Microbial nanocellulose biotextiles for a circular materials economy.

The synthesis and bottom-up assembly of nanocellulose by microbes offers unique advantages to tune and meet key design criteria-rapid renewability, low toxicity, scalability, performance, and degradability-for multi-functional, circular economy textiles. However, development of green processing methods that meet these criteria remains a major research challenge. Here, we harness microbial biofabrication of nanocellulose and draw inspiration from ancient textile techniques to engineer sustainable biotextiles with a circular life cycle. The unique molecular self-organization of microbial nanocellulose (MC) combined with bio-phosphorylation with a lecithin treatment yields a compostable material with superior mechanical and flame-retardant properties. Specifically, treatment of MC with a lecithin-phosphocholine emulsion makes sites available to modulate cellulose cross-linking through hydroxyl, phosphate and methylene groups, increasing the interaction between cellulose chains. The resultant bioleather exhibits enhanced tensile strength and high ductility. Bio-phosphorylation with lecithin also redirects the combustion pathway from levoglucosan production towards the formation of foaming char as an insulating oxygen barrier, for outstanding flame retardance. Controlled color modulation is demonstrated with natural dyes. Life cycle impact assessment reveals that MC bioleather has up to an order of magnitude lower carbon footprint than conventional textiles, and a thousandfold reduction in the carcinogenic impact of leather production. Eliminating the use of hazardous substances, these high performance materials disrupt linear production models and strategically eliminate its toxicity and negative climate impacts, with widespread application in fashion, interiors and construction. Importantly, the biotextile approach developed in this study demonstrates the potential of biofabrication coupled with green chemistry for a circular materials economy.

Development and performance of a point-of-care rapid antigen test for detection of SARS-COV-2 variants.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 antigen-based tests are well-calibrated to infectiousness and have a critical role to play in the COVID-19 public health response. We report the development and performance of a unique lateral flow immunoassay (LFA). Methods: Combinations of several monoclonal antibodies targeting multiple antigenic sites on the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) were isolated, evaluated, and chosen for the development of a LFA termed CoV-SCAN (BioMedomics, Inc.). Clinical point-of-care studies in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals were conducted to evaluate positive predictive agreement (PPA) and negative predictive agreement (NPA) with RT-PCR as comparator. Results: In laboratory testing, CoV-SCAN detected 14 recombinant N-proteins of SARS-CoV-2 variants with sensitivity in the range of 0.2-3.2 ng/mL, and 10 authentic SARS-CoV-2 variants with sensitivity in the range of 1.6-12.5 TCID50/swab. No cross reactivity was observed with other human coronaviruses or other respiratory pathogens. In clinical point-of-care testing on 148 individuals over age 2 with symptoms of ≤5 days, PPA was 87.2% (CI 95: 78.3-94.8%) and NPA was 100% (CI 95: 94.2-100%). In another 884 asymptomatic individuals, PPA was 85.7% (CI 95: 42.1-99.6%) and 99.7% (99.0-99.9%). Overall, CoV-SCAN detected over 97.2% of specimens with CT values <30 and 93.8% of nasal swab specimens with the Omicron variant, even within the first 2 days after symptom onset. Conclusions: The unique construction of CoV-SCAN using two pairs of monoclonal antibodies has resulted in a test with high performance that remains durable across multiple variants in both laboratory and clinical evaluations. CoV-SCAN should identify almost all individuals harboring infectious SARS-CoV-2. Summary: Unique construction of a point-of-care rapid antigen test using two pairs of monoclonal antibodies has led to good performance that remained durable across multiple variants in laboratory and clinical evaluations. Test should identify almost all individuals harboring infectious SARS-CoV-2.

Generation of IBMS-iPSC-021, -022, -023 human induced pluripotent stem cells (IBMSi016-A, IBMSi017-A, and IBMSi018-A) derived from patients with the ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism.

