A review on advances in the applications of spider silk in biomedical issues

Spider silk, as one of the hardest natural and biocompatible substances with extraordinary strength and flexibility, have become an ideal option in various areas of science and have made their path onto the biomedical industry. Despite its growing popularity, the difficulties in the extraction of silks from spiders and farming them have made it unaffordable and almost impossible for industrial scale. Biotechnology helped production of spider silks recombinantly in different hosts and obtaining diverse morphologies out of them based on different processing and assembly procedures. Herein, the characteristics of these morphologies and their advantages and disadvantages are summarized. A detailed view about applications of recombinant silks in skin regeneration and cartilage, tendon, bone, teeth, cardiovascular, and neural tissues engineering are brought out, where there is a need for strong scaffolds to support cell growth. Likewise, spider silk proteins have applications as conduit constructs, medical sutures, and 3D printer bioinks. Other characteristics of spider silks, such as low immunogenicity, hydrophobicity, homogeneity, and adjustability, have attracted much attention in drug and gene delivery. Finally, the challenges and obstacles ahead for industrializing the production of spider silk proteins in sufficient quantities in biomedicine, along with solutions to overcome these barriers, are discussed.

Nutrition and Metabolism: Foundations for Animal Growth, Development, Reproduction, and Health

Consumption of high-quality animal protein plays an important role in improving human nutrition, growth, development, and health. With an exponential growth of the global population, demands for animal-sourced protein are expected to increase by 60% between 2021 and 2050. In addition to the production of food protein and fiber (wool), animals are useful models for biomedical research to prevent and treat human diseases and serve as bioreactors to produce therapeutic proteins. For a high efficiency to transform low-quality feedstuffs and forages into high-quality protein and highly bioavailable essential minerals in diets of humans, farm animals have dietary requirements for energy, amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and water in their life cycles. All nutrients interact with each other to influence the growth, development, and health of mammals, birds, fish, and crustaceans, and adequate nutrition is crucial for preventing and treating their metabolic disorders (including metabolic diseases) and infectious diseases. At the organ level, the small intestine is not only the terminal site for nutrient digestion and absorption, but also intimately interacts with a diverse community of intestinal antigens and bacteria to influence gut and whole-body health. Understanding the species and metabolism of intestinal microbes, as well as their interactions with the intestinal immune systems and the host intestinal epithelium can help to mitigate antimicrobial resistance and develop prebiotic and probiotic alternatives to in-feed antibiotics in animal production. As abundant sources of amino acids, bioactive peptides, energy, and highly bioavailable minerals and vitamins, animal by-product feedstuffs are effective for improving the growth, development, health, feed efficiency, and survival of livestock and poultry, as well as companion and aquatic animals. The new knowledge covered in this and related volumes of Adv Exp Med Biol is essential to ensure sufficient provision of animal protein for humans, while helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize the urinary and fecal excretion of nitrogenous and other wastes to the environment, and sustain animal agriculture (including aquaculture).

mRNA delivery via non-viral carriers for biomedical applications

As an emerging new class of nucleic acid drugs, messenger RNA (mRNA) has huge potential in immunotherapy, regenerative medicine, vaccine, and gene editing. Comparing with siRNA and pDNA, mRNA is more vulnerable to nucleases in vivo. However, the lack of effective and safe delivery methods impedes the broad application of mRNA-based therapeutics. Up to now, the delivery of mRNA remains largely unexplored, and therefore, is a hot topic in the field of gene therapy. In this review, we will summarize the ongoing challenges in mRNA-based therapeutics and unmet requirements for delivery vehicles in terms of the unique structure of mRNA. We then highlight the advancement in mRNA delivery in both fundamental research and clinical applications. Finally, a prospective will be proposed upon reviewing the current progress in mRNA delivery.

