Biotechnology articles within Nature Nanotechnology

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  • Article |

    Ex vivo engineering of T cells for adoptive T-cell therapy without pre-activation is challenging and hinders therapeutic efficacy. Here, using nanowires, the delivery of microRNAs to primary naïve mouse and human CD8+ T cells without pre-activation for immune protection against pathogens is demonstrated.

    • Kristel J. Yee Mon
    • , Sungwoong Kim
    •  & Ankur Singh

  • Article |

    Biobased materials are of interest for many applications. Here the authors report insect-derived peptides that self-assemble into hollow nanocapsules through a gradient-driven, single-step, solvent exchange process, enabling the encapsulation of diverse cargoes with potential for drug delivery applications.

    • Haopeng Li
    • , Xuliang Qian
    •  & Jing Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering the tunability of protein assembly in response to pH changes within a narrow range is challenging. Here the authors report the de novo computational design of pH-responsive protein filaments that exhibit rapid, precise, tunable and reversible assembly and disassembly triggered by small pH changes.

    • Hao Shen
    • , Eric M. Lynch
    •  & David Baker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors combined and synchronized single-cell nanoindentation, electrophysiology and functional fluorescence imaging to evaluate the responses of neuronal networks to mechanical stimuli with piconewton force sensitivity and nanometre precision, enabling the exploration of nanomechanobiology and manipulation of neuronal systems.

    • Krishna Chaitanya Kasuba
    • , Alessio Paolo Buccino
    •  & Daniel J. Müller

  • Article |

    Manufacturing complexities, low yield and stability issues have hampered the clinical translation and scaling-up of immunoliposomes to meet the needs of pharmaceutical-grade products. The authors propose a one-step method of incorporating chimeric nanobodies tagged to hydrophobic linkers into liposomes, allowing targeted delivery of small-molecule anti-cancer drugs to tumours.

    • Md. Mofizur Rahman
    • , Jing Wang
    •  & Yuan Wan

  • News & Views |

    An aptamer-based nanobiosensor has been integrated into a wearable sweat sensor, allowing non-invasive tracking of the female reproductive hormone, oestradiol, with the potential to deliver sustainable solutions to female reproductive healthcare needs.

    • Fabiana Arduini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assessment of the health risks of exposure to anthropogenic nanomaterials is crucial to maximize their potential applications. This double-blind, randomized controlled study in healthy humans evaluates the impact of inhalation of graphene oxide nanosheets on acute pulmonary and cardiovascular functions.

    • Jack P. M. Andrews
    • , Shruti S. Joshi
    •  & Mark R. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In regenerative medicine, stem-cell-derived extracellular vesicles are emerging as cell-free nanotherapeutics. Here, the authors show that coating these nanovesicles with blood proteins such as albumin improves their uptake by liver cells, offering a better treatment strategy for liver diseases.

    • Revadee Liam-Or
    • , Farid N. Faruqu
    •  & Khuloud T. Al-Jamal

  • Article |

    Here the authors present a non-FRET DNA-templated silver nanocluster probe that exhibits a distinct colour switch from green to red upon nuclease digestion, visible under UV excitation, offering a low-cost, effective alternative to fluorescent reporters for detecting nuclease activities.

    • Soonwoo Hong
    • , Jada N. Walker
    •  & Hsin-Chih Yeh

  • Article |

    Distinguishing proteoforms and post-translational modifications has remained a challenge. Here the authors explore single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer to probe amino acids via DNA exchange and map the location of individual amino acids and post-translational modifications within single full-length protein molecules.

    • Mike Filius
    • , Raman van Wee
    •  & Chirlmin Joo

  • Article |

    Insects have been shown to have the ability to detect different chemical agents. Here, the authors present a nanomaterial-assisted neuromodulation strategy to augment the chemosensory abilities of insects via photothermal effect and on-demand neurotransmitter release from cargo-loaded nanovehicles to augment natural sensory function.

    • Prashant Gupta
    • , Rishabh Chandak
    •  & Srikanth Singamaneni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In vivo positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) remains a challenge due to the lack of single-particle tracers. Here a sub-micrometre silica particle has been radiolabelled and isolated with high specific activity, allowing the dynamic tracing of a single particle in vivo using PEPT in mice.

    • Juan Pellico
    • , Laurence Vass
    •  & Rafael T. M. de Rosales

  • Article |

    Resolving interactions of negligibly charged or neutral small molecules with their binding partners in a label-free manner is challenging. Here the authors present a single-molecule carbon-nanotube biosensor device for capturing aptamer–neurotransmitter kinetics at high temporal resolution, uncovering four-state structural transitions.

    • Yoonhee Lee
    • , Jakob Buchheim
    •  & Kenneth L. Shepard

  • Article |

    Proteins absorbed on nanomaterials often lose function due to denaturation. A poly(propylene sulfone) nanoparticle with site-specific dipole relaxation has been reported, which allows proteins to anchor to the nanoparticle without disrupting the hydrogen bonding or structure maintaining the protein functionality.

    • Fanfan Du
    • , Clayton H. Rische
    •  & Evan A. Scott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bladder cancer treatment suffers from low therapeutic efficacy. Here the authors present radioactive 131I-labelled urease-powered nanobots that exhibit enhanced accumulation at the tumour site, enabling effective radionuclide therapy at low doses as an alternative treatment option for bladder cancer.

