Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Biotechnology in 2007"

TL;DR: Several products are already on the market or under development by food companies that exploit the potential of food-derived bioactive peptides and which ascribe scientifically evidenced health claims to consumption of these functional foods.

TL;DR: The anaerobic fermentation of Glycerol in microbes and the harnessing of this metabolic process to convert abundant and low-priced glycerol streams into higher value products, thus creating a path to viability for the biofuels industry are reviewed.

TL;DR: Genome sequencing and functional genomic analysis of Alcanivorax borkumensis, the paradigm of OHCB, has provided significant insights into the genomic basis of the efficiency and versatility of its hydrocarbon utilization, the metabolic routes underlying its special hydrocarbon diet, and its ecological success.

TL;DR: In vivo fluorescence imaging uses a sensitive camera to detect fluorescence emission from fluorophores in whole-body living small animals and the list of NIR probes continues to grow with the recent addition of fluorescent organic, inorganic and biological nanoparticles.

TL;DR: Three example processes are briefly discussed in this paper: anaerobic digestion aimed at the production of methane-containing biogas, mixed culture fermentation for theproduction of solvents or biohydrogen, and a two-step process for theProduction of polyhydroxyalkanoates.

TL;DR: The assumptions and challenges in the nanotoxic field are described and a rationale for in vivo animal studies to assess nanotoxicity is provided to provide a basis for assessing toxic response.

TL;DR: Advances in integrated fermentation and in situ product removal processes have resulted in a dramatic reduction of process streams, reduced butanol toxicity to the fermenting microorganisms, improved substrate utilization, and overall improved bioreactor performance.

TL;DR: Future research is likely to focus on aspects of delivery and the potential use of co-encapsulation methodologies, where two or more bioactive ingredients can be combined to have a synergistic effect.

TL;DR: This review provides a summary of the assays that should be performed when it is suspected that DNA may be a target for a given small molecule, and a battery of in vitro assays readily distinguishes between DNA intercalation, DNA groove binding, and the inhibition of topoisomerases.

TL;DR: The biological properties of cancer stem cells are just beginning to be revealed, and the continuation of these studies should lead to the development of CSC-targeted therapies for cancer treatment.

TL;DR: Syngas fermenting microorganisms possess advantageous characteristics for biofuel production and hold potential for future engineering efforts, although genetic tools for such engineering are currently unavailable.

TL;DR: Recent advances in biofuel cell technology have addressed deficiencies and include methods to increase lifetime and environmental stability, but remain limited by short lifetimes, low power densities and inefficient oxidation of fuels.

TL;DR: Highlighting clinically available and preclinical applications, this review explores the opportunities and issues surrounding nanomedicine.

TL;DR: Prototypes of industrial processes that require high-yield production, rapid scale-up, and fast manufacturing have been recently developed using the 'deconstructed virus' approach (magnifection), which relies on Agrobacterium as a vector to deliver DNA copies of one or more viral RNA replicons to plant cells, and has been shown to work with numerous proteins, including full immunoglobulin G antibodies.

TL;DR: It has become clear that scaffold-derived binding proteins will play an increasing role in biotechnology and medicine.

TL;DR: Major advances in the glycoengineering of the yeast Pichia pastoris, have culminated in the production of fully humanized sialylated glycoproteins, a major limitation for yeast based protein expression systems.

TL;DR: The combination of designer cellulosomes with novel production concepts could in the future provide the breakthroughs necessary for economical conversion of cellulosic biomass to biofuels.

TL;DR: Owing to their unique features, VLPs and virosomes, the in vitro-reconstituted VLP counterparts, have recently gained ground in the field of nanobiotechnology as organic templates for the development of new biomaterials.

TL;DR: A more balanced and programmatic approach to drug discovery should be more productive than to rely on an overemphasis of 'rule-of-five' compliance, and should consider proactively the development of parenteral drugs in parallel to oral drugs and to consider theDevelopment of therapeutic antibodies inallel to small-molecule drugs.

TL;DR: Recent proof-of-concept studies highlight the potential of plastid genome engineering for the expression of resistance traits, the production of biopharmaceuticals and metabolic pathway engineering in plants.

TL;DR: High-throughput screens of nanoparticle libraries have identified nanoparticles that act as novel contrast agents and which can be targeted with enhanced diagnostic specificity and range, and other specialized MR probes have been developed to image enzyme activity in vivo.

TL;DR: A vaccine strategy based on initial priming with a replicating vector to enlist the innate immune system, target mucosal inductive sites, and prime both cellular and humoral systemic and mucosal immune responses is proposed, which could lead to induction of necessary levels of protective immunity.

TL;DR: Eukaryotic algae offer the potential to produce high yields of recombinant proteins more rapidly and at much lower cost than traditional cell culture, and might be used for the oral delivery of therapeutic proteins, as green algae are edible and do not contain endotoxins or human viral or prion contaminants.

TL;DR: Targeted contrast ultrasound in the future could aid in the diagnosis of such diverse diseases as atherosclerosis, transplant rejection and tumor-related angiogenesis.

TL;DR: Computational protein design continues to mature and advance with new potential functions, more efficient ways of computing energetics, flexible treatments of solvent, and useful energy function approximations.

TL;DR: The role of yeasts in food and beverage production extends beyond the well-known bread, beer and wine fermentations and some have been developed as agents for the biocontrol of food spoilage fungi, and others are being considered as novel probiotic organisms.

TL;DR: Modelling of surface colonisation and biofilm development, a hitherto neglected area of study, using a variety of animal and in vitro model systems to study the microbiota is described.

TL;DR: The rapidly expanding information from genomics and genetics combined with improved genetic engineering technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for enhanced bioethanol production from maize.

TL;DR: Major advances have been made in elucidating the diversity of yet-to-be cultured microbes in anaerobic digestion processes, and the cultivation of uncultured organisms is of great interest with regard to gaining insights into the function of these organisms.

TL;DR: To fully capitalize on the potential of RNAi, the technique needs to become better at predicting and controlling its effects, so that it can be fully exploited.