Articles

Application of fibrin-based hydrogels for nerve protection and regeneration after spinal cord injury

Traffic accidents, falls, and many other events may cause traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCIs), resulting in nerve cells and extracellular matrix loss in the spinal cord, along with blood loss, inflammation, ...

Authors: Ziyuan Yu, Hongru Li, Peng Xia, Weijian Kong, Yuxin Chang, Chuan Fu, Kai Wang, Xiaoyu Yang and Zhiping Qi

Development of a novel heterologous β-lactam-specific whole-cell biosensor in Bacillus subtilis

Whole-cell biosensors are a powerful and easy-to-use screening tool for the fast and sensitive detection of chemical compounds, such as antibiotics. β-Lactams still represent one of the most important antibiot...

Authors: Nina Lautenschläger, Philipp F. Popp and Thorsten Mascher

Paper-based in vitro tissue chip for delivering programmed mechanical stimuli of local compression and shear flow

Mechanical stimuli play important roles on the growth, development, and behavior of tissue. A simple and novel paper-based in vitro tissue chip was developed that can deliver two types of mechanical stimuli—lo...

Authors: Kattika Kaarj, Marianne Madias, Patarajarin Akarapipad, Soohee Cho and Jeong-Yeol Yoon

Reflections: 25th anniversary of the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE)

Authors: Brahm P. Verma

Novel 3D embryo implantation model within macroporous alginate scaffolds

Implantation failure remains an unsolved obstacle in reproductive medicine. Previous studies have indicated that estrogen responsiveness, specifically by estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), is crucial for proper im...

Authors: Dganit Stern-Tal, Hanna Achache, Liora Jacobs Catane, Reuven Reich and Tali Tavor Re’em

Correction to: Alginate-based hydrogels as drug delivery vehicles in cancer treatment and their applications in wound dressing and 3D bioprinting

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Farhad Abasalizadeh, Sevil Vaghefi Moghaddam, Effat Alizadeh, Elahe Akbari, Elmira Kashani, Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Fazljou, Mohammadali Torbati and Abolfazl Akbarzadeh

High-throughput screening of clinically approved drugs that prime nonviral gene delivery to human Mesenchymal stem cells

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are intensely researched for applications in cell therapeutics due to their unique properties, however, intrinsic therapeutic properties of hMSCs could be enhanced by genet...

Authors: Tyler Kozisek, Andrew Hamann, Albert Nguyen, Michael Miller, Sarah Plautz and Angela K. Pannier

Formaldehyde formation in the glycine cleavage system and its use for an aldolase-based biosynthesis of 1,3-prodanediol

Glycine cleavage system (GCS) occupies a key position in one-carbon (C1) metabolic pathway and receives great attention for the use of C1 carbons like formate and CO₂ via synthetic biology. In this work, we demon...

Authors: Yingying Xu, Hao Meng, Jie Ren and An-Ping Zeng

Advances in the application of gold nanoparticles in bone tissue engineering

The materials used in bone tissue engineering (BTE) have been advancing with each passing day. With the continuous development of nanomedicine, gold nanoparticles (GNPs), which are easy to be synthesized and f...

Authors: Hongru Li, Su Pan, Peng Xia, Yuxin Chang, Chuan Fu, Weijian Kong, Ziyuan Yu, Kai Wang, Xiaoyu Yang and Zhiping Qi

Acute mechanical stress in primary porcine RPE cells induces angiogenic factor expression and in vitro angiogenesis

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a major cause of blindness in patients with age-related macular degeneration. CNV is characterized by new blood vessel growth and subretinal fluid accumulation, which resu...

Authors: Farhad Farjood, Amir Ahmadpour, Sassan Ostvar and Elizabeth Vargis

Probing the operability regime of an engineered ribocomputing unit in terms of dynamic range maintenance with extracellular changes and time

Synthetic biology aims at engineering gene regulatory circuits to end with cells (re)programmed on purpose to implement novel functions or discover natural behaviors. However, one overlooked question is whethe...