Towards policies that capture the expected value of biomolecular diversity for drug discovery, human health, and well-being

This paper aims to help policy makers with a characterization of the intrinsic value of biodiversity and its role as a critical foundation for sustainable development, human health, and well-being. Our objective is to highlight the urgent need to overcome economic, disciplinary, national, cultural, and regional barriers, in order to work out innovative measures to create a sustainable future and prevent the mutual extinction of humans and other species. We emphasize the pervasive neglect paid to the cross-dependency of planetary health, the health of individual human beings and other species. It is critical that social and natural sciences are taken into account as key contributors to forming policies related to biodiversity, conservation, and health management. We are reaching the target date of Nagoya treaty signatories to have accomplished measures to prevent biodiversity loss, providing a unique opportunity for policy makers to make necessary adjustments and refocus targets for the next decade. We propose recommendations for policy makers to explore novel avenues to halt the accelerated global loss of biodiversity. Beyond the critical ecological functions biodiversity performs, its enormous untapped the repertoire of natural molecular diversity is needed for solving accelerating global healthcare challenges.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) techniques in tissue engineering

Recently, the introduction of surface acoustic wave (SAW) technique for microfluidics has drawn a lot of attention. The pattern and mutual communication in cell layers, tissues, and organs play a critical role in tissue homeostasis and regeneration and may contribute to disease occurrence and progression. Tissue engineering aims to repair and regenerate damaged organs, depending on biomimetic scaffolds and advanced fabrication technology. However, traditional bioengineering synthesis approaches are time-consuming, heterogeneous, and unmanageable. It is hard to pattern cells in scaffolds effectively with no impact on cell viability and function. Here, we summarize a biocompatible, easily available, label-free, and non-invasive tool, surface acoustic wave (SAW) technique, which is getting a lot of attention in tissue engineering. SAW technique can realize accurate sorting, manipulation, and cells' pattern and rapid formation of spheroids. By integrating several SAW devices onto lab-on-a-chip platforms, tissue engineering lab-on-a-chip system was proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to summarize the application of this novel technique in the field of tissue engineering.

Current Biomedical and Diagnostic Applications of Gold Micro and Nanoparticles

Production of particles and their adaptation in the pharmacology became an object of interest, and they are the currently introduced therapies based on the use of micro and nanoparticles. The use of gold particles is not an exception. This review has focused on the application of gold micro and nanoparticles in pharmacology and biomedicine. The particles can be used for diagnosis respective theranostic of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and as antimicrobial means. Besides these applications, specifications of gold, gold particles, and colloidal gold manufacturing and their comparison with the solid gold, are described as well. This review is based on a survey of actual scientific literature.

Recent development in Se-enriched yeast, lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria

Endemic selenium (Se) deficiency is a major worldwide nutritional challenge. Organic Se can be synthesized through physical and chemical methods that are conducive to human absorption, but its high production cost and low output cannot meet the actual demand for Se supplementation. Some microbes are known to convert inorganic Se into organic forms of high nutritional value and Se-enriched probiotics are the main representatives. The aim of the present review is to describe the characteristics of Se-enriched yeast, lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria and discuss their Se enrichment mechanisms. Se products metabolized by Se-enriched probiotics have been classified, such as Se nanoparticles (SeNPs) and selenoprotein, and their bioactivities have been assessed. The factors affecting the Se enrichment capacity of probiotics and their application in animal feed, food additives, and functional food production have been summarized. Moreover, a brief summary and the development of Se-enriched probiotics, particularly their potential applications in the field of biomedicine have been provided. In conclusion, Se-enriched probiotics not just have a wide range of applications in the food industry but also have great potential for application in the field of biomedicine in the future.

Potential applications of alginate oligosaccharides for biomedicine - A mini review

Extensive research on marine algae, especially on their health-promoting properties, has been conducted. Various ingredients with potential biomedical applications have been discovered and extracted from marine algae. Alginate oligosaccharides are low molecular weight alginate polysaccharides present in cell walls of brown algae. They exhibit various health benefits such as anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-tumor and immunomodulation. Their low-toxicity, non-immunogenicity, and biodegradability make them an excellent material in biomedicine. Alginate oligosaccharides can be chemically or biochemically modified to enhance their biological activity and potential in pharmaceutical applications. This paper provides a brief overview on alginate oligosaccharides characteristics, modification patterns and highlights their vital health promoting properties.

