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Integrating bioprinting with organoid technology can enhance tissue engineering by improving complexity, reproducibility and scalability. This Review discusses living materials in bioprinting, current organoid bioprinting methods, support baths and future innovations that could advance complex tissue development and applications.
Biological nanopores can be designed for high-sensitivity sequencing of peptides and proteins. This Review discusses different approaches towards nanopore-based protein sequencing, outlining methods to distinguish amino acids, control protein translocation and detect post-translational modifications.
Compared to linear mRNA, circular RNAs offer greater stability during storage and delivery, along with more sustained effects due to their circular structure. This Review provides an overview of circRNA-based therapeutics, highlighting key engineering principles, associated challenges and strategies to address such challenges.
Extracellular vesicles are being explored for various biomedical applications, but face challenges with regard to isolation, characterization and manufacturing. This Review delineates the physico-chemical landscape of extracellular vesicles to identify the distinct challenges associated with the manufacturing and isolation of extracellular vesicles from biofluids and suggests opportunities to address them.
This Review details the use of multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles in advanced magnetic imaging modalities and therapeutic hyperthermia. The potential of magnetic nanoparticles for imaging-guided precision heating of tumours and the need for integrated magnetic imaging and heating platforms are highlighted.
Lithography-based 3D printing has emerged as a valuable tool with which to develop hydrogels for biomedical applications. This Review discusses lithography-based 3D printing techniques, offers guidance for resin formulation and provides a step-by-step manual for printing hydrogels intended for clinical applications.
The global rise of drug-resistant bacteria, including those resistant to last-resort antibiotics, poses an urgent health threat. This Review discusses antibiotic re-engineering strategies to increase the activity and improve the efficacy of existing antibiotics against multidrug-resistant infections.
Biomass, such as lignocellulose, can be processed into value-added products and energy, offering a promising solution for carbon-neutral chemical and fuel production. This Review discusses engineering strategies, including systems and synthetic biology approaches, to optimize lignocellulose biorefineries.
Stem cell-based embryo models can recapitulate developmental processes such as tissue patterning and morphogenetic events from pre-implantation to early organogenesis. This Review discusses how bioengineering approaches can be used to generate more efficient, controllable, reproducible and scalable embryo models.
Synthetic data can be created by deep generative models to address challenges associated with real data, such as privacy issues, bias and data scarcity. This Review discusses the generation and application of synthetic data in biomedicine and bioengineering, including quality assessment and validation.
Photochemistry enables biomaterials to be made and modified with high spatiotemporal and dose-dependent precision. In this Review, the authors investigate the recent and parallel developments in light-based chemistries and manufacturing technologies and discuss their combined applications in probing and directing 4D cell fate.
Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) has generated much interest in preclinical studies and shows great potential for clinical translation. Here, the authors discuss the fundamentals of PAI technology, key findings from pilot and clinical patient studies, challenges to the clinical translation of PAI, and the need for standardization for PAI to be adopted into healthcare systems.
The transplantation of encapsulated islets may provide a cure for type 1 diabetes. This Review outlines how islet-encapsulation devices and materials can be designed to protect islets from the host immune system, allow sufficient nutrient and oxygen supply, and enable revascularization as well as insulin release.
Virus nanotechnology can be exploited for intratumoural immunotherapy. This Review discusses the clinical and preclinical landscape of viruses and virus-like particles as tools and carrier vehicles for intratumoural immunotherapy.
Information on clinical trial progress and outcomes of implanted brain–computer interfaces (iBCIs) remains limited. This Review provides a comprehensive survey of all identified clinical trials of iBCIs for communication, motor control or restoration of tactile perception conducted from the first chronic implantation in 1998 to December 2023.
Synthetic gene circuits can endow cells with therapeutic functions. This Review discusses synthetic macromolecular systems, encompassing transcriptional, translational and post-translational mechanisms, that conditionally regulate protein expression and activity in response to specific internal or external stimuli, and their role in enhancing the therapeutic efficacy and safety of engineered cell therapies.
Microbial bioelectronic sensors offer rapid and cost-effective chemical monitoring by generating electrical signals. However, deploying such sensors in the field remains challenging. This Review proposes interdisciplinary solutions and integrates advances in chassis selection, genetic modification, material engineering and device fabrication.
Biomaterials can be designed to be injectable in a minimally invasive manner for the treatment of various conditions. This Review outlines design considerations for injectable biomaterials for different delivery routes, highlighting preclinical and clinical applications of injectable biomaterials.
Projection-based 3D bioprinting has the highest resolution/time for manufacturing ratio among all 3D printing technologies. This Review discusses the main components of projection-based 3D bioprinting and summarizes the necessary steps and challenges to improve bioprinting resolution.
Microbial catalysts must partition incoming substrate between synthesis of biomass and synthesis of a desired product. Two-stage bioprocesses can accommodate this tradeoff to maximize process productivity by temporal separation of growth and production phases. This Review discusses the challenges of maintaining a high metabolic activity during the production phase.