Authors: Roser Montagud-Martínez, Jordi Ventura, Rafael Ballesteros-Garrido, Arantxa Rosado and Guillermo Rodrigo

Tubular bile duct structure mimicking bile duct morphogenesis for prospective in vitro liver metabolite recovery

Liver metabolites are used to diagnose disease and examine drugs in clinical pharmacokinetics. Therefore, development of an in vitro assay system that reproduces liver metabolite recovery would provide importa...

Authors: Astia Rizki-Safitri, Marie Shinohara, Minoru Tanaka and Yasuyuki Sakai

The head and neck cancer (HN-5) cell line properties extraction by AFM

This work incorporates experimental methods based on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) in order to extract the physical and mechanical characteristics of the head and neck cancer (HN-5) cell line such as cell topo...

Authors: M. H. Korayem, K. Heidary and Z. Rastegar

The long-term residual effects of low-magnitude mechanical stimulation therapy on skeletal health

Low-magnitude mechanical stimulation (LMMS) may improve skeletal health. The objective of this research was to investigate the long-term residual effects of LMMS on bone health. 10-week old female mice were gi...

Authors: Kyle A. Bodnyk, Kyle S. Kuchynsky, Megan Balgemann, Brooke Stephens and Richard T. Hart

Alginate-based hydrogels as drug delivery vehicles in cancer treatment and their applications in wound dressing and 3D bioprinting

Hydrogels are a three-dimensional and crosslinked network of hydrophilic polymers. They can absorb a large amount of water or biological fluids, which leads to their swelling while maintaining their 3D structu...

Authors: Farhad Abasalizadeh, Sevil Vaghefi Moghaddam, Effat Alizadeh, Elahe akbari, Elmira Kashani, Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Fazljou, Mohammadali Torbati and Abolfazl Akbarzadeh

Design and testing of a centrifugal fluidic device for populating microarrays of spheroid cancer cell cultures

In current cancer spheroid culturing methods, the transfer and histological processing of specimens grown in 96-well plates is a time consuming process. A centrifugal fluidic device was developed and tested fo...

Authors: Warren Weisler, Samuel Miller, Shaphan Jernigan, Gregory Buckner and Matthew Bryant

Heparinized chitosan stabilizes the bioactivity of BMP-2 and potentiates the osteogenic efficacy of demineralized bone matrix

Demineralized bone matrix (DBM), an allograft bone processed to better expose osteoinductive factors such as bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), is increasingly used for clinical bone repair. However, more ext...

Authors: Soyon Kim, Jiabing Fan, Chung-Sung Lee, Chen Chen, Ksenia Bubukina and Min Lee

Biodegradation of penicillin G from industrial bacteria residue by immobilized cells of Paracoccus sp. KDSPL-02 through continuous expanded bed adsorption bioreactor

An efficient biodegradation-strengthening approach was developed to improve penicillin G degradation from industrial bacterial residue in an expanded bed adsorption bioreactor (EBAB) is reported in this paper.

Authors: Peng Wang, Chen Shen, Xiaochun Wang, Shouxin Liu, Luwei Li and Jinfeng Guo

Signature mRNA markers in extracellular vesicles for the accurate diagnosis of colorectal cancer

With the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC), its accurate diagnosis is critical and in high demand. However, conventional methods are not ideal due to invasiveness and low accuracy. Herein, we aim...

Authors: Byung Seok Cha, Ki Soo Park and Jun Seok Park

Superoxide dismutase reduces monosodium glutamate-induced injury in an organotypic whole hemisphere brain slice model of excitotoxicity

Knowledge of glutamate excitotoxicity has increased substantially over the past few decades, with multiple proposed pathways involved in inflicting damage. We sought to develop a monosodium glutamate (MSG) exp...

Authors: Rick Liao, Thomas R. Wood and Elizabeth Nance

A novel approach for T7 bacteriophage genome integration of exogenous DNA

The comparatively small genome, well elucidated functional genomics and rapid life cycle confer T7 bacteriophage with great advantages for bio-application. Genetic manipulation of T7 genome plays a key role in...

