Biotechnology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    A broad application of liposomes calls for high throughout techniques to produce them in a controlled and fast manner. Here, Deshpande et al. show a microfluidic approach using alcohol-based lipid-carrying material to generate monodisperse and unilamellar liposomes within a just few minutes.

    • Siddharth Deshpande
    • , Yaron Caspi
    •  & Cees Dekker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for heart repair is hampered by their immature structural and contractile properties that may cause arrhythmia. Here, Eng et al.show that electrical conditioning of human cardiomyocytes in 3D culture can enhance connectivity and provide resistance to arrhythmia.

    • George Eng
    • , Benjamin W. Lee
    •  & Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Peptide nanostructures are currently arousing interest thanks to their potential applications in medicine, electronics and coatings. Here, through experiment and theory, the authors demonstrate exquisite control over surface peptide assembly behaviour through manipulation of amino acid sequence.

    • Sabine Abb
    • , Ludger Harnau
    •  & Klaus Kern

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing single-cell RNA-seq methods provide the transcriptome of a cellular phenotype at a single time point. Here, Kimmerlinget al. present a microfluidic platform that enables off-chip single-cell RNA-seq after multigenerational lineage tracking under controlled culture conditions.

    • Robert J. Kimmerling
    • , Gregory Lee Szeto
    •  & Scott R. Manalis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure that could potentially be reflected by change in plasma protein abundance. Here the authors describe a proteomics strategy that allows the determination of plasma proteins tissue origin in a quantitative manner for use as biomarkers—illustrated in a mouse model of sepsis.

    • Erik Malmström
    • , Ola Kilsgård
    •  & Johan Malmström

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Breast cancers have been extensively studied at the genomic and transcriptomic levels in the hope of tailoring therapeutic regimens. Here the authors generate deep coverage proteomes from several clinical breast cancer samples, and use machine learning techniques to uncover biological processes altered in specific cancer subtypes.

    • Stefka Tyanova
    • , Reidar Albrechtsen
    •  & Tamar Geiger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    RNA interference inadvertently represses off-target transcripts. Here, Lee et al.report that substituting nucleotide in position 6 of the seed region of the small interfering RNAs with abasic spacers can significantly decrease miRNA-like off-target repression while preserving on-target activity.

    • Hye-Sook Lee
    • , Heeyoung Seok
    •  & Sung Wook Chi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sepsis patients often develop muscle atrophy that can last for years. Here the authors show in a mouse model that sepsis causes long-term impairment of the satellite cells, affecting mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, and that injection of mesenchymal stem cells restores satellite cell metabolism and muscle regeneration.

    • P. Rocheteau
    • , L. Chatre
    •  & F. Chrétien

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is enormous potential in combining the capabilities of the biological and the solid-state to create hybrid engineered systems. Here, the authors develop a technique to incorporate and activate ATPases in in vitromembranes to produce energy-harvestable currents to power an integrated circuit.

    • Jared M. Roseman
    • , Jianxun Lin
    •  & Kenneth L. Shepard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental DNA from unculturable microorganisms contains genes with useful functions that remain difficult to identify and isolate. Here Colin, Kintses et al.demonstrate the screening of millions of samples in pL volumes to directly identify new enzymatic activities and complements sequence-based approaches.

    • Pierre-Yves Colin
    • , Balint Kintses
    •  & Florian Hollfelder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generalized arterial calcification of infancy (GACI) is a terminal disease caused by the ENPP1 enzyme deficiency. Here, Albrigh et al. show that ENPP1 enzyme replacement therapy prevents the ectopic calcifications and mortality in mice with GACI, suggesting a novel treatment for vascular calcification in humans.

    • Ronald A. Albright
    • , Paul Stabach
    •  & Demetrios T. Braddock

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic oligonucleotides are the main cost factor for studies in DNA nanotechnology. Here, the authors present a selective oligonucleotide amplification method, based on three rounds of rolling-circle amplification, that produces nanomole amounts of single-stranded oligonucleotides per millilitre reaction.

