Production engineering

Inducible gene expression systems can be used to control the expression of a gene of interest by means of a small-molecule. One of the most common designs involves engineering a small-molecule responsive transcription factor (TF) and its cognate promoter, which often results in a compromise between minimal uninduced background expression (leakiness) and maximal induced expression. Here, we focus on an alternative strategy using quantitative synthetic biology to mitigate leakiness while maintaining high expression, without modifying neither the TF nor the promoter...

Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is one of the most important causes of acute kidney injury (AKI). Interleukin (IL)-37 has been suggested as a novel anti-inflammatory factor for the treatment of IRI, but its application is still limited by its low stability and delivery efficiency. In this study, we reported a novel engineered method to efficiently and easily prepare neutrophil membrane-derived vesicles (N-MVs), which could be utilized as a promising vehicle to deliver IL-37 and avoid the potential side effects of neutrophil-derived natural extracellular vesicles...

Monoterpenes and monoterpenoids such as (S)-limonene and geraniol are valuable chemicals with a wide range of applications, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has proven to be an effective host to produce various terpenes and terpenoids. (S)-limonene and geraniol are produced from geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP) through the enzymatic actions of limonene synthase (LS) and geraniol synthase (GES), respectively. However, a major hurdle in their production arises from the dual functionality of the Erg20, a farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) synthase, responsible for generating GPP...

Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of lignocellulosic biomass holds promise to realize economic production of second-generation biofuels/chemicals, and Clostridium thermocellum is a leading candidate for CBP due to it being one of the fastest degraders of crystalline cellulose and lignocellulosic biomass. However, CBP by C. thermocellum is approached with co-cultures, because C. thermocellum does not utilize hemicellulose. When compared with a single-species fermentation, the co-culture system introduces unnecessary process complexity that may compromise process robustness...

Air pollution is a significant global challenge that affects many cities. In Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are among the most highly polluted and are mainly affected by air pollution. In this study, we integrate open-source landsat 8 remote sensing products, topographical data, and the limited ground truth PM2.5 data to spatially predict the air quality level across different seasons in Tuzla Canton, BiH by adopting three pre-existing machine learning models, namely XGBoost, K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) and Naive Bayes (NB)...

Introduction Sensory nerve endings transmit mechanical stimuli into afferent neural signals and form the basis of proprioception, giving rise to the self-perception of dynamic stability of joints. We aimed to analyze the three-dimensional structure of periarticular corpuscular sensory nerve endings in a carpal ligament to enhance our understanding of their microstructure. Methods Two dorsal parts of the scapholunate ligament were excised from two human cadaveric wrist specimens. Consecutive cryosections were stained with immunofluorescence markers protein S100B, neurotrophin receptor p75 (p75), protein gene product 9...

Theaflavins are beneficial to human health due to various bioactivities. Biosynthesis of theaflavins using polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is advantageous due to cost effectiveness and environmental friendliness. In this review, studies on the mechanism of theaflavins formation, the procedures to screen and prepare PPOs, optimization of reaction systems and immobilization of PPOs were described. The challenges associated with the mass biosynthesis of theaflavins, such as poor enzyme activity, undesirable subproducts and inclusion bodies of recombinant PPOs were presented...

This study investigated the suitability of recycled asphalt pavement and polyethylene wastes as coarse aggregate in asphaltic concrete by evaluating the impact of the use of polyethylene polymer wastes and recycled asphalt pavement composite as aggregates on the physical and mechanical properties of the asphaltic concrete. The physical characteristics of the aggregate and bitumen were determined using relevant parametric tests. Recycled asphalt pavement was used to make asphaltic concrete samples using LDPE at 5%, 10%, 15%, RAP at 5% and HDPE at 5%, 10%, 15%, and a mixture of LDPE + HDPE at 5+5%, 7...

Anthranilic acid (AA) holds significant importance in the chemical industry. It serves as a crucial building block for the amino acid tryptophan by manipulating the tryptophan biosynthesis pathway, it is possible to increase the production of anthranilic acid. In this study, we utilized metabolic engineering approaches to produce anthranilic acid from the halophilic bacterium Virgibacillus salarius MML1918. The halophilic bacteria were grown in an optimized production medium, and mass production of secondary metabolites was made in ATCC medium 1097 Proteose peptone-for halophilic bacteria and subjected to column chromatography followed by sub-column chromatography the single band for the purified compound was confirmed...

In multiple myeloma (MM), B cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed CAR T cells have emerged as a novel therapy with potential for long-term disease control. Anti-BCMA CAR T cells with a CD8-based transmembrane (TM) and CD137 (41BB) as intracellular costimulatory domain are in routine clinical use. As the CAR construct architecture can differentially impact performance and efficacy, the optimal construction of a BCMA-targeting CAR remains to be elucidated. Here, we hypothesized that varying the constituents of the CAR structure known to impact performance could shed light on how to improve established anti-BCMA CAR constructs...