Smart gating porous particles as new carriers for drug delivery

The design of smart drug delivery carriers has recently attracted great attention in the biomedical field. Smart carriers can specifically respond to physical and chemical changes in their environment, such as temperature, photoirradiation, ultrasound, magnetic field, pH, redox species, and biomolecules. This review summarizes recent advances in the integration of porous particles and stimuli-responsive gatekeepers for effective drug delivery. Their unique structural properties play an important role in facilitating the diffusion of drug molecules and cell attachment. Various techniques for fabricating porous materials, with their major advantages and limitations, are summarized. Smart gatekeepers provide advanced functions such as "open-close" switching by functionalized stimuli-responsive polymers on a particle's pores. These controlled delivery systems enable drugs to be targeted at specific rates, time programs, and sites of the human body. The gate structures, gating mechanisms, and controlled release mechanisms of each trigger are detailed. Current ongoing research and future trends in targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine applications are highlighted.

The promising shadow of microbubble over medical sciences: from fighting wide scope of prevalence disease to cancer eradication

Microbubbles are typically 0.5-10 μm in size. Their size tends to make it easier for medication delivery mechanisms to navigate the body by allowing them to be swallowed more easily. The gas included in the microbubble is surrounded by a membrane that may consist of biocompatible biopolymers, polymers, surfactants, proteins, lipids, or a combination thereof. One of the most effective implementation techniques for tiny bubbles is to apply them as a drug carrier that has the potential to activate ultrasound (US); this allows the drug to be released by US. Microbubbles are often designed to preserve and secure medicines or substances before they have reached a certain area of concern and, finally, US is used to disintegrate microbubbles, triggering site-specific leakage/release of biologically active drugs. They have excellent therapeutic potential in a wide range of common diseases. In this article, we discussed microbubbles and their advantageous medicinal uses in the treatment of certain prevalent disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetic condition, renal defects, and finally, their use in the treatment of various forms of cancer as well as their incorporation with nanoparticles. Using microbubble technology as a novel carrier, the ability to prevent and eradicate prevalent diseases has strengthened the promise of effective care to improve patient well-being and life expectancy.

Cryopreservation of mammalian cells using protic ionic liquid solutions

Cryopreservation has facilitated considerable advances in both medical technology and scientific research. However, further developments have been limited by the relatively low number of effective cryoprotective agents. Even after fifty years of research, most protocols rely on the same two toxic agents, i.e. dimethylsulfoxide or glycerol. Ionic liquids are a class of promising solvents which are known glass formers and may offer a less-toxic alternative. The research presented here investigates ten protic ionic liquids as potential cryoprotective agents. The liquids are screened for key properties including cellular toxicity, permeability and thermal behaviour. The most promising, ethylammonium acetate, was then tested as a cryoprotective agent on a model cell line and was found to be as effective as the common cryoprotectant, dimethylsulfoxide. This work reports the first use of a protic ionic liquid as an effective cryoprotective agent for a mammalian cell line. This will inform the development of a suite of potential new ionic liquid-based cryoprotectants that could potentially allow the cryopreservation of new cell types.

Aptamer-Modified Hydrogels

Hydrogels have attracted much attention especially due to their biocompatibility and their potential for stimulus responsiveness. By combining hydrogels with aptamers, biological recognition and responsiveness can be added to hydrogels, thereby opening path to advanced applications in biosensing and biomedicine. Within this chapter aptamers will be introduced and their contributions to biological responsiveness of hydrogels will be described. Especially the aptamer-based mechanisms that result in biological responsiveness will be explained and examples for the application of these mechanisms will be given ranging from rather simple sensing approaches to advanced materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery. Since aptamers are not only highly specific bioreceptors, but represent switchable structures that can be easily manipulated using well-known DNA techniques, the combination of aptamers and hydrogels facilitates the rational design of well-programmable and target-responsive smart hydrogels.

