Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a broad discipline in which biological processes, organisms, cells or cellular components are exploited to develop new technologies. New tools and products developed by biotechnologists are useful in research, agriculture, industry and the clinic.

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  • Comments & Opinion |

    Cancer nanotherapy suffers from low-yield delivery that is imposed by tumour pathophysiological barriers. Top-down drug delivery strategies, including exosomes and cell membrane-coated particles, can improve safety and efficacy owing to the innate biointerfacial properties of these platforms. Here, we discuss the technological challenges that need to be overcome for their clinical implementation.

    • João M. J. M. Ravasco
    • , Ana Cláudia Paiva-Santos
    •  & João Conde
    Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 1-3

  • News & Views |

    Anticancer drugs are typically obtained through complex chemical synthesis or from plant extraction. Now, an engineered yeast strain enables a de novo biosynthetic approach to the anticancer building block catharanthine, using methanol as a carbon feedstock.

    • Cameron M. Kim
    Nature Synthesis, 1-3

  • News & Views |

    CLASH is a CRISPR-based platform that enables the parallel knock-in via homology-directed repair of a large pool of transgene variants encoded in adeno-associated virus vectors. CLASH can be applied to the systematic and unbiased selection of favorable features in T cells and, in principle, other cell types.

    Nature Biotechnology, 1-2

  • Comments & Opinion |

    CRISPR-based assays can be adopted as ultrasensitive molecular diagnostics in resource-limited settings, but point-of-care applications must address additional requirements. Here, we discuss the major obstacles for developing these assays and offer insights into how to surmount them.

    • Zhen Huang
    • , Christopher J. Lyon
    •  & Tony Y. Hu
    Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 1-2

  • Comments & Opinion |

    Delivery of vaccines by nasal sprays may enable more robust, protective mucosal immune responses against infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, compared with intramuscular injection. In this Comment, we highlight how biomaterials can be designed to allow intranasal and inhaled vaccination.

    • Devorah Cahn
    • , Mayowa Amosu
    •  & Gregg A. Duncan
    Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 1-2
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