    • Thorsten L. Schmidt
    • , Brian J. Beliveau
    •  & William M. Shih

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Culturing normal primary breast cells that express the oestrogen receptor is difficult. Here, the authors isolate oestrogen receptor positive normal breast cells using the cell surface markers CD166 and CD117, and show that the cultures can be repeatedly passaged and retain oestrogen receptor protein expression.

    • Agla J. Fridriksdottir
    • , Jiyoung Kim
    •  & Lone Rønnov-Jessen

  • Article |

    Transgenic diatom algae can incorporate proteins in their silica shells. Here the authors design diatoms that can be decorated with tumour-specific antibody of choice and use them as natural nanoparticles for targeted delivery of a chemotherapeutic drug, impeding mouse xenograft tumour growth.

    • Bahman Delalat
    • , Vonda C. Sheppard
    •  & Nicolas H. Voelcker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic manipulation of biological systems requires the development of improved molecular handles. Here the authors isolate ferritin mutants with enhanced biomineralization from a yeast genetic screen and show their application to cell separation, multiscale imaging, and construction of sensors.

    • Yuri Matsumoto
    • , Ritchie Chen
    •  & Alan Jasanoff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The issue whether the cell surface protein c-kit identifies resident cardiac stem cells (CSC) is controversial. By using novel reporter mouse models, Sultana et al. show that c-kit+cells represent a subpopulation of endothelial cells in the developing and adult heart and do not exhibit CSC traits in health or disease.

    • Nishat Sultana
    • , Lu Zhang
    •  & Chen-Leng Cai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drug-loaded nanoparticles allow controlled release and enhanced delivery, yet understanding in vivobehavior has been difficult. Here, the authors develop a platinum prodrug coupled to a polymer platform, and use intravital imaging to show that the nanoparticle accumulates in macrophages, from the which drug redistributes to neighboring tumour cells.

    • Miles A. Miller
    • , Yao-Rong Zheng
    •  & Ralph Weissleder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating organized kidney tissues from human pluripotent stem cell is a major challenge. Here, Freedman et al. describe a differentiation system forming spheroids and tubular structures, characteristic of these kidney structures, and using CRISPR/Cas9, delete PKD1/2, to model polycystic kidney disease.

    • Benjamin S. Freedman
    • , Craig R. Brooks
    •  & Joseph V. Bonventre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short hairpin RNAs are widely used to produce small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for gene silencing. Here, the authors show that an alternative siRNA precursor in the presence of a self-cleaving ribozyme has enhanced silencing activity and reduced off-target effects, providing a potential RNAi tool.

    • Renfu Shang
    • , Fengjuan Zhang
    •  & Ligang Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Living cells have to interpret and react to changes in local environmental conditions. Here the authors exploit that by combining magnetic nanoparticles and bacterial quorum sensing to investigate and convey alterations in the molecular landscape.

    • Jessica L. Terrell
    • , Hsuan-Chen Wu
    •  & William E. Bentley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Random DNA mutagenesis provides genetic diversity both in nature and the laboratory. Here, Badran and Liu present a potent, inducible, broad-spectrum and vector-based mutagenesis system in E. coli that surpasses the mutational efficiency and spectra of the most widely used in vivo and in vitromutagenesis methods.

    • Ahmed H. Badran
    •  & David R. Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lactobacillus is a lactic acid bacteria and has a wide range of application from use in probiotic food production to biotherapeutics. Here, the authors sequence and compare the genomes of 213 different Lactobacillusstrains and related genera, and provide new insight into phylogenomic organization and adaptive immunity elements in this bacteria family.

    • Zhihong Sun
    • , Hugh M. B. Harris
    •  & Paul W. O’Toole

  • Article
    | Open Access

    n-Butanol is a valuable biofuel that can be produced industrially by bacterial fermentation. Here the authors uncover a redox-switch within Clostridium acetobutylicum’s thiolase—a key enzyme involved in n-butanol biosynthesis—that controls the rate of fermentative butanol production.