A cross-case analysis of developing program sustainability and institutionalization in early stages of a multisite biomedical student diversity initiative

BACKGROUND

Grant funding often drives innovative programming in efforts to enhance diversity in biomedical fields, yet strategies for sustainability of grant-funded biomedical intervention are not well understood. Additionally, as funding agencies shift toward supporting institutional change to biomedical training, less is known about the extent to which sustainability strategies can support long-term institutionalization of the original goals of the grant-funded initiative. The purpose of this study is twofold: to identify strategies used by grant-funded programs for promoting sustainability, and to examine the interrelations between the concepts of sustainability and institutionalization during early stages of grant-funded biomedical career training efforts.

METHODS

We employed a multiple case study design and cross-case analysis using interviews of program administrators and participants from 10 undergraduate institutions that received Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) awards funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

RESULTS

BUILD sites engaged in the following strategies to develop program sustainability: 1) scaling and adapting to expand programmatic impact, 2) identifying additional funding and cost-cutting measures, 3) developing and maintaining infrastructure and structural operations, 4) leveraging relationships and with intra-and inter-institutional partners, and 5) and addressing hiring, policies, and reward systems at the institution. Senior administrative support supported program sustainability and early institutionalization, although we also identified situations where participants felt that they were on track for sustainable changes without administrative support or institutional change. Of the strategies identified, those that involve organizational and infrastructural changes contribute to early stages of institutionalization.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to literature on organizational change by providing evidence of distinctions and interrelations between program sustainability efforts and institutionalization of change efforts in that some sustainability strategies can overlap with strategies to move toward institutionalization. The findings indicate the importance of program administrators developing early sustainability plans that also lead to institutionalization, as well as an opportunity for funding agencies to develop technical assistance on sustainability, organizational change, and institutionalization as a resource to support program administrators' efforts toward making lasting, structural change on their campuses.

Contested or complementary healing paradigms? Women's narratives of COVID-19 remedies in Mwanza, Tanzania

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 has caused worldwide fear and uncertainty. Historically, the biomedical disease paradigm established its dominance in tackling emerging infectious illnesses mainly due to innovation in medication and advances in technology. Traditional and religious remedies have emerged as plausible options for prevention and treatment of COVID-19, especially in Africa and Asia. The appeal of religious and traditional therapies against COVID-19 in the African setting must be understood within the historical, social, and political context. This study explored how women and community members dealt with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 in Mwanza, Tanzania.

METHODS

This study was conducted in Nyamagana and Ilemela districts of Mwanza, Tanzania, between July and August 2020. We conducted 18 mobile phone in-depth interviews with a purposively selected sample of women aged 27-57 years participating in an existing longitudinal study. For safety reasons, smart mobile phones were used to collect the data. Each interview was audio recorded after obtaining verbal consent from the participants. The audio files were transferred to computers for analysis. Four researchers conducted a multistage, inductive analysis of the data.

RESULTS

Participants reported wide use and perceived high efficacy of traditional remedies and prayer to prevent and treat suspected symptoms of COVID-19. Use was either alone or combined with public health recommendations such as hand washing and crowd avoidance. Despite acknowledging that a pathogen causes COVID-19, participants attested to the relevance and power of traditional herbal medication and prayer to curb COVID-19. Four main factors underline the symbolic efficacy of the traditional and religious treatment paradigms: personal, communal, and official reinforcement of their efficacy; connection to local knowledge and belief systems; the failure of biomedicine to offer a quick and effective solution; and availability.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of emerging contagious illnesses, communities turn to resilient and trusted treatment paradigms to quell fear and embrace hope. To tackle emerging infections effectively, it is essential to engage the broader sociopolitical landscape, including communal considerations of therapeutic efficacy.

