Microbial natural products among other functions they play a vital role in the disease prevention in humans, animals and plants. Pseudomonas parafulva CRS01‐1 is a broad‐spectrum antagonistic bacterium present in plants. However, no natural products have been isolated from this strain till date. Corresponding biosynthetic gene clusters to natural products is an effective method for bioprospecting,

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most extensively used mammalian production system for biologics intended for use in humans. A critical step in the establishment of production cell lines is single cell cloning, with the objective of achieving high productivity and product quality. Despite general use, knowledge of the effects of this process is limited. Importantly, single cell cloned cells

CriPecࣨ technology enables the generation of drug‐entrapped biodegradable core‐crosslinked polymeric micelles (CCPM) with high drug loading capacity, tailorable size and drug release kinetics. Docetaxel‐entrapped CCPM, also referred to as CPC634, have demonstrated favorable pharmacokinetics, tolerability and enhanced tumor uptake in patients. Clinical efficacy evaluation is ongoing. CPC634 is currently

Human angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the primary host cell receptor for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) binding and cell entry. Administration of high concentrations of soluble ACE2 can be utilized as a decoy to block the interaction of the virus with cellular ACE2 receptors and potentially be used as a strategy for treatment or prevention of coronavirus disease

Neurological disorders affect millions of people worldwide causing behavior‐cognitive disabilities. Nowadays there is no effective treatment for them. Human erythropoietin (hEPO) has been used in clinical tests because of its neurotrophic and cytoprotective properties. However, the erythropoietic activity (EA) should be considered as a side effect. Some analogs like asialoEPO, carbamylated‐EPO or EPO‐peptides

Strategies aiming at increasing the survival and paracrine activity of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are of utmost importance to achieve the full therapeutic potential of these cells. Herein, we propose both physical and biochemical strategies to enhance the survival, homing, angiogenic and immunomodulatory properties of MSCs in vitro. To that purpose, we compared the effect of exposing either

Bioprocess optimization for cell‐based therapies is a resource heavy activity. To reduce the associated cost and time, process development may be carried out in small volume systems, with the caveat that such systems be predictive for process scaleup. The transport of oxygen from the gas phase into the culture medium, characterized using the volumetric mass transfer coefficient, kLa, has been identified

The progress from clinical development toward product licensure of several programs presents challenges mainly to gene therapy product manufacturing. These include challenges in viral vector‐manufacturing capacity but also in process variability, difficulty characterizing complex materials, and lack of knowledge of critical process parameters and their effect on critical quality attributes of the viral

Synthetic genomics‐driven dematerialization of genetic resources facilitates flexible hypothesis testing and rapid product development. Biological sequences have compositional biases, which, I reasoned, could be exploited for engineering of enhanced synthetic genomics systems. In proof‐of‐concept assays reported herein, the abundance of random oligonucleotides in viral genomic components was analyzed

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most popular mammalian cell factories for the production of glycosylated biopharmaceuticals. To further increase titer and productivity and ensure product quality, rational system‐level engineering strategies based on constraint‐based metabolic modeling, such as flux balance analysis (FBA), have gained strong interest. However, the quality of FBA predictions

Mariana B. Oliveira Feng Li Jonghoon Choi João F. Mano Nanotechnology has enabled the development of cutting‐edge applications in the fields of biotechnology and bioengineering. Such an impact has emerged in a plethora of technologies and devices targeted at more effective disease diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment. In this special issue, nanostructured materials in different shapes and assembly

The imprudent use of fossil fuels has resulted in high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leading to climate change and global warming. Reduction in GHG emissions and energy insecurity imposed by the depleting fossil fuel reserves led to the search for alternative sustainable fuels. Hydrogen is a potential alternative energy carrier and is of particular interest because hydrogen combustion releases only

The area of biocatalysis has been experiencing tremendous growth from its early foundations to its present state of the art and science. Cross‐inspiration and interconnections between the art and know‐how of different practical biocatalytic applications and the motivation for the creation of fundamental knowledge in the science of biocatalysis over time made problem‐solving feasible to successfully