Cyanobacteria hold significant potential as industrial biotechnology (IB) platforms for the production of a wide variety of bio-products ranging from biofuels such as hydrogen, alcohols and isoprenoids, to high-value bioactive and recombinant proteins. Underpinning this technology, are the recent advances in cyanobacterial “omics” research, the development of improved genetic engineering tools for key species, and the emerging field of cyanobacterial synthetic biology. These approaches enabled the development of elaborate metabolic engineering programs aimed at creating designer strains tailored for different IB applications. In this review, we provide an overview of the current status of the fields of cyanobacterial omics and genetic engineering with specific focus on the current molecular tools and technologies that have been developed in the past five years. The paper concludes by giving insights on future commercial applications of cyanobacteria and highlights the challenges that need to be addressed in order to make cyanobacterial industrial biotechnology more feasible in the near future.
Graphene is a highly promising material for biosensors due to its excellent physical and chemical properties which facilitate electron transfer between the active locales of enzymes or other biomaterials and a transducer surface. Printing technology has recently emerged as a low-cost and practical method for fabrication of flexible and disposable electronics devices. The combination of these technologies is promising for the production and commercialization of low cost sensors. In this review, recent developments in organo-functionalized graphene and printed biosensor technologies are comprehensively covered. Firstly, various methods for printing graphene-based fluids on different substrates are discussed. Secondly, different graphene-based ink materials and preparation methods are described. Lastly, biosensing performances of printed or printable graphene-based electrochemical and field effect transistor sensors for some important analytes are elaborated. The reported printed graphene based sensors exhibit promising properties with good reliability suitable for commercial applications. Among most reports, only a few printed graphene-based biosensors including screen-printed oxidase-functionalized graphene biosensor have been demonstrated. The technology is still at early stage but rapidly growing and will earn great attention in the near future due to increasing demand of low-cost and disposable biosensors.
The present review critically discusses the latest developments in the field of smart diagnostic systems for cancer biomarkers. A wide coverage of recent biosensing approaches involving aptamers, enzymes, DNA probes, fluorescent probes, interacting proteins and antibodies in vicinity to transducers such as electrochemical, optical and piezoelectric is presented. Recent advanced developments in biosensing approaches for cancer biomarker owes much credit to functionalized nanomaterials due to their unique opto-electronic properties and enhanced surface to volume ratio. Biosensing methods for a plenty of cancer biomarkers has been summarized emphasizing the key principles involved.
Salmonella infectious diseases spreading every day through food have become a life-threatening problem for millions of people and growing menace to society. Health expert's estimate that the yearly cost of all the food borne diseases is approximately $5–6 billion. Traditional methodologies for salmonella analysis provide high reliability and very low limits of detection. Among them immunoassays and Nucleic acid-based assays provide results within 24 h, but they are expensive, tedious and time consuming. So, there is an urgent need for development of rapid, robust and cost-effective alternative technologies for real-time monitoring of salmonella. Several biosensors have been designed and commercialized for detection of this pathogen in food and water. In this overview, we have updated the literature concerning novel biosensing methods such as various optical and electrochemical biosensors and newly developed nano- and micro-scaled and aptamers based biosensors for detection of salmonella pathogen. Furthermore, attention has been focused on the principal concepts, applications, and examples that have been achieved up to diagnose salmonella. In addition, commercial biosensors and foreseeable future trends for onsite detecting salmonella have been summarized.
I have always looked at multidisciplinarity as the key to technological advancement. I was pleased to see my belief backed by a crowd of 380 people participating to Biofabricate 2016 – the annual summit for the emerging world of grown materials. Biofabricate is a beautiful example of how distant fields such as biology, technology and design can come together to change the world into a more sustainable, environmentally aware place: namely, through the use of biology for growing the materials of the future. I am honoured to have been invited to participate to this event and to have witnessed the birth of something unique, something that will literally reshape our future in so many different ways. I was also pleased to see that synthetic biology plays an important role in the revolution.
Biofabricate 2016 was the third conference of its kind. While the first two events were hosted by Microsoft, this year the conference was held in Parsons New School of Design on 5th Avenue, on the 17th of November. Biofabricate was founded in 2014 by Suzanne Lee, Chief Creative Officer of Modern Meadow and CEO of Biocouture. Suzanne should be very proud of what she has created: a space in which to experience how the application of biotechnology to the production of new materials has gone from being subject of science fiction to tangible technological advancement directed to an expanding community of people passionate about biomaterials.