In the present study, the potential of Pseudomonas citronellolis 620C strain was evaluated, for the first time, to generate electricity in a standard, double chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC), with oily wastewater (OW) being the fuel at 43.625 mg/L initial chemical oxygen demand (COD). Both electrochemical and physicochemical results suggested that this P. citronellolis strain utilized efficiently the OW substrate and generated electricity in the MFC setup reaching 0.05 mW/m2 maximum power. COD removal was remarkable reaching 83...

Continuous cropping of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) has led to a high incidence of wilt disease. The implementation of an intercropping system involving wheat and faba bean can effectively control the propagation of faba bean wilt disease. To investigate the mechanisms of wheat in mitigating faba bean wilt disease in a wheat-faba bean intercropping system. A comprehensive investigation was conducted to assess the temporal variations in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fabae (FOF) on the chemotaxis of benzoxazinoids (BXs) and wheat root through indoor culture tests...

This paper analyzes the technology-related outputs from The National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). We seek to answer the questions: What are the types and frequency of assistive technology (AT) technology transfer (ATTT) outputs from NIDILRR grants? How does NIDILRR's ATTT generation compare to other granting organizations? What types of ATTT outputs occur, how, and what is the relative productivity of the most frequently funded universities and small businesses performing with funding by NIDILRR grants? An online search was conducted for indications of ATTT from grants funded from 1983-2021 through publicly available databases, the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC), and the internet...

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the predominant host of choice for recombinant monoclonal antibody (mAb) expression. Recent advancements in gene editing technology have enabled engineering new CHO hosts with higher growth, viability, or productivity. One approach involved knock out (KO) of BCAT1 gene, which codes for the first enzyme in the branched chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism pathway; BCAT1 KO reduced accumulation of growth inhibitory short chain fatty acid (SCFA) byproducts and improved culture growth and titer when used in conjunction with high-end pH-controlled delivery of glucose (HiPDOG) technology and SCFA supplementation during production...

To accurately predict the life-cycle carbon reduction benefits of replacing a diesel heavy-duty truck with an electric one, taking a single heavy-duty truck as the object, the variation trend in electric and diesel carbon emission factors from 2023 to 2050 were predicted; coupled with the life spans and life-cycle mileage of the two types of heavy-duty trucks, a dynamic carbon emission model for the heavy-duty trucks was constructed in stages. The carbon footprints of the trucks under the "Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE)", "Announced Pledges Scenario (APS)", and "Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS)" were analyzed...

Biochar and modified biochar have been widely used as remediation materials in heavy metal-contaminated agricultural soils. In order to explore economical and effective materials for the remediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated acidic purple soil, distillers 'grains were converted into distillers' grains biochar (DGBC) and modified using nano-titanium dioxide (Nano-TiO2 ) to produce two types of modified DGBCs:TiO2 /DGBC and Fe-TiO2 /DGBC. A rice pot experiment was used to investigate the effects of different biochar types and application rates (1%, 3%, and 5%) on soil properties, nutrient content, Cd bioavailability, Cd forms, rice growth, and Cd accumulation...

Sweet sorghum has a large biomass and strong cadmium (Cd) absorption capacity, which has the potential for phytoremediation of Cd-contaminated soil. In order to study the Cd phytoremediation effect of sweet sorghum assisted with citric acid on the typical parent materials in southern China, a field experiment was carried out in two typical parent material farmland areas (neutral purple mud field and jute sand mud field) with Cd pollution in Hunan Province. The results showed that:① Citric acid had no inhibitory effect on the growth of sweet sorghum...

Guizhou Province ranks first in terms of Hg reserves and production in the country, and rice is its largest grain crop. In order to study the characteristics and pollution causes of soil-rice Hg content at the provincial level in Guizhou and to carry out safe planting zoning, 1 564 pairs of soil-rice samples, 470 natural soil samples, and 203 individual paddy soil samples were collected to test their Hg content and basic physical and chemical properties of the soil. The results showed that:① Paddy soil was mainly neutral and acidic, the paddy soil ω (Hg) range was 0...

To explore the pollution characteristics and source of soil heavy metal in a coal mine area near the Yellow River in Shandong, the geo-accumulation index method and improved Nemerow pollution index method were used to evaluate the pollution characteristics of soil heavy metal. The absolute principal component-multiple linear regression model (APCS-MLR) was used to quantitatively analyze the source of soil heavy metal, and the spatial distribution of Hg and Cd were analyzed using the Kriging spatial difference method in ArcGIS...

The increasing use of nitrogen fertilizers exerts extreme pressure on the environment (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, GHGs) for winter wheat-summer maize rotation systems in the North China Plain. The application of controlled-release fertilizers is considered as an effective measure to improve crop yield and nitrogen fertilizer utilization efficiency. To explore the impact of one-time fertilization of controlled-release blended fertilizer on crop yield and GHGs of a wheat-maize rotation system, field experiments were carried out in Dezhou Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Park from 2020 to 2022...