Topic Review
VLSI Structures for DNA Sequencing
DNA sequencing is a critical functionality in biomedical research, and technical advances that improve it have important implications for human health. The overall structure of DNA is negatively charged and has a negative electrostatic potential due to a negatively charged phosphate backbone. Nucleotides are electroactive compounds that produce reduction and oxidation signals after hybridization. These high electrostatic potentials can be exploited with VLSI charge-sensitive electronic structures. The sequence of DNA is encoded within each nitrogenous base: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), or thymine (T), and this 4-bit system allows for large amounts of information to be stored in a single DNA molecule, which may contain upward of 3 billion bases. 
  • 519
  • 28 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Vitamin K
Vitamin K has been recognized as a key factor for the synthesis of blood clotting factors in the liver, and is currently known to be involved in a wide range of biological processes and is associated with many pathological conditions.The most well-known function of vitamin K is as a cofactor for the γ-glutamyl carboxylase (GGCX) enzyme responsible for the post-translational modification of vitamin K-dependent proteins (VKDPs) through the conversion of specific glutamic acid (Glu) into calcium binding γ-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) residues. Vitamin K deficiency has been linked to several pathological conditions such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), osteoarthritis (OA) , rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoporosis, cancer, dementia, certain skin pathologies, functional decline, and disability.  A new concept on the involvement of vitamin K in inflammation is growing. In fact, novel roles have been disclosed for vitamin K independent of its activity as a cofactor for GGCX, such as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, promoter of cognition, inhibition of tumor progression, and transcriptional regulator of osteoblastic genes. A growing number of studies has raised an increasing interest on the use of vitamin K as a health promoting supplement.  Aging societies represent a major economic challenge for health care systems, and diet supplements promoting healthy aging and improving the prognosis of age-related diseases, are required to be implemented in clinical practice.This work thoroughly reviews available data regarding differences between vitamin K1 and K2, contextualized with clinical aspects of vitamin K deficiency, including their sources, functions, target activity, and involvement in age-related diseases. Processes for the chemical and biological production of vitamin K1 and K2 will be briefly addressed. Additionally, novel sources with potential biotechnological application, and new formulations to improve vitamin K absorption and bioavailability are presented.
  • 929
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Virus-Like Particles-Based COVID-19 Vaccines
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are a versatile, safe, and highly immunogenic vaccine platform. The use of a very flexible vaccine platform in COVID-19 vaccine development is an important feature that cannot be ignored. Incorporating the spike protein and its variations into VLP vaccines is a desirable strategy as the morphology and size of VLPs allows for better presentation of several different antigens. 
  • 594
  • 18 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Virus-like Particles
Nanotechnology is a fast-evolving field focused on fabricating nanoscale objects for industrial, cosmetic, and therapeutic applications. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are self-assembled nanoparticles whose intrinsic properties, such as heterogeneity, and highly ordered structural organization are exploited to prepare vaccines; imaging agents; construct nanobioreactors; cancer treatment approaches; or deliver drugs, genes, and enzymes. However, depending upon the intrinsic features of the native virus from which they are produced, the therapeutic performance of VLPs can vary. 
  • 687
  • 15 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Virus Like Particles in Yeast
Several structural viral proteins can self-assemble to form a capsid without a viral genome. This property of viral proteins has been exploited for constructing virus-like particles (VLPs). The most important feature of VLPs is that they resemble the capsid of the original virus, but they are empty shells that do not contain the viral genome, and thus, they elicit an immune response without propagating inside the cells. VLPs have been produced in Escherichia coli and in mammalian, plant, insect, and yeast cells . 
  • 159
  • 01 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Virus Elimination in Plants
Virus elimination from plants is mostly based on the in vitro culture of isolated meristem, and in addition thermotherapy, chemotherapy, electrotherapy, and cryotherapy can also be applied. Treatments can result in low rate of survival, inhibited growth, incomplete development, or abnormal morphology.  The rate of destruction depends on the genotypes and physiological condition of plants. There are several ways to decrease the harmful effect of treatments. 
  • 4.8K
  • 31 May 2021
Topic Review
Viral Purification in Vaccine Processing
Viral vectors and viral vaccines are invaluable tools in prevention and treatment of diseases. About 14% of vaccines approved by the FDA involve enveloped viruses, while out of the 15 gene therapy products approved worldwide in 2019, six of them use enveloped viruses, and 39% of gene therapy clinical trials are using enveloped viruses. Enveloped viruses are encased in a lipid bilayer which, in most cases, fuses with the target host cell membrane to infect cells. These enveloped viruses are produced in various systems, including traditional embryonated chicken eggs or more advanced cell culture technologies such as MRC-5 cells, Vero cells and HEK293-derived cell lines. The manufacturing of viral vector and viral vaccine products has always been paved with challenges related to the downstream processing. Purification process unit operations usually start with harvest and clarification, followed by intermediate purification steps, before polishing and formulation steps. Although techniques have greatly improved over the years to generate purer high-quality products and reproducible processes while maintaining or decreasing the cost of goods, regulatory agencies are increasingly stringent regarding product identity and characterization of the end products and level of acceptable impurities as a way to ensure public safety and maintain public trust in this class of medicine.
  • 852
  • 09 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Versatile Applications of Cyanobacteria in Biotechnology
Cyanobacteria are blue-green Gram-negative and photosynthetic bacteria which are seen as one of the most morphologically numerous groups of prokaryotes. Because of their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen and carbon dioxide to organic materials, they are known to play important roles in the universal nutrient cycle. Cyanobacteria has emerged as one of the promising resources to combat the issues of global warming, disease outbreaks, nutrition insecurity, energy crises as well as persistent daily human population increases. Cyanobacteria possess significant levels of macro and micronutrient substances which facilitate the versatile popularity to be utilized as human food and protein supplements in many countries such as Asia. Cyanobacteria has been employed as a complementary dietary constituent of feed for poultry and as vitamin and protein supplement in aquatic lives. They are effectively used to deal with numerous tasks in various fields of biotechnology, such as agricultural (including aquaculture), industrial (food and dairy products), environmental (pollution control), biofuel (bioenergy) and pharmaceutical biotechnology (such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressant, anticoagulant and antitumor).
  • 757
  • 06 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Value-Added Products from Ethanol Fermentation
Most ethanol is produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) fermentation of either crops rich in sucrose (e.g., sugar cane and sugar beet) or starch-rich crops (e.g., corn and starchy grains). Ethanol produced from these sources is termed a first-generation biofuel. Yeast fermentation can yield a range of additional valuable co-products that accumulate during primary fermentation (e.g., protein concentrates, water soluble metabolites, fusel alcohols, and industrial enzymes). Distillers’ solubles is a liquid co-product that can be used in animal feed or as a resource for recovery of valuable materials. In some processes it is preferred that this fraction is modified by a second fermentation with another fermentation organism (e.g., lactic acid bacteria). Such two stage fermentations can produce valuable compounds, such as 1,3-propanediol, organic acids, and bacteriocins. The use of lactic acid bacteria can also lead to the aggregation of stillage proteins and enable protein aggregation into concentrates. Once concentrated, the protein has utility as a high-protein feed ingredient. After separation of protein concentrates the remaining solution is a potential source of several known small molecules.
  • 1.1K
  • 12 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Value-Added Polyhydroxyalkanoates
The synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a bioplastic that can be used to replace traditional (petrol-based) plastics, is an important focus in today’s politically and environmentally conscious society. 
  • 344
  • 19 Sep 2022
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