Authors: Ying Liu, Hongxing Huang, Hua Wang and Yan Zhang

SELEX tool: a novel and convenient gel-based diffusion method for monitoring of aptamer-target binding

Aptamers, single-stranded DNAs or RNAs, can be selected from a library containing random sequences using a method called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential Enrichment (SELEX). In SELEX, monitoring ...

Authors: Qingxiu Liu, Wei Zhang, Siying Chen, Zhenjing Zhuang, Yi Zhang, Lingli Jiang and Jun Sheng LIN

Super-antibiofilm effect of N₂ plasma treated buffer (NPB) against plant pathogenic bacterium

Controlling of biofilms formation in numerous pathogenic bacteria is one of the most difficult tasks in the control of bacterial diseases. Plasma has attracted extensive attention due to their potential applic...

Authors: Hyemi Seo, Jisoo Hong, Taeyeol Kim, Won ll Choi, Daekyung Sung and Eunpyo Moon

Real-time analysis of ATP concentration in acupoints during acupuncture: a new technique combining microdialysis with patch clamp

This paper introduces a new technique combining microdialysis with patch clamp to detect the changes in ATP (adenosine triphosphate) concentration in acupoints during acupuncture. The microdialysis probe was i...

Authors: Yong Wu, Meng Huang, Ying Xia and Guanghong Ding

CRIMoClo plasmids for modular assembly and orthogonal chromosomal integration of synthetic circuits in Escherichia coli

Synthetic biology heavily depends on rapid and simple techniques for DNA engineering, such as Ligase Cycling Reaction (LCR), Gibson assembly and Golden Gate assembly, all of which allow for fast, multi-fragmen...

Authors: Stefano Vecchione and Georg Fritz

Directed evolution of the PcaV allosteric transcription factor to generate a biosensor for aromatic aldehydes

Transcription factor-based biosensors are useful tools for the detection of metabolites and industrially valuable molecules, and present many potential applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. However, t...

Authors: Leopoldo F. M. Machado, Andrew Currin and Neil Dixon

HMEJ-mediated efficient site-specific gene integration in chicken cells

The production of transgenic chicken cells holds great promise for several diverse areas, including developmental biology and biomedical research. To this end, site-specific gene integration has been an attrac...

Authors: Long Xie, Juanjuan Sun, Lifen Mo, Tianpeng Xu, Qaisar Shahzad, Dongyang Chen, Wenhao Yang, Yuying Liao and Yangqing Lu

High capacity DNA data storage with variable-length Oligonucleotides using repeat accumulate code and hybrid mapping

With the inherent high density and durable preservation, DNA has been recently recognized as a distinguished medium to store enormous data over millennia. To overcome the limitations existing in a recently rep...

Authors: Yixin Wang, Md Noor-A-Rahim, Jingyun Zhang, Erry Gunawan, Yong Liang Guan and Chueh Loo Poh

Identification of urban particulate matter-induced disruption of human respiratory mucosa integrity using whole transcriptome analysis and organ-on-a chip

Exposure to air particulate matter (PM) is associated with various diseases in the human respiratory system. To date, most in vitro studies showing cellular responses to PM have been performed in cell culture ...

Authors: Junhyoung Byun, Boa Song, Kyungwoo Lee, Byoungjae Kim, Hae Won Hwang, Myung-Ryul Ok, Hojeong Jeon, Kijeong Lee, Seung-Kuk Baek, Sang-Heon Kim, Seung Ja Oh and Tae Hoon Kim

Antigen-labeled mesoporous silica-coated Au-core Pt-shell nanostructure: a novel nanoprobe for highly efficient virus diagnosis

As an emerging research area of artificial enzymes, nanozyme, the catalytic nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics, have attracted enormous attention in research. Here, a nanozyme probe has been realiz...

Authors: Aiyun Li, Lin Long, Fengshou Liu, Jianbo Liu, Xiaochun Wu and Yinglu Ji

Effects of endogenous inflammation signals elicited by nerve growth factor, interferon-γ, and interleukin-4 on peripheral nerve regeneration

Large gap healing is a difficult issue in the recovery of peripheral nerve injury. The present study provides in vivo trials of silicone rubber chambers filled with collagen containing IFN-γ or IL-4 to bridge ...

