryotes. However, the large-scale production of organic acids from lignocellulosic biomass is limited by their accumulation in the growth medium and inability of xylose fermentation by S. cerevisiae. Here we showed that high intracellular spermidine (SPD) contents confers

Glutathione (GSH) is an important bio-thiol which is playing vital role in the human system, such as treating glaucoma, preventing asthma, cancer, etc. Therefore, electrochemical sensing of GSH is becoming very vital to know the level of the biomolecule in living systems. Hence, the present work aims to develop a sensor matrix for electrochemical biosensing of GSH at Au nanoparticle decorated Nanoporous

With the rapid growth of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, stirred tank bioreactors have received much attention due to simple design, easy control of operating conditions, and low operating cost. In the development of commercial processes, however, a transition from laboratory to industrial scale faces great challenges because many properties related to size change nonlinearly as a system

Vesicles comprising dimethyl aminopropyl octadecanamide (DMAPODA), stearic acid (SA), and carboxyhexadecyl disulfide (CHDDS) were prepared as reduction-responsive carriers. Vesicular particles were found on TEM micrographs and the diameter fell within 100-400 nm. The hydrodynamic mean diameter increased with increasing the content of CHDDS. The zeta potential was lowered by the incorporation of CHDDS

Natural and synthetic melanins are promising pigments for several uses, such as biosorbents and bioadhesives. Further, their high biocompatibilities and excellent biological activities potentially allow them to be ideal biomaterials for environmental and biotechnological applications. Naturally occurring melanin has been used as a biosorbent for the environmental treatment of organic chemicals and

This study describes the optimization of a culture medium to improve protease production by Janthinobacterium sp. using response surface methodology (RSM) and comparative proteomic analysis. Using a one-variable-at-a-time approach, dextrose, Triton X-100, peptone, and pH were identified as significant factors affecting protease production. The optimized medium resulted in a 6.25-fold increase in protease

Structural information of Fc-Fc receptor interaction may contribute to the design of drugs or therapeutic antibodies associated with the interaction. Computational protein-protein docking can be employed in structural study of protein-protein interaction, but its efficiency and reliability are still unstable and need to be validated and optimized for respective target protein complexes. In this study

Purpose This study aims to explore the effects of BTXA on the proteins that affect the contraction of fibroblasts. Moreover, the optimal dose of BTXA on hypertrophic scars has not yet been determined. The current study investigated the effect of different doses of BTXA on scar formation. Materials and Methods 18 rabbits’ ears of New Zealand rabbits were used to establish hypertrophic scar model. These

We herein describe a novel washing-free electrochemical strategy for target DNA detection by utilizing the peroxidase mimicking DNAzyme. The DNAzymeincorporated DNA probes, the key components of this strategy, are designed to be not able to form G-quadruplex structure in the initial state such that the peroxidase mimicking activity of DNAzyme is kept suppressed. The DNAzyme sequences, however, would

Biogenic TiO2 diatoms can be prepared by metabolic incorporation of TiO2 on the frustule surface of the diatoms. To utilize the photo-catalytic activity of biogenic TiO2 for practical applications, high production of TiO2-deposited diatoms is required. Here, we evaluated the growth rate and biogenic TiO2 production of several domestic diatom species. Among the tested diatoms, Caloneis schroederi (CS)

Multistimuli-Responsive Nanogels are one of the most trending materials in the scope of biomedical science, which responds when excited with a range of stimuli including temperature, pH, UV light, and redox chemical moieties. These ‘smart’ nanomaterials are reported to exhibit not only higher drug/cargo release profiles, but also enhance the specificity of target delivery. This perspective aims to

The vast amount of feathers generated (>1 Mtons/a in Europe) in the poultry industry is an opportunity of upcycling by-product materials and improving sustainable practices. Feathers are potentially interesting materials as feed protein ingredients due to their high protein (>85 wt%) and cystine content (>7 wt%). However, due to their challenging recalcitrant nature, they have to be processed to make

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are utilized as primary mammalian expression host cells for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Recombinant CHO cell line development (CLD) has been a crucial step for therapeutic protein production platforms; however, this step remains time-consuming and costly. With the emergence of multiomics data sets of CHO cells and genome editing technology such as CRISPR/Cas9