    • Cristina Simó
    • , Meritxell Serra-Casablancas
    •  & Samuel Sánchez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A soft artificial retina with flexible phototransistors and three-dimensional liquid-metal microelectrodes is used to enhance proximity to retinal ganglion cells and minimize damage to soft tissue as well as improve charge injection for vision restoration in retinal degenerative in vivo models.

    • Won Gi Chung
    • , Jiuk Jang
    •  & Jang-Ung Park

  • Article |

    Protein degradation is a powerful tool for a range of applications and therapies. Here, a selective autophagy receptor mimetic against mutant p53 protein is developed to substantially elevate autophagy levels and to recognize and transport mutant proteins for autophagy-mediated degradation and anticancer effect.

    • Xiaowan Huang
    • , Ziyang Cao
    •  & Yunjiao Zhang

  • News & Views |

    Chitosan/glucose co-polymers encapsulating silver sulfide quantum dots can be used to improve oral delivery of insulin in different animal models without hypoglycaemic incidents.

    • Mulham Alfatama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insulin injections are not ideal and have an increased risk of hypoglycaemia. A preferable oral formulation based on silver sulfide quantum dots coated with a chitosan/glucose polymer is discussed, which has controlled insulin release and reduced risk of hypoglycaemia, and demonstrates applications in rodent and non-human primate models.

    • Nicholas J. Hunt
    • , Glen P. Lockwood
    •  & Victoria C. Cogger

  • News & Views |

    Organic and inorganic nanoparticles have different clearance mechanisms from the brain resulting in different biological fates and retention times.

    • Elizabeth Nance

  • Review Article |

    Nanoparticles naturally accumulate in the liver; this can be a major limitation to any therapy needing delivery to other organs or tissues. Here the authors review the reason for predominant liver uptake and explore different strategies used to target non-viral gene delivery nanoparticles to other organs and tissues.

    • Jeonghwan Kim
    • , Yulia Eygeris
    •  & Gaurav Sahay

  • News & Views |

    Conserved regions of the circular DNA sequence of the M13mp18 bacteriophage, which is used as a scaffold for DNA origami construction, are targeted with specific hybridization-chain-reaction probes. The probes enable sensitive detection of DNA origami nanostructures in cells, organoids and tissues to assess their biodistribution and stability.

    • Tania Patino

  • News & Views |

    A biohybrid, leaf-spring design of DNA origami functions as a pulsating nanoengine that exploits the DNA-templated RNA transcription mechanism while consuming nucleoside triphosphates as fuel. The nanoengine also drives a nanomechanical follower structure.

    • Divita Mathur

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective discusses the current understanding of extracellular vesicles within the context of their movement into and out of blood circulation, with an outlook on leveraging extracellular vesicle nanobiology for mechanistic insights as well as diagnostic and nanotherapeutic applications in both physiological and pathological contexts.

    • Dalila Iannotta
    • , Amruta A
    •  & Joy Wolfram

  • Article |

    The level of immune response in cancer vaccines can limit application. Here, an immune mobilization strategy, using bacteria-derived nanovesicles, enhances therapeutic outcomes of tumour vaccination by stimulating interleukin-1β secretion to elicit trained immunity with lineage shifts and epigenetic changes in myeloid progenitor pools.

    • Guangna Liu
    • , Nana Ma
    •  & Guangjun Nie

  • News & Views |

    To determine the physiologically relevant oligomeric form of membrane proteins is extremely challenging. Now an elegant method of counting the oligomers in membrane proteins in near-native states is presented, using photobleaching and nanodiscs formed directly from cellular membranes.

    • Koushambi Mitra
    •  & Yamuna Krishnan

  • Article |

    Mechanistic origins of force stability and bond kinetics of interaction of the receptor-binding domain from the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, a key selection factor for mutations, are revealed at the single-molecule resolution using magnetic tweezers and molecular dynamics simulations.

    • Magnus S. Bauer
    • , Sophia Gruber
    •  & Jan Lipfert

  • Article |

    Nebulized mRNA delivery has broad therapeutic potential but has proven challenging. Here, the authors report on a modified lipid nanoparticle with improved conditions to allow nebulization and demonstrate its application for delivering mRNA to the lungs.

    • Allen Y. Jiang
    • , Jacob Witten
    •  & Daniel G. Anderson

  • News & Views |

    A biohybrid nanoparticle formulation effectively treats rheumatoid arthritis by concurrently providing symptom relief and restoring proper immune function.

    • Ronnie H. Fang
    •  & Liangfang Zhang

  • Article |

    Nanoindentation of the microscale honeybee comb reveals a stiffness gradient that spans two orders of magnitude, which amplifies the catapult effect and facilitates solid particle repellency. By leveraging this, the study presents the fabrication of scaled-up, bioinspired stiffness-gradient elastomeric catapult-like soft actuators.

    • Wei Zhang
    • , Wei Jiang
    •  & Zuankai Wang

  • News & Views |

    In a major advancement for synthetic biology, dynamin A has been identified as a minimal component enabling cell division in synthetic cells, moving us one step nearer to realizing the ambition of creating synthetic life forms.

    • Oskar Staufer

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