Authors: Chien-Fu Liao, Chung-Chia Chen, Yu-Wen Lu, Chun-Hsu Yao, Jia-Horng Lin, Tzong-Der Way, Tse-Yen Yang and Yueh-Sheng Chen

An overview of advanced biocompatible and biomimetic materials for creation of replacement structures in the musculoskeletal systems: focusing on cartilage tissue engineering

Tissue engineering, as an interdisciplinary approach, is seeking to create tissues with optimal performance for clinical applications. Various factors, including cells, biomaterials, cell or tissue culture con...

Authors: Azizeh Rahmani Del Bakhshayesh, Nahideh Asadi, Alireza Alihemmati, Hamid Tayefi Nasrabadi, Azadeh Montaseri, Soodabeh Davaran, Sepideh Saghati, Abolfazl Akbarzadeh and Ali Abedelahi

Correction to: Computational analysis of viable parameter regions in models of synthetic biological systems

The original version of this article [1] unfortunately included a typographical error to author Žiga Pušnik’s name.

Authors: Žiga Pušnik, Miha Mraz, Nikolaj Zimic and Miha Moškon

Electrospun nanofibers for the fabrication of engineered vascular grafts

Attention has recently increased in the application of electrospun fibers because of their putative capability to create nanoscale platforms toward tissue engineering. To some extent, electrospun fibers are ap...

Authors: Sonia Fathi Karkan, Soodabeh Davaran, Reza Rahbarghazi, Roya Salehi and Abolfazl Akbarzadeh

Evaluation of human primary intestinal monolayers for drug metabolizing capabilities

The intestinal epithelium is a major site of drug metabolism in the human body, possessing enterocytes that house brush border enzymes and phase I and II drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs). The enterocytes are s...

Authors: Jennifer E. Speer, Yuli Wang, John K. Fallon, Philip C. Smith and Nancy L. Allbritton

Unique N-glycosylation of a recombinant exo-inulinase from Kluyveromyces cicerisporus and its effect on enzymatic activity and thermostability

Inulinase can hydrolyze polyfructan into high-fructose syrups and fructoligosaccharides, which are widely used in food, the medical industry and the biorefinery of Jerusalem artichoke. In the present study, a rec...

Authors: Junyan Ma, Qian Li, Haidong Tan, Hao Jiang, Kuikui Li, Lihua Zhang, Quan Shi and Heng Yin

3D-tips: user-friendly mesh barrier pipette tips for 3D-spheroid culture

Three dimensional (3D) cell cultures have been an area of increasing interest and relevance across several research fields including drug discovery, developmental biology and stem cell-based therapies. However...

Authors: Mo Chen, Marie-Laure Vial and James A. St John

A novel egg-shell membrane based hybrid nanofibrous scaffold for cutaneous tissue engineering

The main issue in cutaneous regeneration is to develop engineered scaffolds based on natural extracellular matrix to promote dynamics of skin progenitor cells and accelerate differentiation into mature keratin...

Authors: Leila Mohammadzadeh, Reza Rahbarghazi, Roya Salehi and Mehrdad Mahkam

Process development for pandemic influenza VLP vaccine production using a baculovirus expression system

Influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of respiratory diseases worldwide each year, and vaccination is considered the most effective approach for preventing influenza annual epidemics or pandemics. Sinc...

Authors: Chia-Chun Lai, Yu-Chieh Cheng, Pin-Wen Chen, Ting-Hui Lin, Tsai-Teng Tzeng, Chia-Chun Lu, Min-Shi Lee and Alan Yung-Chih Hu

Recombinant baculovirus expressing the FrC-OVA protein induces protective antitumor immunity in an EG7-OVA mouse model

The baculovirus (BV) Autographa californica multiple nuclear polyhedrosis virus has been used in numerous protein expression systems because of its ability to infect insect cells and serves as a useful vaccinatio...