The event was varied: during a single track speaker programme of four sessions the discussion developed from a broad discourse about the role of design in biofabrication to various presentations by CEOs and CTOs of successful material companies that use bacteria, yeast, mushrooms and algae to manufacture their products. The discussion also touched the societal implications of the democratisation of biology to end with a big announcement from Adidas.
Biotechnology, Design and the community
One big theme that emerged during the conference is the concern around the societal issues that are arising with the emerging of new biotechnological applications directly applicable to our everyday life.
Concerns were raised about current existing policies and their inadequacy to safeguard our privacy, and our genetic information. Tina Gorjanc brought a fascinating, yet scary example of the shortcomings of our current legislation system: as a student, she was able to patent a process through which she could potentially obtain a range of human leather accessories starting from the genetic material extracted from late artist Alexander McQueen. If a student is allowed to do this, probably the current system has big flaws, which need to be addressed quickly.
Daisy Ginsberg approached synthetic biology from the point of view of a designer, artist and writer. She suggests that the help of designers is fundamental in order to link synthetic biology to the community, in particular, she approaches the problem by posing questions such as: “what does it mean to design biology, and what is the role of design in synthetic biology? Is designing biology different: does it require special care? How can we do work that is good for science while at the same time raising public discussion?”
Anthony Dunne spoke about the importance of educating society to accept the change, also touching on the issues of security, and the responsibility of the press which should help separate reality from fiction and avoid sensationalism: a point for which I am fighting daily.
The Biofabricate community values education (as the synthetic biology community does), and I was glad to hear Megan Palmer speak about how the iGEM competition has grown to serve the community and become a global enterprise in the past twelve years. What was new to me was the Biodesign Challenge, a more recent competition with which students of art and design are asked to partner with biology and biotechnology to show us what the future of biotech looks like. The main aims are: to create a community in which scientists, designers and artists collaborate, inform the public and bring fresh ideas to biotech.
Synthetic Biology and biofabrication: some interesting examples
When biotech/synbio processes are advanced and efficient enough to catch the interest of big companies, such as Adidas and North Face, I think that it is safe to say that a new era has begun. And this is exactly what is happening from the point of view of biomaterial production. Probably the most exciting Biofabricate announcement was the advancement made in the production of the spider silk protein using genetically modified bacteria, avoiding fossil fuels and using only a fraction of the energy that is required for the production of plastic. The production process has improved so much that NorthFace is going to be presenting the first spider silk-made Moon Parka. The prototype will be displayed on 5th Avenue later in November. Adidas, instead, uncovered their new product in front of our eyes: Adidas Futurecraft Biofabric, a pair of running shoes the tissue of which is made entirely of spider silk (the sole instead is still made of recycled plastic ocean). Spider silk is a noble material: it is fully biosourced and biodegradable (compostable!) while maintaining an excellent tensile strength.
It is important to notice how collaboration is once again key: the two multinationals are working together with experts in the field of production of spider silk through synthetic biology: NorthFace partnered with Spiber, a Japanese company, while Adidas’ partner is the German company AMSilk, producer of the so-called Biosteel spider silk. Smaller companies are also making great strides in contributing to the revolution. For instance, Taxa exhibited fragrant moss, genetically engineered patchouli-scented living moss, while Living Ink Technologies is producing sustainable ink derived from algae instead of petroleum.
Using microorganisms to grow new materials: not strictly synbio but…
Even though there is not a unique definition for synthetic biology, with this term the community refers mainly to “the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, and the re-design of existing natural biological systems for useful purposes.” While attending biofabricate I started wondering if this definition is somehow a bit limiting, as there were so many projects in the conference that did not fall strictly into this category, but that I am sure would be of great interest to the synthetic biology community, and that struck me for their utility and beauty. For instance: Dr. Armpit (Chris Callewaert) and the company Mother dirt have been rethinking about the role of bacteria in our everyday life. While Dr. Armpit proposes microbiota transplants to eliminate unpleasant body odors, Mother dirt already sells skin products to nurture and replenish the microbiota of the skin.
In the same way, it would be a crime not to mention companies that are growing furniture using microbes such as Ecovative that uses mycelium as natural glue to avoid formaldehyde, and Biomason that employes microorganisms to grow cement. Similarly, Maurizio Montalti seeks to replace petroleum-based plastics with mycelium derived new materials, 100% compostable, through the MOGU project.
