Intestinal Absorption of Lipids Using a Pancreatic Enzyme-Free Nutritional Supplement in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Crossover Pilot Trial.

Nutritional supplements for patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) typically utilize pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) which is associated with gastrointestinal side effects. We evaluated serum triglyceride levels in patients with cystic fibrosis following consumption of an enzyme-modified oil oral nutritional supplement (EMO-ONS) versus a standard triacylglycerol-based ONS product (TAG-ONS) used concomitantly with PERT and patient tolerability between the two approaches. Ten subjects with CF and EPI taking PERT were enrolled in a single-center, double-blind, cross-over proof of concept trial.

Microaerobic conversion of glycerol to ethanol in Escherichia coli.

Glycerol has become a desirable feedstock for the production of fuels and chemicals due to its availability and low price, but many barriers to commercialization remain. Previous investigators have made significant improvements in the yield of ethanol from glycerol. We have developed a fermentation process for the efficient microaerobic conversion of glycerol to ethanol by Escherichia coli that presents solutions to several other barriers to commercialization: rate, titer, specific productivity, use of inducers, use of antibiotics, and safety.

Growth factor engineering by degenerate homoduplex gene family recombination.

There is great interest in engineering human growth factors as potential therapeutic agonists and antagonists. We approached this goal with a synthetic DNA recombination method. We aligned a pool of "top-strand" oligonucleotides incorporating polymorphisms from mammalian genes encoding epidermal growth factor (EGF) using multiple polymorphic "scaffold" oligonucleotides.

Chemostat approach for the directed evolution of biodesulfurization gain-of-function mutants.

Chemostat enrichment is a classical microbiological method that is well suited for use in directed-evolution strategies. We used a two-phase sulfur-limited chemostat to select for gain-of-function mutants with mutations in the biodesulfurization (Dsz) system of Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8, enriching for growth in the presence of organosulfur compounds that could not support growth of the wild-type strain. Mutations arose that allowed growth with octyl sulfide and 5-methylbenzothiophene as sole sulfur sources.