Ozcelik and colleagues reviewed acoustic tweezers, which use sound to trap, rotate, separate and pattern bioparticles from nanometre vesicles to millimetre organisms.
As reported in: Ozcelik, Rufo, Guo et al. (2018). Acoustic tweezers for the life sciences. Nature Methods. doi:10.1038/s41592-018-0222-9
Bowen and colleagues made very large (556 kDa) recombinant spidroins with 192 repeat motifs; fibres spun from them were the first to match natural spider silk on strength (1.03 GPa), stiffness, stretch and toughness.
Built / tested: silk fibres
As reported in: Bowen, Dai, Sargent et al. (2018). Recombinant Spidroins Fully Replicate Primary Mechanical Properties of Natural Spider Silk. Biomacromolecules. doi:10.1021/acs.biomac.8b00980
Wang and colleagues built a palladium catalyst on macroporous silica whose activity is switched by light through an azobenzene–cyclodextrin cap, and used it for Suzuki–Miyaura reactions to make a fluorescent cell-imaging probe and a mitochondria-targeting agent in living cells.
As reported in: Wang, Zhang, Du et al. (2018). Designed heterogeneous palladium catalysts for reversible light-controlled bioorthogonal catalysis in living cells. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03617-x
Kan and colleagues found heme proteins can form carbon–silicon bonds under physiological conditions, in vitro and in vivo, and used directed evolution on a Rhodothermus marinus cytochrome c to reach more than 15 times the turnover of the best synthetic catalysts.
As reported in: Kan, Lewis, Chen et al. (2016). Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life. Science. doi:10.1126/science.aah6219
Peralta-Yahya and colleagues reviewed engineering microbes, including yeast and E. coli, to make advanced biofuels.
As reported in: Peralta-Yahya, Zhang, del Cardayre et al. (2012). Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature11478
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Steen and colleagues engineered E. coli to make fatty esters (biodiesel), fatty alcohols and waxes directly from simple sugars.
As reported in: Steen, Kang, Bokinsky et al. (2010). Microbial production of fatty-acid-derived fuels and chemicals from plant biomass. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature08721
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Produced native-sized recombinant spider silk protein in metabolically engineered E. coli and spun it into a strong fibre.
Built / tested: silk fibres
As reported in: Xia, Qian, Ki et al. (2010). Native-sized recombinant spider silk protein produced in metabolically engineered Escherichia coli results in a strong fiber. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1003366107
Youssef, Elshahed and McInerney reviewed microbial processes in oil fields; adding nitrate or nitrite controls hydrogen sulfide production, while large-scale in-situ biosurfactant recovery remains uncertain.
As reported in: Youssef, Elshahed, McInerney (2009). Chapter 6 Microbial Processes in Oil Fields. Advances in Applied Microbiology. doi:10.1016/S0065-2164(08)00806-X
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A protocol for producing recombinant spider silk-like proteins for artificial fibre spinning.
Built / tested: artificial fibres
As reported in: Teulé, Cooper, Furin et al. (2009). A protocol for the production of recombinant spider silk-like proteins for artificial fiber spinning. Nature Protocols. doi:10.1038/nprot.2008.250
Atsumi, Hanai and Liao diverted E. coli amino-acid pathway intermediates to produce higher alcohols, achieving high-yield isobutanol from glucose.
As reported in: Atsumi, Hanai, Liao (2008). Non-fermentative pathways for synthesis of branched-chain higher alcohols as biofuels. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature06450
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Lazaris and colleagues produced soluble dragline silk proteins of two spider species in mammalian cells and spun them into fibres with toughness and stiffness comparable to native dragline silk, though with lower tenacity.
Built / tested: silk fibres
As reported in: Lazaris, Arcidiacono, Huang et al. (2002). Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1065780
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