Probably the most creative project of all was the research coming out from the laboratory of Andrew Pelling. Andrew Pelling looks at science with the eye of a curious person, and he was able to create human ‘ears’ starting from… an apple! While I admire his work (and you should check his TED talk out) I also applaud the way in which he approaches science. Using creative solutions, and recycling everything he can find, he is out to demonstrate that science is within reach of everyone. With this in mind, he co-founded Spiderwort, a company that aims to “reduce the research cost, decrease the time to obtain the results and make sciences more accessible to academic and the general public.” Their first product is a low cost, open source CO2 incubator for mammalian cell culture.
Much more than a conference: the Design Lab
“Our unique Design Lab Exhibit showcases the future before it arrives.”
As I also tweeted during the conference, I was left speechless by the Design Lab. I believe that this is what makes Biofabricate so unique: the chance to see the prototypes of the new materials that were presented during the talks, to speak with the people that are fabricating them in order to understand better how are they made and what are their potentials. With plenty of time during the breaks, I had the chance to meet some of the speakers in front of their stands. This fuelled the discussion and gave them the chance to show me their products, which were on display to touch, smell or just observe with a closer look.
In the Design Lab I also had the opportunity of meeting Aminolabs: one of the companies whose primary aim is to make biology available to all. Biology is a complex matter, no doubt about it, but there are straightforward processes that can be standardized and made user-friendly to make non-experts able to exploit the potential of biotechnology. For instance, with the Aminolabs kit, designers are now able to produce and purify a different range of pigments by transforming the gene of interest into the E.coli host and expressing and purifying colourful proteins. While this can be useful to help designers understand and use biology, it certainly is educative to all, and I would love to see this kind of kits used in schools as a playful way to introduce biology to young people! A tangible step in the democratisation of biotechnological tools.
This conference positively overwhelmed me in so many ways. If there is a fault with it is that it was held over one single day: I wish there had been more time to talk to people and that the speakers had longer sessions to present their work. But I guess that this will probably change in the future judging by the success of this year event and considering that the Biofabricate community is growing fast.
Biofabricate gave me food for thought: while biomaterial is going to shape our reality, and biotechnology is set to be soon democratized, there is the need to reshape our current policies to make of this a safe transition. To see such a great involvement and creativity in the field of biofabrication gives me great hope for a better future for our world, which is in need of quick, tangible, sustainable solutions.
Traditionally, pollution risk assessment is based on the measurement of a pollutant’s total concentration in a sample. The toxicity of a given pollutant in the environment, however, is tightly linked to its bioavailability, which may differ significantly from the total amount. Physico-chemical and biological parameters strongly influence pollutant fate in terms of leaching, sequestration and biodegradation. Bacterial sensorreporters, which consist of living micro-organisms genetically engineered to produce specific output in response to target chemicals, offer an interesting alternative to monitoring approaches. Bacterial sensor-reporters detect bioavailable and/or bioaccessible compound fractions in samples. Currently, a variety of environmental pollutants can be targeted by specific biosensor-reporters. Although most of such strains are still confined to the lab, several recent reports have demonstrated utility of bacterial sensing-reporting in the field, with method detection limits in the nanomolar range. This review illustrates the general design principles for bacterial sensor-reporters, presents an overview of the existing biosensor-reporter strains with emphasis on organic compound detection. A specific focus throughout is on the concepts of bioavailability and bioaccessibility, and how bacteria-based sensing-reporting systems can help to improve our basic understanding of the different processes at work
Deadline: December 22nd, 2016; The Bioprocess Laboratory (BPL), ETH Zürich in Basel, Switzerland – in collaboration with Biofaction, Vienna, Austria – is inviting applications for a four to six week long...
