Articles in 2024

Navigating medical microrobots through intricate vascular pathways is challenging. AI-driven microrobots that leverage reinforcement learning and generative algorithms could navigate the body’s complex vascular network to deliver precise dosages of medication directly to targeted lesions.

Brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) have the potential to restore functions in people with neurological disorders, but they face challenges in development, ethics and implementation. As the field progresses and approaches clinical translation, addressing issues of hype, patient access, user-centred design and long-term support will be essential to ensure responsible innovation and adoption of BMIs.

Volumetric compression is a pervasive phenomenon in the human body, manifesting during development, limb movement, digestion, tumorigenesis and injury. This Review provides an in-depth discussion of emerging engineering methods centred on volumetric compression, including foundational rationales, design principles and illustrative applications.

An article in Nature reports the generation of human chimeric brain organoids that integrate cells from multiple donors.

The oral delivery of difficult-to-drug molecules, such as peptides, can be achieved using milk-derived extracellular vesicles. The Tiny Cargo Company has established a workflow for the large-scale production of extracellular vesicles from milk for the development of XoLacta — an oral therapy that mitigates the side effects of radiation therapy.

To overcome the immune rejection issue in allogeneic cell transplants, various genetic engineering strategies have been developed. This Review explores these advances and discusses challenges in evading immune responses, as well as considerations for clinical development.

Synthetic biology faces major challenges in the rational design of complex living systems, necessitating a quantitative understanding of the principles that guide the emergence of functions from biological building blocks. Here, we propose quantitative synthetic biology as a new research paradigm, integrating quantitative biology, systems biology and synthetic biology.

An article in Science Robotics reports green algae-based microrobots, carrying macrophage membrane-coated nanoparticles, that can be orally administered to neutralize proinflammatory cytokines in the gastrointestinal tract to treat inflammatory bowel disease.

This Review explores the principles and applications of cell purification technologies, with a particular emphasis on their clinical relevance for pluripotent stem-cell-based therapies. The authors discuss current technologies and emerging state-of-the-art approaches that promise even greater potential.

Degenerative retinal dystrophies, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, lead to blindness owing to the progressive damage of retinal photoreceptors. This Review discusses nanotechnology-based treatment approaches for vision restoration.

Nanozymes are nanomaterials that exert biocatalytic functions within biological systems. This Review discusses the design criteria and mechanisms of nanozymes for in vivo applications to treat different pathological disorders.

Drug delivery systems can be integrated with cell therapies to improve the efficacy and safety of therapeutic cells. This Review discusses the design of nanoscale, microscale and macroscale drug delivery systems for precise cell modulation, targeted cell and cargo delivery and cell protection.

Bioengineering breakthroughs often arise from deceptively simple solutions, leveraging scalability, modularity and ease-of-use. However, certain biomedical applications require the integration of custom-engineered, patient-specific complexity. Striking this simplicity–complexity balance will drive affordable, globalized health innovations.

At the Gates Foundation, the newly established Women’s Health Innovations team supports the research, development and increased access to innovative products, devices and platforms aimed at improving women’s health. Importantly, women should have a central role in the women’s health innovation ecosystem, leading research, shaping strategies and making funding decisions.

Human brain organoids can partly mimic features of the human brain. This Perspective discusses key ethical considerations in human brain organoid research and introduces an ethical framework of mindful innovation to conceptualize and guide ethical considerations of human brain organoid research.

Insect-derived proteins and fats present viable food constituents. They can be bioengineered and fermented to improve their nutritional value and functionality to promote food security and the development of new superfoods. Nonetheless, scale-up production and translation of insect-derived proteins and fats remain difficult.

Nanoparticles, such as gold nanoparticles and magnetic ferrite nanoparticles, can be applied in biosensors for disease detection. This Review discusses the design of nanoparticles for clinical diagnostics, focusing on their optimization and device construction for the detection of nucleic acids, proteins and small molecules.

Cell engineering by synthetic biology typically relies on synthetic gene constructs that compete with the host cell for intracellular resources. This Review discusses how such resource competition can impact mammalian cell engineering and outlines strategies for how to mitigate cellular burden using circuit-centric and host-centric approaches.

Microbial nanowires are attractive materials for the fabrication of electronic devices because they are sustainably produced and can be genetically reengineered for a broad range of functionalities. Guberman-Pfeffer and colleagues describe novel devices and mass production strategies that have been demonstrated and outline the optimization strategies required for their commercialization.