ALDH2 gene is coded for the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is an enzyme involved in alcohol metabolism. Compared to normal aldehyde dehydrogenases, a homozygous point mutation on exon 12 from G to A significantly reduces its efficiency. In this study, we have reported the generation of IBMS-iPSC-021-04, IBMS-iPSC-022-01, and IBMS-iPSC-023-03 as induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines carrying the homozygous form of ALDH2 with the rs671 genetic polymorphism (E487K mutation). These cell lines were characterized in terms of pluripotency and differentiation potential. They serve as useful platforms to study alcohol metabolism and other chronic diseases associated with alcohol consumption.

Generation of IBMS-iPSC-015, -016, -017 human induced pluripotent stem cells (IBMSi013-A, IBMSi014-A, and IBMSi015-A) derived from patients with atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart disease in the world, with around 35 million patients in 2020. Here we reported the generation of IBMS-iPSC-015-06, IBMS-iPSC-016-06, and IBMS-iPSC-017-02 as human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with atrial fibrillation. The cell lines expressed properties of pluripotent stem cells, including pluripotent markers and the ability to differentiate into three germ layers. These cell lines served as suitable models for studying alternative therapies of atrial fibrillation.

Darwin's Neural Network: AI-based Strategies for Rapid and Scalable Cell and Coronavirus Screening.

Recent advances in the interdisciplinary scientific field of machine perception, computer vision, and biomedical engineering underpin a collection of machine learning algorithms with a remarkable ability to decipher the contents of microscope and nanoscope images. Machine learning algorithms are transforming the interpretation and analysis of microscope and nanoscope imaging data through use in conjunction with biological imaging modalities. These advances are enabling researchers to carry out real-time experiments that were previously thought to be computationally impossible. Here we adapt the theory of survival of the fittest in the field of computer vision and machine perception to introduce a new framework of multi-class instance segmentation deep learning, Darwin's Neural Network (DNN), to carry out morphometric analysis and classification of COVID19 and MERS-CoV collected in vivo and of multiple mammalian cell types in vitro.

Human iPSC banking: barriers and opportunities.

The introduction of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has opened up the potential for personalized cell therapies and ushered in new opportunities for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, iPSC-based drug discovery and toxicity assessment. Over the past 10 years, several initiatives have been established that aim to collect and generate a large amount of human iPSCs for scientific research purposes. In this review, we compare the construction and operation strategy of some iPSC banks as well as their ongoing development. We also introduce the technical challenges and offer future perspectives pertaining to the establishment and management of iPSC banks.

ASB6 Promotes the Stemness Properties and Sustains Metastatic Potential of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells by Attenuating ER Stress.

Up-regulation of ASB6 has been previously associated with late-stage and poor prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. To explore the cellular and molecular basis of how ASB6 enhances the malignancy of OSCC, we employed the clonogenicity and migration assays, murine pulmonary metastasis model, Western blot, and immunofluorescence microscopy to characterize the phenotypes of OSCC cells with lentiviral-based stable overexpression or knockdown of ASB6. We found that ASB6 overexpression increases, whereas ASB6 knockdown decreases, the potential of tumor-sphere formation, colony formation, and expression of Oct-4 and Nanog. While knockdown of ASB6 decreases cell migration in vitro and lung metastasis in mice, the migratory potential was however not promoted by ASB6 overexpression. ASB6 knockdown down-regulates the level of vimentin, and the loss of filopodia formation became more prominent following CRISPR/Cas9-directed knockout of ASB6. Moreover, ASB6 was up-regulated when cells were grown in selective condition featured with a collateral effect of enhancing intracellular stress, and the level of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress was further increased by knockdown of ASB6. Thus, ASB6 may attenuate ER stress that would otherwise accumulate and subsequently impede the potential of cells to acquire or sustain the stemness properties and metastatic capacity, thereby enhancing the malignancy of OSCC by increasing the population of cancer stem or stem-like cells.