One year of Nature Reviews Bioengineering

We encourage our authors to increase citation diversification and include a citation diversity statement in their Review articles.

Women’s health has long been overlooked in both fundamental and clinical research, which, sadly, also holds true for the bioengineering field — albeit things are slowly changing.

Scientific knowledge is mostly communicated in English, which may pose a barrier for non-native English speakers in writing and talking about their research. However, scientific communication can be improved by following some simple rules and taking advantage of old and new tools.

The debate on whether science has become less disruptive is white-hot, prompting us to reflect on how such observation mirrors in an inherently multidisciplinary field such as bioengineering.

Bidirectional neuromorphic brain interfaces, based on interconnecting brain networks with artificial spiking neural networks, aim to optimize neural prostheses to help people with paralysis to regain autonomy. Their emergence questions the concept of human subjectivation, the continuous process by which we become and remain the subject of our life.

In a multilinguistic science learning environment, science educators should rely on effective pedagogies to teach students with different mother languages and socio-cultural backgrounds. Institutes that invest in bias awareness training for students and instructors will help to create an inclusive learning environment. This can be achieved by opening science classrooms to social science researchers who can inform the development of a signature pedagogy of science.

Stem cell therapies are being explored for the treatment of various diseases, and stem cell-derived exosomes may provide similar clinical benefits without the biosafety concerns. However, large-scale manufacturing and analysis of the complex cargos of exosomes will need to be addressed to enable their clinical translation.

Engineers need to meaningfully engage in global health by developing solutions that work in the low-resource environments that are a reality for many health-care professionals and patients around the world. Engineering World Health, founded in 2001, aims to inspire, educate and empower the biomedical engineering community to improve health-care delivery around the world. 

Scientific bias originates from both researchers and techniques. Evidence-based strategies to mitigate this bias include the assembly of diverse teams, development of rigorous experimental designs, and use of unbiased analytical techniques. Here, we highlight potential starting points to decrease bias in bioengineering research.

At Pulmobiotics, we engineer bacteria for the treatment of respiratory diseases. Here, we outline how we designed MycoChassis — an attenuated bacterium strain obtained by genome engineering of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (a human lung pathogen) — and discuss the challenges on the road to its clinical translation.

The Gx Sweat Patch is a wearable microfluidic sweat sensor that can be worn by athletes to monitor their sweating rate and sweat chloride concentration. Here, we highlight the commercialization of the Gx Sweat Patch, from developing and optimizing prototypes of a wearable sweat-sensing platform, to validation in competitive individual and team-sport athletes, and the challenges of commercial launch.

The scientific narrative around food biotechnologies, such as genetically modified crops, is ineffective at predicting their role in the development and change of agricultural practices and food. Here, we suggest placing the scientific discussion of new food technologies in the context of the political and economic forces that shape agriculture.

In addition to systemic inequity, the lack of adequate parental leave conditions at many US institutions can negatively affect career trajectories for women in STEM. Support structures are needed at the institutional, departmental and funding agency level to promote the success of pregnant women and parents with childcare responsibilities in academia.

Luminescence imaging in the near-infrared (NIR) region enables non-radiative, fast-feedback, low-cost and high-contrast in vivo imaging of biological tissues. This Review discusses engineering challenges that need to be addressed to enable clinical translation of NIR luminescence imaging.

Photosynthetic electron transport chains convert solar energy into chemical energy. In this Review, engineering efforts to rewire these electron transport pathways for electricity and chemical production are discussed, highlighting major advances alongside outstanding research problems for achieving real-world applications.

Plant-based recombinant protein production has the power to ensure rapid and global-scale deployment of biopharmaceuticals. This Review discusses genetic tools and systems for the plant-based production and engineering of biopharmaceuticals, including vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.

Three-dimensional nanotopography plays a key role in the interaction of nanoscale drug delivery systems and biological components. This Review discusses bioinspired nanotopographies that can improve muco-adhesion and cyto-adhesion, drug uptake and trafficking, barrier remodelling, cellular modulation and antimicrobial activities of various drug delivery platforms.

Phase separation of biomolecular condensates provides a new framework to understand cellular organization and functions. In this Review, the authors discuss the applications and design considerations of synthetic biomolecular condensates to regulate cellular functions as a new paradigm for synthetic biology.

Therapeutic nanoparticle and biomaterial systems can be specifically designed to deliver drugs for the treatment of women’s health-related conditions. This Review discusses the engineering and optimization of delivery technologies for women’s health applications, including vaginal infections, reproductive tract disorders, pregnancy conditions and congenital disorders.

Developing point-of-care devices for the detection of pathogenic bacteria is essential to prevent and treat infections and to provide food security. This Review highlights paper-based analytical devices with substantial point-of-care applicability for bacteria detection and discusses challenges and opportunities for future development.

The emerging field of genetically targeted chemical assembly (GTCA) uses cell-specific genetic information to instruct chemical synthesis in situ. This Perspective discusses recent progress in GTCA and outlines opportunities for expanding the GTCA toolbox and diversifying applications.

Neurological disorders or traumatic events that cause hand paralysis considerably limit our ability to proactively interact with our surroundings. This Review discusses neuroprosthetic solutions to restore voluntary hand movements by bypassing the neural lesion.

Owing to the high failure rates of the current drug development process, biomedical research is undergoing a paradigm shift towards approaches centred on human disease models. This Review critically discusses translationally relevant examples and defines key milestones for their widespread application.

Synthetic morphogenesis is limited by knowledge gaps about the competencies of cells and cell groups. This Review discusses a synthetic bioengineering framework based on empirically determined properties of cells, including goal-seeking and agential behaviours, which will allow the creation of complex devices that cannot be built using bottom-up approaches.

Adult stem cell-derived organoids closely resemble their tissue of origin. This Review discusses recent developments in CRISPR-mediated genome engineering and its application using adult-stem-cell-derived organoids in the construction of isogenic disease models and for clinical gene repair.

Gene editing may shape the future of foods, providing a sustainable solution for obtaining food products of high yield and nutritional value. This Review discusses the capabilities and applications of CRISPR–Cas-based gene editing of food, highlighting the technologies for improving the nutritional value of crops and animal and probiotic food products, and summarizing regulatory policies worldwide.

Continuous monitoring of diverse biomolecular signatures has the potential to transform our understanding of personalized and preventative medicine. This Review Article discusses the emerging trends and pertinent considerations for the development of a new generation of body-based biomolecular sensors for in vivo measurement.

Fluorescence imaging-guided surgery enables tumour resection with high precision, while preventing injury of healthy tissues. This Review discusses the clinical application and preclinical development of intraoperative fluorescence imaging probes and imaging equipment, including artificial intelligence algorithms.

An article in Communications Engineering reports the development of menstrual pads made of a plant-based high-quality absorption material.

An article in Nature reports a multidimensional question-answering clinical benchmark, evaluating the clinical knowledge of fine-tuned variants of PaLM, a 540-billion parameter, densely activated large language model.

An article in Science Advances reports a minimally invasive approach for continuous glucose monitoring using biodegradable microneedles connected to a smartphone app for diabetes tracking.

An article in Nature Machine Intelligence reports a deep learning-guided framework that can help pathologists to discover new prognostic tissue biomarkers from well-performing deep learning models.

An article in Science reports a fast and adaptable strategy to confer plant disease resistance.

An article in Nature Nanotechnology reports a simple and eco-friendly approach to incorporate antimicrobial agents into cotton fabrics at the molecular level.

An article in Nature Metabolism reports the development of an electrogenetic interface to programme gene expression in cells.