Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology
-
Front Bioeng Biotechnol · Jan 2020
ReviewRegulation of Synthetic Biology: Developments Under the Convention on Biological Diversity and Its Protocols.
The primary international forum deliberating the regulation of "synthetic biology" is the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), along with its subsidiary agreements concerned with the biosafety of living modified organisms (LMOs; Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the CBD), and access and benefit sharing in relation to genetic resources (Nagoya Protocol to the CBD). This discussion has been underway for almost 10 years under the CBD agenda items of "synthetic biology" and "new and emerging issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity," and more recently within the scope of Cartagena Protocol topics including risk assessment and risk management, and "digital sequence information" jointly with the Nagoya Protocol. ⋯ The CBD debates are characterized by polarized views on the adequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms for "new" types of LMOs, including the scope of the current regulatory frameworks, and procedures and tools for risk assessment and risk mitigation and/or management. This paper provides an overview of international developments in biotechnology regulation, including the application of the Cartagena Protocol and relevant policy developments, and reviews the development of the synthetic biology debate under the CBD and its Protocols, including the major issues expected in the lead up to and during the 2020 Biodiversity Conference.
-
Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) is a biophysical technique used to monitor proximity within live cells. BRET exploits the naturally occurring phenomenon of dipole-dipole energy transfer from a donor enzyme (luciferase) to an acceptor fluorophore following enzyme-mediated oxidation of a substrate. This results in production of a quantifiable signal that denotes proximity between proteins and/or molecules tagged with complementary luciferase and fluorophore partners. ⋯ These advances have exciting potential to produce new experimental methods to monitor protein-protein interactions (PPIs), protein-ligand interactions, and/or molecular proximity. In addition to NanoBRET, Nluc has also been exploited to produce NanoBiT technology, which further broadens the scope of BRET to monitor biological function when NanoBiT is combined with an acceptor. BRET has proved to be a powerful tool for monitoring proximity and interaction, and these recent advances further strengthen its utility for a range of applications.
-
Front Bioeng Biotechnol · Jan 2018
ReviewStrategies for Annulus Fibrosus Regeneration: From Biological Therapies to Tissue Engineering.
Intervertebral disc (IVD) is an avascular tissue which contributes to the weight bearing, motion, and flexibility of spine. However, IVD is susceptible to damage and even failure due to injury, pathology, and aging. Annulus fibrosus (AF), the structural and functional integrity of which is critically essential to confine nucleus pulpous (NP) and maintain physiological intradiscal pressure under mechanical loading, plays a critical role in the biomechanical properties of IVD. ⋯ However, they remain highly challenging due to the complexity of natural AF tissue in the aspects of cell phenotype, biochemical composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties. Tissue engineering (TE), by combining biological science and materials engineering, shed lights on AF regeneration. In this article, we review recent advances in the pro-anabolic approaches in the form of cell delivery, bioactive factors delivery, gene therapy, and TE strategies for achieving AF regeneration.
-
Front Bioeng Biotechnol · Jan 2017
ReviewRecent Advances in Bioink Design for 3D Bioprinting of Tissues and Organs.
There is a growing demand for alternative fabrication approaches to develop tissues and organs as conventional techniques are not capable of fabricating constructs with required structural, mechanical, and biological complexity. 3D bioprinting offers great potential to fabricate highly complex constructs with precise control of structure, mechanics, and biological matter [i.e., cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components]. 3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing approach that utilizes a "bioink" to fabricate devices and scaffolds in a layer-by-layer manner. 3D bioprinting allows printing of a cell suspension into a tissue construct with or without a scaffold support. The most common bioinks are cell-laden hydrogels, decellulerized ECM-based solutions, and cell suspensions. In this mini review, a brief description and comparison of the bioprinting methods, including extrusion-based, droplet-based, and laser-based bioprinting, with particular focus on bioink design requirements are presented. We also present the current state of the art in bioink design including the challenges and future directions.
-
Front Bioeng Biotechnol · Jan 2013
ReviewA Systems Engineering Perspective on Homeostasis and Disease.
Engineered systems are coupled networks of interacting sub-systems, whose dynamics are constrained to requirements of robustness and flexibility. They have evolved by design to optimize function in a changing environment and maintain responses within ranges. Analysis, synthesis, and design of complex supply chains aim to identify and explore the laws governing optimally integrated systems. ⋯ Our increasing understanding of life's multi-scale architecture suggests that living systems share similar characteristics with much to be learned about biological complexity from engineered systems. If health reflects a dynamically stable integration of molecules, cell, tissues, and organs; disease indicates displacement compensated for and corrected by activation and combination of feedback mechanisms through interconnected networks. In this article, we draw analogies between concepts in systems engineering and conceptual models of health and disease; establish connections between these concepts and physiologic modeling; and describe how these mirror onto the physiological counterparts of engineered systems.