Recent scientific/intellectual movements in biomedicine

This study compares the trajectories of recent scientific/intellectual movements (SIMs) in biomedicine: evidence-based medicine, translational medicine, precision medicine, personalized medicine, stratified medicine, and genomic medicine. Drawing on bibliometric analysis of these six SIMs, this study identifies three patterns: field integration, niche creation, and disruptive insurgence. Field integration SIMs such as evidence-based medicine and translational medicine are characterized by centrality of key concept papers of the SIM in co-citation networks and dense institutional and country collaboration networks, signaling the resonance of the SIM to the broader biomedical community. In contrast, niche creation SIMs such as stratified medicine and genomic medicine are characterized by lower levels of annual scientific production, the lack centrality or connectivity of key concept papers in co-citation networks, and less density in collaboration networks. Disruptive insurgence SIMs such as precision medicine and personalized medicine are characterized by a high level of annual scientific production, driven by a smaller core of institutions and countries. This is likely a transitional stage as field disrupting SIMs can either become integrated with the broader field or become influential in niches. Proponents of the current push for precision medicine should ensure that a wide range of institutions and specialties be included while being mindful of the dominance of cancer and genomic approaches to health and medicine.

The biomedical significance of multifunctional nanobiomaterials: The key components for site-specific delivery of therapeutics

The emergence of nanotechnology has provided the possibilities to overcome the potential problems associated with the development of pharmaceuticals including the low solubility, non-specific cellular uptake or action, and rapid clearance. Regarding the biomaterials (BMs), huge efforts have been made for improving their multi-functionalities via incorporation of various nanomaterials (NMs). Nanocomposite hydrogels with suitable properties could exhibit a variety of beneficial effects in biomedicine particularly in the delivery of therapeutics or tissue engineering. NMs including the silica- or carbon-based ones are capable of integration into various BMs that might be due to their special compositions or properties such as the hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity, magnetic or electrical characteristics, and responsiveness to various stimuli. This might provide multi-functional nanobiomaterials against a wide variety of disorders. Meanwhile, inappropriate distribution or penetration into the cells or tissues, bio-nano interface complexity, targeting ability loss, or any other unpredicted phenomena are the serious challenging issues. Computational simulations and models enable development of NMs with optimal characteristics and provide a deeper knowledge of NM interaction with biosystems. This review highlights the biomedical significance of the multifunctional NMs particularly those applied for the development of 2-D or 3-D BMs for a variety of applications including the site-specific delivery of therapeutics. The powerful impacts of the computational techniques on the design process of NMs, quantitation and prediction of protein corona formation, risk assessment, and individualized therapy for improved therapeutic outcomes have also been discussed.

Evaluation of machine learning algorithms for health and wellness applications: A tutorial

Research on decision support applications in healthcare, such as those related to diagnosis, prediction, treatment planning, etc., has seen strongly growing interest in recent years. This development is thanks to the increase in data availability as well as to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning research and access to computational resources. Highly promising research examples are published daily. However, at the same time, there are some unrealistic, often overly optimistic, expectations and assumptions with regard to the development, validation and acceptance of such methods. The healthcare application field introduces requirements and potential pitfalls that are not immediately obvious from the 'general data science' viewpoint. Reliable, objective, and generalisable validation and performance assessment of developed data-analysis methods is one particular pain-point. This may lead to unmet schedules and disappointments regarding true performance in real-life with as result poor uptake (or non-uptake) at the end-user side. It is the aim of this tutorial to provide practical guidance on how to assess performance reliably and efficiently and avoid common traps especially when dealing with application for health and wellness settings. Instead of giving a list of do's and don't s, this tutorial tries to build a better understanding behind these issues and presents both the most relevant performance evaluation criteria as well as approaches how to compute them. Along the way, we will indicate common mistakes and provide references discussing various topics more in-depth.

Retracted articles in the biomedical literature from Indian authors

The aim of the present study is to identify retracted articles in the biomedical literature (co) authored by Indian authors and to examine the features of retracted articles. The PubMed database was searched to find the retracted articles in order to reach the goal. The search yielded 508 records and retrieved for the detailed analysis of: authorships and collaboration type, funding information, who retracts? journals and impact factors, and reasons for retraction. The results show that most of the biomedical articles retracted were published after 2010 and common reasons are plagiarism and fake data for retraction. More than half of the retracted articles were co-authored within the institutions and there is no repeat offender. 25% of retracted articles were published in the top 15 journals and 33% were published in the non-impact factor journals. Average time from publication to retraction is calculated to 2.86 years and retractions due to fake data takes longest period among the reasons. Majority of the funded research was retracted due to fake data whereas it is plagiarism for non-funded.

