In recent years, the world has faced significant challenges with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as other infectious diseases such as Zika and Ebola. Furthermore, the rapid rise of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer has placed tremendous strain on healthcare resources and systems. Unfortunately, advancements in drug development, diagnostics, and therapeutics have struggled to keep pace with the emergence and progression of diseases, necessitating the exploration of new technologies for the discovery and development of biomedicines and biotherapies. Synthetic biology, a revolutionary field in modern science, holds great promise in advancing drug development and disease treatment. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the application of synthetic biology to medicine, with a specific focus on its role in drug discovery, drug production, and the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11749639 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnae010 | DOI Listing |
Sci Adv
January 2025
Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects nearly 90% of adults globally and is linked to over 200,000 annual cancer cases. Immunocompromised individuals from conditions such as primary immune disorders, HIV, or posttransplant immunosuppressive therapies are particularly vulnerable because of EBV's transformative capability. EBV remodels B cell metabolism to support energy, biosynthetic precursors, and redox equivalents necessary for transformation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2025
Department of Biosphere Sciences and Engineering, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA 94305.
Microbial mats are stratified communities often dominated by unicellular and filamentous phototrophs within an exopolymer matrix. It is challenging to quantify the dynamic responses of community members in situ as they experience steep gradients and rapid fluctuations of light. To address this, we developed a binary consortium using two representative isolates from hot spring mats: the unicellular oxygenic phototrophic cyanobacterium OS-B' (Syn OS-B') and the filamentous anoxygenic phototroph MS-CIW-1 (Chfl MS-1).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr B Struct Sci Cryst Eng Mater
February 2025
Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Rome, Italy.
A series of Li/Fe-doped enstatite crystals of composition MgLiFeSiO were synthesized and structurally characterized. Under the selected experimental conditions, we grew three crystals of Pbca orthopyroxene (OPX: x = 0.270-0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElife
January 2025
Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute, Junior Research Group Synthetic Microbiology, Jena, Germany.
Mycofactocin is a redox cofactor essential for the alcohol metabolism of mycobacteria. While the biosynthesis of mycofactocin is well established, the gene , which encodes an oxidoreductase of the glucose-methanol-choline superfamily, remained functionally uncharacterized. Here, we show that MftG enzymes are almost exclusively found in genomes containing mycofactocin biosynthetic genes and are present in 75% of organisms harboring these genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Synth Biol
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, 35043 Marburg, Germany.
Cell-free synthetic biology incorporates purified components and/or crude cell extracts to carry out metabolic and genetic programs. While protein synthesis has historically been the primary focus, more metabolism researchers are now turning toward cell-free systems either to prototype pathways for cellular implementation or to design new-to-nature reaction networks that incorporate environmentally relevant substrates or new energy sources. The ability to design, build, and test enzyme combinations has accelerated efforts to understand metabolic bottlenecks and engineer high-yielding pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!