Muscle tissue influences energy and protein metabolism throughout the body. Earlier reports demonstrated that bone morphogenetic protein 11 (BMP11) could inhibit skeleton muscle proliferation and development. However, the role of BMP11 in the fatty acid metabolism of muscle has not been explored. In this study, we investigated the physiological functions of exogenous BMP11 on lipid metabolism in C2C12

Albumin, the most abundant and long-lived serum protein, exhibits novel features as a carrier that can greatly enhance the pharmacological action of therapeutic payloads. Besides passive trafficking by enhanced permeability and retention effect, albumin has been shown to accumulate within the tumor environment or inflamed tissues by receptor-mediated active transport, lending itself to being a promising

CRISPR/Cas9 system has served a new insight in genome editing of eukaryotes, including human cells. In this system, delivery of Cas9 nuclease with guide RNA has been central challenge in developing safe and efficient techniques. The viral delivery of genes encoding these two components i.e. Cas9 and guide RNA may cause unexpected integration of the DNA sequence into the host cell genome, and lead to

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a long historical record of usage in many types of food-related bioprocesses, and as LAB have been found to have intrinsic beneficial effects on human health, interest in using LAB as a medical treatment has increased. Moreover, recent advances in synthetic biology have enabled the engineering of so-called “smart” bacteria with the native characteristics of LAB. With

Recently, the production of exopolysaccharide from Pseudozyma sp. SY16, which is mannosylerythritol lipid-producing yeast, has been occasionally observed during industrial fermentations. Moreover, exopolysaccharides derived from microbes are in high demand for the production of biopolymers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the production and characteristics of the exopolysaccharide produced

Subunit vaccines have been developed as promising vaccines with safety. However, subunit vaccines have difficulties in commercialization due to low efficiencies of delivery and immune response. As a result, studies of adjuvants that improve the immune-inducing ability of vaccines have been conducted globally. Aluminum salts (alum) have been extensively used as vaccine adjuvants, but they cannot induce

L-glutamate oxidase (GLOD) and L-amino acid oxidase (AAO) were reported to be capable of convert L-glutamic acid to α-aketoglutaric acid (α-KG). These two enzymes gene have been successfully expressed by using pHBM905BDM in Pichia pastoris to produce α-aketoglutaric acid from L-glutamic acid in our previous studies. Here these two enzymes were displayed on P. pastoris to achieve the conversion. We

Multiplex PCR simultaneously detects several different DNA targets in a given sample and has, therefore, gained considerable interest for use in examining a genetic target whose number rapidly increases in a single phenotype. Conventional real-time PCR lacks sufficient multiplex capacity, as the limited number of color channels restricts the number of simultaneously detectable targets to six. On the

Butyric acid, a short chain carboxylic acid with diverse usages, is produced by Clostridia fermentation. In the industrial scale production of butyric acid, its separation and recovery from fermentation broth requires energy-intensive processes. To reduce the product recovery costs, it is necessary to convert butyric acid into a chemical with a much higher partition coefficient in the hydrophobic extractants

The accumulation of short-chain carboxylic acids (SCCAs), such as acetic acid (C2), propionic acid (C3), butyric acid (C4), and valeric acid (C5), produced by acetogens in the anaerobic digestion (AD) process hampers the maintenance of stable AD processes in biomethane production. The conversion of various SCCAs to the corresponding alcohols can be a good solution not only for utilizing abandoned or

In the present study, an electrochemical glucose biosensor has been developed based on nano-copper oxide micro hollow spheres. The nano-copper oxide micro hollow spheres were synthesized via hydrothermal method using pluronic F-127 as a surfactant. For structural characterization of CuO hollow sphere structures, the scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy were applied. The performance

In this study, biodiesel was produced from waste coffee grounds (WCGs) using solid catalysts manufactured from waste eggshells (WESs). A one-step direct process (OSDP), comprising extraction of lipids from WCGs and simultaneous transesterification of these lipids with methanol in a reactor, was employed. To facilitate reuse of the solid catalysts, a cartridge containing the solid catalysts was devised

Acrylic acid is used in various industrial applications but inflicts harm to human health and causes environmental pollution. A new bacterium, identified as Rhodococcus ruber JJ-3, was isolated, which can degrade high concentrations of acrylic acid rapidly and completely. Experimental results showed that the strain can achieve complete degradation of 1000 mg·L−1 acrylic acid in 11 h under the following

Here we report a simple and flexible method for DNA data storage based on Perl script. For this approach, the text data of the preamble of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” consisting of 2,046 words was encoded into the corresponding 8,148 base pairs of DNA using Perl-based encoding with a hash table. The encoded DNA sequences were then artificially synthesized for storage. The information