Application and evaluation of knowledge graph embeddings in biomedical data

Linked data and bio-ontologies enabling knowledge representation, standardization, and dissemination are an integral part of developing biological and biomedical databases. That is, linked data and bio-ontologies are employed in databases to maintain data integrity, data organization, and to empower search capabilities. However, linked data and bio-ontologies are more recently being used to represent information as multi-relational heterogeneous graphs, "knowledge graphs". The reason being, entities and relations in the knowledge graph can be represented as embedding vectors in semantic space, and these embedding vectors have been used to predict relationships between entities. Such knowledge graph embedding methods provide a practical approach to data analytics and increase chances of building machine learning models with high prediction accuracy that can enhance decision support systems. Here, we present a comparative assessment and a standard benchmark for knowledge graph-based representation learning methods focused on the link prediction task for biological relations. We systematically investigated and compared state-of-the-art embedding methods based on the design settings used for training and evaluation. We further tested various strategies aimed at controlling the amount of information related to each relation in the knowledge graph and its effects on the final performance. We also assessed the quality of the knowledge graph features through clustering and visualization and employed several evaluation metrics to examine their uses and differences. Based on this systematic comparison and assessments, we identify and discuss the limitations of knowledge graph-based representation learning methods and suggest some guidelines for the development of more improved methods.

Stakeholder views of the practical and cultural barriers to epilepsy care in Uganda

OBJECTIVE

Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent, treatable neurological diseases globally. In sub-Saharan Africa, people with epilepsy (PWE) frequently seek treatment from traditional or pastoral healers, who are more accessible than biomedical care providers. This often contributes to the substantial time delay in obtaining adequate biomedical care for these patients. In Uganda, the few biomedical providers who can treat epilepsy cannot meet the great need for epilepsy care. Additionally, patients are often hesitant to seek biomedical care, often preferring the easily accessible and trusted sociocultural treatment options. This study sought to elucidate the barriers to biomedical care for PWE as well as identify potential solutions to overcome these barriers from various stakeholder perspectives.

METHODS

This study used qualitative research methods. Semistructured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with four major stakeholder groups: PWE or family members of PWE, neurologists and psychiatrists, traditional healers, and pastoral healers. All interviews and focus group discussions that were in English were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Those that were not in English were translated live and audio recorded. A translator later translated the non-English portion of audio recording to ensure proper interpretation. Two independent coders coded the dataset and conducted an inter-rater reliability (IRR) assessment to ensure reliable coding of the data. Thematic analysis was then performed to discern themes from the data and compare nuances between each of the study design groups.

RESULTS

Participants discussed several different causes of epilepsy ranging from spiritual to biological causes, often incorporating elements of both. Commonly endorsed spiritual causes of epilepsy included witchcraft and ancestral spirits. Commonly endorsed biological causes included genetics, fever, malaria, and brain injury. For patients and families, beliefs about the cause of epilepsy often played a role in whom they chose to seek treatment from. Three major barriers to biomedical care were discussed: practical barriers, medical infrastructure barriers, and barriers related to stigma. Practical barriers related to issues such as transportation, cost of medical care, and distance to the nearest healthcare facility. Under medical infrastructure, drug stock-outs and lack of access to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were the most consistent problems stated among patients. Stigma was heavily discussed and brought up by nearly every participant. Additionally, three significant solutions to improving epilepsy care in Uganda were highlighted by participants: collaboration among treatment providers, community sensitization efforts to address stigma, and building medical infrastructure. Within building infrastructure, all participant types, except traditional healers, proposed the development of an epilepsy clinic designed to specifically treat epilepsy.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on these findings, there are four critical interventions that should be considered for improving epilepsy care in Uganda: the creation of dedicated epilepsy clinics, infrastructure strengthening to address medication stock-outs, community outreach programs for sensitization, and collaboration between biomedical providers and traditional healers. This article is part of the Special Issue "The Intersection of Culture, Resources, and Disease: Epilepsy Care in Uganda".