Biological and synthetic recognition elements are at the heart of the majority of modern bioreceptor assays. Traditionally, enzymes and antibodies have been integrated in the biosensor designs as a popular choice for the detection of toxin molecules. But since 1970s, alternative biological and synthetic binders have been emerged as a promising alternative to conventional biorecognition elements in detection systems for laboratory and field-based applications. Recent research has witnessed immense interest in the use of recombinant enzymatic methodologies and nanozymes to circumvent the drawbacks associated with natural enzymes. In the area of antibody production, technologies based on the modification of in vivo synthesized materials and in vitro approaches with development of “display “systems have been introduced in the recent years. Subsequently, molecularly-imprinted polymers and Peptide nucleic acid (PNAs) were developed as an attractive receptor with applications in the area of sample preparation and detection systems. In this article, we discuss all alternatives to conventional biomolecules employed in the detection of various toxin molecules We review recent developments in modified enzymes, nanozymes, nanobodies, aptamers, peptides, protein scaffolds and DNazymes. With the advent of nanostructures and new interface materials, these recognition elements will be major players in future biosensor development.
This review is an attempt, for the first time, to describe advancements in sensing technology for cytochrome c (cyt c) detection, at point-of-care (POC) application. Cyt c, a heme containing metalloprotein is located in the intermembrane space of mitochondria and released into bloodstream during pathological conditions. The release of cyt c from mitochondria is a key initiative step in the activation of cell death pathways. Circulating cyt c levels represents a novel in-vivo marker of mitochondrial injury after resuscitation from heart failure and chemotherapy. Thus, cyt c detection is not only serving as an apoptosis biomarker, but also is of great importance to understand certain diseases at cellular level. Various existing techniques such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), Western blot, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), spectrophotometry and flow cytometry have been used to estimate cyt c. However, the implementation of these techniques at POC application is limited due to longer analysis time, expensive instruments and expertise needed for operation. To overcome these challenges, significant efforts are being made to develop electrochemical biosensing technologies for fast, accurate, selective, and sensitive detection of cyt c. Presented review describes the cutting edge technologies available in the laboratories to detect cyt c. The recent advancements in designing and development of electrochemical cyt c biosensors for the quantification of cyt c are also discussed. This review also highlights the POC cyt c biosensors developed recently, that would prove of interest to biologist and therapist to get real time informatics needed to evaluate death process, diseases progression, therapeutics and processes related with mitochondrial injury.
Current reported smartphone spectrometers are only used to monitor or measure one sample at a time. For the first time, we demonstrate a multichannel smartphone spectrometer (MSS) as an optical biosensor that can simultaneously optical sense multiple samples. In this work, we developed a novel method to achieve the multichannel optical spectral sensing with nanometer resolution on a smartphone. A 3D printed cradle held the smartphone integrated with optical components. This optical sensor performed accurate and reliable spectral measurements by optical intensity changes at specific wavelength or optical spectral shifts. A custom smartphone multi-view App was developed to control the optical sensing parameters and to align each sample to the corresponding channel. The captured images were converted to the transmission spectra in the visible wavelength range from 400 nm to 700 nm with the high resolution of 0.2521 nm per pixel. We validated the performance of this MSS via measuring the concentrations of protein and immunoassaying a type of human cancer biomarker. Compared to the standard laboratory instrument, the results sufficiently showed that this MSS can achieve the comparative analysis detection limits, accuracy and sensitivity. We envision that this multichannel smartphone optical biosensor will be useful in high-throughput point-of-care diagnostics with its minimizing size, light weight, low cost and data transmission function.
Biomolecular transport systems based on cytoskeletal filaments and motor proteins have become promising tools for a wide range of nanotechnological applications. In this paper, we report control of such transport systems using substrates with switchable shape. We demonstrate this approach on the example of microtubules gliding on surfaces of self-folding polymer bilayers with adsorbed kinesin motors. The polymer bilayers are able to undergo reversible transitions between flat and tube-like shapes that allow the externally controlled retention and release of gliding microtubules. The demonstrated approach, based on surfaces with reconfigurable topography, opens broad perspectives to control biomolecular transport systems for bioanalytical and sensing applications, as well as for the construction of subcellular compartments in the field of synthetic biology.
Synthetic biology is a new discipline that combines science and engineering approaches to precisely control biological networks. These signaling networks are especially important in fields such as biomedicine and biochemical engineering. Additionally, biological networks can also be critical to the production of naturally occurring biological nanomaterials, and as a result, synthetic biology holds tremendous potential in creating new materials. This review introduces the field of synthetic biology, discusses how biological systems naturally produce materials, and then presents examples and strategies for incorporating synthetic biology approaches in the development of new materials. In particular, strategies for using synthetic biology to produce both organic and inorganic nanomaterials are discussed. Ultimately, synthetic biology holds the potential to dramatically impact biological materials science with significant potential applications in medical systems.
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