Linking Engineered Gene Circuit Kinetic Modeling to Cellulose Biosynthesis Prediction in Escherichia coli: Toward Bioprocessing of Microbial Cell Factories

Engineering principles for rationally design therapeutic strategies against hepatocellular carcinoma

The search for new therapeutic strategies against cancer has favored the emergence of rationally designed treatments. These treatments have focused on attacking cell plasticity mechanisms to block the transformation of epithelial cells into cancerous cells. The aim of these approaches was to control particularly lethal cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma. However, they have not been able to control the progression of cancer for unknown reasons. Facing this scenario, emerging areas such as systems biology propose using engineering principles to design and optimize cancer treatments. Beyond the possibilities that this approach might offer, it is necessary to know whether its implementation at a clinical level is viable or not. Therefore, in this paper, we will review the engineering principles that could be applied to rationally design strategies against hepatocellular carcinoma, and discuss whether the necessary elements exist to implement them. In particular, we will emphasize whether these engineering principles could be applied to fight hepatocellular carcinoma.

Research progress of the biosynthetic strains and pathways of bacterial cellulose

Bacterial cellulose is a glucose biopolymer produced by microorganisms and widely used as a natural renewable and sustainable resource in the world. However, few bacterial cellulose-producing strains and low yield of cellulose greatly limited the development of bacterial cellulose. In this review, we summarized the 30 cellulose-producing bacteria reported so far, including the physiological functions and the metabolic synthesis mechanism of bacterial cellulose, and the involved three kinds of cellulose synthases (type I, type II, and type III), which are expected to provide a reference for the exploration of new cellulose-producing microbes.

Systematic Understanding of Recent Developments in Bacterial Cellulose Biosynthesis at Genetic, Bioprocess and Product Levels

Engineering biological processes has become a standard approach to produce various commercially valuable chemicals, therapeutics, and biomaterials. Among these products, bacterial cellulose represents major advances to biomedical and healthcare applications. In comparison to properties of plant cellulose, bacterial cellulose (BC) shows distinctive characteristics such as a high purity, high water retention, and biocompatibility. However, low product yield and extensive cultivation times have been the main challenges in the large-scale production of BC. For decades, studies focused on optimization of cellulose production through modification of culturing strategies and conditions. With an increasing demand for BC, researchers are now exploring to improve BC production and functionality at different categories: genetic, bioprocess, and product levels as well as model driven approaches targeting each of these categories. This comprehensive review discusses the progress in BC platforms categorizing the most recent advancements under different research focuses and provides systematic understanding of the progress in BC biosynthesis. The aim of this review is to present the potential of ‘modern genetic engineering tools’ and ‘model-driven approaches’ on improving the yield of BC, altering the properties, and adding new functionality. We also provide insights for the future perspectives and potential approaches to promote BC use in biomedical applications.

Bio-Electrochemical System Depollution Capabilities and Monitoring Applications: Models, Applicability, Advanced Bio-Based Concept for Predicting Pollutant Degradation and Microbial Growth Kinetics via Gene Regulation Modelling

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are an emerging technology for waste, wastewater and polluted soil treatment. In this manuscript, pollutants that can be treated using MFC systems producing energy are presented. Furthermore, the applicability of MFC in environmental monitoring is described. Common microbial species used, release of genome sequences, and gene regulation mechanisms, are discussed. However, although scaling-up is the key to improving MFC systems, it is still a difficult challenge. Mathematical models for MFCs are used for their design, control and optimization. Such models representing the system are presented here. In such comprehensive models, microbial growth kinetic approaches are essential to designing and predicting a biosystem. The empirical and unstructured Monod and Monod-type models, which are traditionally used, are also described here. Understanding and modelling of the gene regulatory network could be a solution for enhancing knowledge and designing more efficient MFC processes, useful for scaling it up. An advanced bio-based modelling concept connecting gene regulation modelling of specific metabolic pathways to microbial growth kinetic models is presented here; it enables a more accurate prediction and estimation of substrate biodegradation, microbial growth kinetics, and necessary gene and enzyme expression. The gene and enzyme expression prediction can also be used in synthetic and systems biology for process optimization. Moreover, various MFC applications as a bioreactor and bioremediator, and in soil pollutant removal and monitoring, are explored.