Opportunities for engineering outer membrane vesicles using synthetic biology approaches.

Gram-negative bacteria naturally shed lipid vesicles, which contain complex molecular cargoes, from their outer membrane. These outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) have important biological functions relating to microbial stress responses, microbiome regulation, and host-pathogen interactions. OMVs are also attractive vehicles for delivering drugs, vaccines, and other therapeutic agents because of their ability to interact with host cells and their natural immunogenic properties.

Opportunities to accelerate extracellular vesicle research with cell-free synthetic biology.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-membrane nanoparticles that are shed or secreted by many different cell types. The EV research community has rapidly expanded in recent years and is leading efforts to deepen our understanding of EV biological functions in human physiology and pathology. These insights are also providing a foundation on which future EV-based diagnostics and therapeutics are poised to positively impact human health.

Specific Nucleic AcId Ligation for the detection of Schistosomes: SNAILS.

Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever, is a debilitating neglected tropical disease (NTD), caused by parasitic trematode flatworms of the genus Schistosoma, that has an annual mortality rate of 280,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Schistosomiasis is transmitted via contact with water bodies that are home to the intermediate host snail which shed the infective cercariae into the water. Schistosome lifecycles are complex, and while not all schistosome species cause human disease, endemic regions also typically feature animal-infecting schistosomes that can have broader economic and/or food security implications.

Biological Materials: The Next Frontier for Cell-Free Synthetic Biology.

Advancements in cell-free synthetic biology are enabling innovations in sustainable biomanufacturing, that may ultimately shift the global manufacturing paradigm toward localized and ecologically harmonized production processes. Cell-free synthetic biology strategies have been developed for the bioproduction of fine chemicals, biofuels and biological materials. Cell-free workflows typically utilize combinations of purified enzymes, cell extracts for biotransformation or cell-free protein synthesis reactions, to assemble and characterize biosynthetic pathways.