Metabolism Control in 3D-Printed Living Materials Improves Fermentation.

The three-dimensional (3D) printing of cell-containing polymeric hydrogels creates living materials (LMs), offering a platform for developing innovative technologies in areas like biosensors and biomanufacturing. The polymer material properties of cross-linkable F127-bis-urethane methacrylate (F127-BUM) allow reproducible 3D printing and stability in physiological conditions, making it suitable for fabricating LMs. Though F127-BUM-based LMs permit diffusion of solute molecules like glucose and ethanol, it remains unknown whether these are permissible for oxygen, essential for respiration.

Diacyl disulfides as the precursors for hydrogen persulfide (HS).

While hydrogen polysulfides (HS, n ≥ 2) are believed to play regulatory roles in biology, their fundamental chemistry and reactivity are still poorly understood. Compounds that can produce HS are useful tools. In this work we found that HS could be effectively produced from diacyl disulfide precursors, triggered by certain nucleophiles, in both aqueous solutions and organic solvents.