Assessing the Organizational Climate for Translational Research with a New Survey Tool

Promoting translational research as a means to overcoming chasms in the translation of knowledge through successive fields of research from basic science to public health impacts and back is a central challenge for research managers and policymakers. Organizational leaders need to assess baseline conditions, identify areas needing improvement, and to judge the impact of specific initiatives to sustain or improve translational research practices at their institutions. Currently, there is a lack of such an assessment tool addressing the specific context of translational biomedical research. To close this gap, we have developed a new survey for assessing the organizational climate for translational research. This self-assessment tool measures employees' perceptions of translational research climate and underlying research practices in organizational environments and builds on the established Survey of Organizational Research Climate, assessing research integrity. Using this tool, we show that scientists at a large university hospital (Charité Berlin) perceive translation as a central and important component of their work. Importantly, local resources and direct support are main contributing factors for the practical implementation of translation into their own research practice. We identify and discuss potential leverage points for an improvement of research climate to foster successful translational research.

Role of capping agents in the application of nanoparticles in biomedicine and environmental remediation: recent trends and future prospects

Capping agents are of utmost importance as stabilizers that inhibit the over-growth of nanoparticles and prevent their aggregation/coagulation in colloidal synthesis. The capping ligands stabilize the interface where nanoparticles interact with their medium of preparation. Specific structural features of nanoparticles are attributed to capping on their surface. These stabilizing agents play a key role in altering the biological activities and environmental perspective. Stearic effects of capping agents adsorbed on the surface of nanoparticles are responsible for such changing physico-chemical and biological characteristics. Firstly, this novel review article introduces few frequently used capping agents in the fabrication of nanoparticles. Next, recent advancements in biomedicine and environmental remediation approaches of capped nanoparticles have been elaborated. Lastly, future directions of the huge impact of capping agents on the biological environment have been summarized.

Recent progress on developing of plasmon biosensing of tumor biomarkers: Efficient method towards early stage recognition of cancer

Cancer is the second most extended disease with an improved death rate over the past several time. Due to the restrictions of cancer analysis methods, the patient's real survival rate is unknown. Therefore, early stage diagnosis of cancer is crucial for its strong detection. Bio-analysis based on biomarkers may help to overcome the problem Biosensors with high sensitivity and specificity, low-cost, high analysis speed and minimum limit of detection are practical alternatives for laboratory tests. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is reaching a maturity level sufficient for their application in detection and determination cancer biomarkers in clinical samples. This review discusses main concepts and performance characteristics of SPR biosensor. Mainly, it focuses on newly emerged enhanced SPR biosensors towards high-throughput and ultrasensitive screening of cancer biomarkers such as PSA, α-fetoprotein, CEA, CA125, CA 15-3, HER2, ctDNA, ALCAM, hCG, VEGF, TNF, Interleukin, IFN-γ, CD24, CD44, Ferritin, COLIV using labeling processes with focusing on the future application in biomedical research and clinical diagnosis. This article reviews current status of the field, showcasing a series of early successes in the application of SPR for clinical bioanalysis of cancer related biomolecules and detailing a series of considerations regarding sensing schemes, exposing issues with analysis in biofluids, while providing an outlook of the challenges currently associated with plasmonic materials, bioreceptor selection, microfluidics, and validation of a clinical bioassay for applying SPR biosensors to clinical samples. Research opportunities are proposed to further advance the field and transition SPR biosensors from research proof-of-concept stage to actual clinical usage.

Light-driven nanomotors and micromotors: envisioning new analytical possibilities for bio-sensing

The aim of this conceptual review is to cover recent developments of light-propelled micromotors for analytical (bio)-sensing. Challenges of self-propelled light-driven micromotors in complex (biological) media and potential solutions from material aspects and propulsion mechanism to achieve final analytical detection for in vivo and in vitro applications will be comprehensively covered. Graphical abstract.