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women worldwide. Although chemical or biological drugs have been developed, they have limited therapeutic effects. To overcome this issue, alternative therapeutic agents based on nucleic acid drugs have been developed. Of the several nucleic acid-based drugs, micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are known to be drastically downregulated in cancer cells, and this

Chitin is a linear homopolymer of acetylated β-(1,4)-linked glucosamine residues and among the most abundant polysaccharides in the world. Here, we identified and purified a novel chitosanase (CCHA) from Aspergillus oryzae NKY2017 obtained from Hu’bei province in China. Construction of a cDNA library from this strain revealed the gene sequence subsequently expressed in Pichia pastoris and subsequent

Exogenous elicitors can influence accumulation of triterpenoids by regulating FPS (farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase) in Inonotus obliquus, such as birch bark (BB), birch rhizosphere soil (BS), Frankia alni (FA), and Rhizobium indigoferae (RI). Among them, the highest yield of biomass (15.6 mg/mL) could be detected by treatment with RI at 2 µg/mL for 10 d, about 2.1-fold of the control. Results showed

Tissues contain more tumor-type specific information than biofluids, such as blood, rendering them valuable resources for biomarker studies. However, considering the characteristics of tissue homogenization, it is difficult to obtain reproducible samples and analyze many samples simultaneously. To address these issues, we developed a robust and reproducible method for preparing tissues for targeted

Considering the significance of effective antigen presentation for boosting immune responses, it is essential to develop delivery systems for antigen presenting cells (APCs; dendritic cells and macrophages). As a simple and facile way for improving delivery efficiency of PLGA microspheres (MS) into APCs, we fabricated exosome-conjugated PLGA MS via polydopamine coating in this study. Spherical micro-sized

Chronic inflammation is the cause of various diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, with a large number of people suffering from them. There have been many reports that even link cancer to inflammation, so the development of sophisticated and powerful drugs continues to be in demand. Here we demonstrate that the methanol extract of Lecania gerlachei (LGME), a lichen member found in the extreme

Cheong-Pye-Ko (CPK) and Kyung-Ok-Ko (KOK) are traditional herbal medicine prescriptions that have been used in oriental medicine as tonics for pulmonary-related diseases for centuries. However, the effects of a mixture of CPK and KOK (C-KOK) on cytokine-mediated pulmonary damage have not yet been elucidated. This study used lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated human pulmonary artery endothelial cells

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the process of cell fate determination. However, their function and expression profiles have not yet been systematically investigated during the transdifferentiation of glial precursor cells derived from dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in the peripheral nervous system. Our results demonstrated significant differences in gene architecture and expression

Nodusmicin and 18-O-acetyl-nodusmicin were isolated as a co-metabolite of nargenicin from Nocardia sp. CS682. NgnL belonging to the α/β-hydrolase superfamily was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 and was evaluated for its potential for acetylation of nodusmicin by in-vitro reactions. The generation of 18-O-acetyl nodusmicin was confirmed by high resolution-quadruple time of flight mass

In this study, we performed a kinetic analysis of CO-dependent H2 production by metabolically engineered Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, MC01 in terms of the cell activity as well as mass transfer rate. We conducted continuous cultures with varying dilution rate, CO flow rate, or agitation speed. Despite oscillations in cell density, the cultures reached steady states at all operating conditions. As the

Pseudomonas protegens is a gram-negative bacterium with an excellent biological control effect. Compared to standard cells growing in NaCl-free media, the ability of the hyperosmotic cells (450 mM NaCl) to resist high temperatures and freezing was significantly improved. It is of great significance to apply the P. protegens to elaborate on the hyperosmotic adaptation mechanism. RNA-seq was used to

Bioconversion of organic biomass such as plant hydrolysate and organic waste into valuable biochemicals is very challenging. In this study, carbohydrate-rich watermelon rinds and protein-rich okara (soybean waste) were converted into biofuels of ethanol, isobutanol, and methylbutanols using an engineered Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis mixed-whole cell biotransformation. The engineered E. coli

Citrobacter freundii is a facultative anaerobic and Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. Citrobacter spp. are opportunistic pathogens that are commonly found in water, soil, food, animals, or intestines in humans and warm-blooded animals and are a major concern for antibiotic resistance, especially C. freundii that exists in the farms, medical environment, and is difficult