Authors: Keigo Kondou, Tomoyuki Suzuki, Myint Oo Chang and Hiroshi Takaku

De Novo Isolation & Affinity Maturation of yeast-displayed Virion-binding human fibronectin domains by flow cytometric screening against Virions

The promise of biopharmaceuticals comprising one or more binding domains motivates the development of novel methods for de novo isolation and affinity maturation of virion-binding domains. Identifying avenues ...

Authors: Pete Heinzelman, Alyssa Low, Rudo Simeon, Gus A. Wright and Zhilei Chen

Computational analysis of viable parameter regions in models of synthetic biological systems

Gene regulatory networks with different topological and/or dynamical properties might exhibit similar behavior. System that is less perceptive for the perturbations of its internal and external factors should ...

Authors: Žiga Pušnik, Miha Mraz, Nikolaj Zimic and Miha Moškon

Strategies for the expansion of human induced pluripotent stem cells as aggregates in single-use Vertical-Wheel™ bioreactors

Since their inception, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have held much promise for pharmacological applications and cell-based therapies. However, their potential can only be realised if large num...

Authors: Diogo E. S. Nogueira, Carlos A. V. Rodrigues, Marta S. Carvalho, Cláudia C. Miranda, Yas Hashimura, Sunghoon Jung, Brian Lee and Joaquim M. S. Cabral

Jamming state transition and collective cell migration

Jamming state transition has been used in literature to describe migrating-to-resting cell state transition during collective cell migration without proper rheological confirmation. Yield stress often has been...

Authors: Ivana Pajic-Lijakovic and Milan Milivojevic

Marimo machines: oscillators, biosensors and actuators

The green algae balls (Aegagropila linnaei), known as Marimo, are large spherical colonies of live photosynthetic filaments, formed by rolling water currents in freshwater lakes. Photosynthesis therein produces g...

Authors: Neil Phillips, Thomas C. Draper, Richard Mayne and Andrew Adamatzky

Exosomes derived from microRNA-138-5p-overexpressing bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells confer neuroprotection to astrocytes following ischemic stroke via inhibition of LCN2

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in the progression of ischemic stroke (IS) and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)-derived exosomes play a role in IS therapy. Herein we hypothesized that the B...

Authors: Yiming Deng, Duanduan Chen, Feng Gao, Hong Lv, Guojun Zhang, Xuan Sun, Lian Liu, Dapeng Mo, Ning Ma, Ligang Song, Xiaochuan Huo, Tianyi Yan, Jingbo Zhang and Zhongrong Miao

Using the promoters of MerR family proteins as “rheostats” to engineer whole-cell heavy metal biosensors with adjustable sensitivity

Whole cell biosensors provide a simple method for the detection of heavy metals. However, previous designs of them rely primarily on simulation of heavy metal resistance systems of bacteria.

Authors: Mingzhang Guo, Ruoxi Du, Zixin Xie, Xiaoyun He, Kunlun Huang, Yunbo Luo and Wentao Xu

Targeting CYP4A attenuates hepatic steatosis in a novel multicellular organotypic liver model

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) begins as simple hepatic steatosis, but further progress to chronic liver diseases results in severe liver damage and hepatic failure. However, therapeutic options are...

Authors: Jae-Sung Ryu, Minji Lee, Seon Ju Mun, Sin-Hyoung Hong, Ho-Joon Lee, Hyo-Suk Ahn, Kyung-Sook Chung, Gun-Hwa Kim and Myung Jin Son

The LINC complex, mechanotransduction, and mesenchymal stem cell function and fate

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) show tremendous promise as a cell source for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and are understood to be mechanosensitive to external mechanical environments. In recent...

Authors: Tasneem Bouzid, Eunju Kim, Brandon D. Riehl, Amir Monemian Esfahani, Jordan Rosenbohm, Ruiguo Yang, Bin Duan and Jung Yul Lim

Discovery and engineering of an endophytic Pseudomonas strain from Taxus chinensis for efficient production of zeaxanthin diglucoside

Endophytic microorganisms are a rich source of bioactive natural products. They are considered as promising biofertilizers and biocontrol agents due to their growth-promoting interactions with the host plants ...

Authors: Ozkan Fidan and Jixun Zhan