Clara Davis LongKatie Turner-ShelefDavid A. Relman
p.535-538页
查看更多>>摘要：The concept of ecological 'traps' is based in theory from ecology and conservation biology that has now found application to infectious diseases with a study from Paul Turner's group. This study is important because it offers a mathematical model of ecological traps, applies this model to viruses, and tests the model in a bacteria-phage system. Although there will be technical hurdles to overcome, this concept might lead to benefits for both health and industry.
查看更多>>摘要：Drawing an appropriate boundary between unpatentable natural phenomena and patentable inventions is crucial in preventing the patent laws from unduly restricting access to fundamental scientific discoveries. Some would argue that, particularly in the U.S., patents are being issued that purport to claim a novel product or process but that, in effect, encompass any practical application of a fundamental biological principle. Examples include gene patents, which Congress is considering banning, and patents relating to biological correlations and pathways, such as the patents at issue in the headline-grabbing LabCorp v. Metabolite and Ariad v. Eli Lilly litigations. In view of the mounting concern, it seems likely that Congress and/or the courts will address the issue, and perhaps substantially shift the boundary.
查看更多>>摘要：Technology is a social practice that embodies the capacity of societies to transform themselves by creating and manipulating not only physical objects, but also symbols and cultural forms. It is an illusion that scientific and socioeconomic drivers are the sole elements determining the destiny of a technology. Although they are important, what is really crucial is the way in which a human community 'metabolizes' a new technology, that is the way in which a new technology becomes part of the mental landscape of people living in that society. In this paper 1 argue that today, fear of technology mainly emerges from a lack of meaning surrounding the technology revolution. Present technology is developing without a sound cultural framework that could give technology a sense beyond mere utilitarian considerations. Frightening stories then end up being a privileged way to incorporate technology into a meaningful context. However, fear is not the sole emotion that can enable integration of new concepts into mental schemes, two other powerful emotional forces should be considered: wonder and curiosity.
查看更多>>摘要：The emerging and sustained resistance to antibiotics and the poor pipeline of new antibacterials is creating a major health issue worldwide. Bacterial pathogens are increasingly becoming resistant even to the most recently approved antibiotics. Few antibiotics are being approved by regulatory organizations, which reflects both the difficulty of developing such agents and the fact that antibiotic discovery programs have been terminated at several major pharmaceutical companies in the past decade. As a result, the output of the drug pipelines is simply not well positioned to control the growing army of resistant pathogens, although academic institutions and smaller companies are trying to fill that gap. An emerging option to fight such pathogens is combination therapy. Combinations of two antibiotics or antibiotics with adjuvants are emerging as a promising therapeutic approach. This article provides and discusses clinical and scientific challenges to support the development of combination therapy to treat bacterial infections.
查看更多>>摘要：Recent studies highlight the tremendous potential of human embryonic stem (ES) cells and their derivatives as therapeutic tools for degenerative diseases. However, derivation and culture of ES cells can induce epigenetic alterations, which can have long lasting effects on gene expression and phenotype. Research on human and mouse stem cells indicates that developmental, cancer-related genes, and genes regulated by genomic imprinting are particularly susceptible to changes in DNA methylation. Together with the occurrence of genetic alterations, epigenetic instability needs to be monitored when considering human stem cells for therapeutic and technological purposes. Here, we discuss the maintenance of epigenetic information in cultured stem cells and embryos and how this influences their developmental potential.
查看更多>>摘要：The lungs are an attractive route for non-invasive drug delivery with advantages for both systemic and local applications. Incorporating therapeutics with polymeric nanoparticles offers additional degrees of manipulation for delivery systems, providing sustained release and the ability to target specific cells and organs. However, nanoparticle delivery to the lungs has many challenges including formulation instability due to particle-particle interactions and poor delivery efficiency due to exhalation of low-inertia nanoparticles. Thus, novel methods formulating nanoparticles into the form of micron-scale dry powders have been developed. These carrier particles exhibit improved handling and delivery, while releasing nanoparticles upon deposition in the lungs. This review covers the development of nanoparticle formulations for pulmonary delivery as both individual nanoparticles and encapsulated within carrier particles.
查看更多>>摘要：Propenylbenzenes are common aromatic compounds that are often used as starting compounds for the production of various flavours. Recently, microbial transformation has emerged as an important approach for producing natural flavours in high quantities. Because the biotransformation processes are environmentally friendly and the products are considered 'natural', flavour production using this method is attracting more and more attention. This paper reviews recent advances in the application of microbial metabolism to propenylbenzenes and in subsequent flavour production. Vanillin, a valuable aromatic compound, is used as a model to show recent progress in high-value natural flavour production. Future research should focus on metabolic-mechanism characterisation and on optimisation of biotransformation to improve the yields of target products for scale-up and industrial use.
查看更多>>摘要：The smart thermoresponsive coatings and surfaces that have been explicitly designed for cell culture are mostly based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). This polymer is characterized by a sudden precipitation on heating, switching from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic state. Mammalian cells cultured on such thermoresponsive substrates can be recovered as confluent cell sheets, while keeping the newly deposited extracellular matrix intact, simply by lowering the temperature and thereby avoiding the use of deleterious proteases. Thermoresponsive materials and surfaces are powerful tools for creating tissue-like constructs that imitate native tissue geometry and mimic its spatial cellular organization. Here we review and compare the most representative methods of producing thermoresponsive substrates for cell sheet engineering.
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