    • Sangwoo Kim
    • , Yu-Sin Jang
    •  & Kyung-Jin Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This paper described a new and efficient method for de novoassembly of multiple DNA sequence information from mutagenized clone libraries. Using codon-barcoded libraries and calling the method JigsawSeq, the authors overcome limitations of short-read sequencing assembly from next-generation sequencing.

    • Namjin Cho
    • , Byungjin Hwang
    •  & Duhee Bang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most of the cell penetrating peptides can transport therapeutic agents across plasma membranes but barely across the blood-brain barrier. Here the authors develop a peptide that can enter the brain, and show that its fusion to immunomodulatory protein ctCTLA-4 is effective in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

    • Sangho Lim
    • , Won-Ju Kim
    •  & Je-Min Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Common optogenetic approaches require surgical procedures to deliver light of specific wavelengths to the target cells. Here the authors demonstrate the use of low-pressure ultrasound as a non-invasive trigger to activate specific neurons in Caenorhabditis elegansand find that the mechanotransduction channel TRP-4 sensitizes cells to the ultrasound stimulus.

    • Stuart Ibsen
    • , Ada Tong
    •  & Sreekanth H. Chalasani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple extracellular matrix parameters influence cellular behaviour, but it is difficult to dissect their cooperative contributions. Here the authors describe a hydrogel system in which ligand density and substrate stiffness can be tuned orthogonally to study the contribution of combinations of these parameters simultaneously.

    • Andrew D. Rape
    • , Mikhail Zibinsky
    •  & Sanjay Kumar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Guanine-rich oligonucleotides can fold into secondary structures known as G-quadruplexes that are proposed to have various biological roles. Here, Shivalingam et al. develop a cell-permeable, low-toxicity probe that can be used to probe interactions between G-quadruplexes and small molecules in vivo.

    • Arun Shivalingam
    • , M. Angeles Izquierdo
    •  & Ramon Vilar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effects of protein phosphorylation, a common post-translational modification, are difficult to study using recombinant proteins. Here the authors use genomically engineered E. colito enhance translation systems that express phosphor-serine containing proteins, and use these systems to produce phosphorylated MEK1 kinase.

    • Natasha L. Pirman
    • , Karl W. Barber
    •  & Jesse Rinehart

  • Article |

    Tumour metastasis is a significant source of mortality, often because it is detected at an advanced stage. In this study, in an effort to identify metastasis at an early stage, Azarin et. al. capture and image metastasizing cells in mice in vivousing a biomaterial scaffold.

    • Samira M. Azarin
    • , Ji Yi
    •  & Lonnie D Shea

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a highly contagious childhood pathogen of the respiratory tract for which no vaccine is currently available. Here the authors present a strategy to stabilize the RSV F protein in a prefusion conformation that can elicit a strong protective immune response in animal models.

    • Anders Krarup
    • , Daphné Truan
    •  & Johannes P. M. Langedijk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell therapy requires the targeting of cells to specific sites in the body. Here Muthana et al.use a standard MRI scanner to direct oncolytic macrophages, labelled with magnetic nanoparticles, to primary and metastatic tumour sites in mice, and demonstrate that this leads to reduced tumour growth.

    • Munitta Muthana
    • , Aneurin J. Kennerley
    •  & Claire Lewis

  • Article |

    Immune responses are induced in the organized, cytokine-rich environment of lymph nodes, which can be mimicked by biomaterials. Here the authors show that injectable sponge-like gels decorated with immunostimulatory factors attract dendritic cells and boost antitumour immune responses in mice.

    • Sidi A. Bencherif
    • , R. Warren Sands
    •  & David J. Mooney

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Super-resolution imaging of microtubules requires labels that increase their apparent diameter, making it difficult to resolve individual microtubules within a bundle. Here, the authors develop single-chain antibody fragments against tubulin that enable closely spaced individual microtubules to be distinguished in cells.

    • Marina Mikhaylova
    • , Bas M. C. Cloin
    •  & Lukas C Kapitein

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