scholarly journals Artificial cell mimics as simplified models for the study of cell biology

2017 ◽  
Vol 242 (13) ◽  
pp. 1309-1317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Salehi-Reyhani ◽  
Oscar Ces ◽  
Yuval Elani
Keyword(s):  
Cell Biology ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Simplified Models ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Artificial Cell ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Wide Range

Living cells are hugely complex chemical systems composed of a milieu of distinct chemical species (including DNA, proteins, lipids, and metabolites) interconnected with one another through a vast web of interactions: this complexity renders the study of cell biology in a quantitative and systematic manner a difficult task. There has been an increasing drive towards the utilization of artificial cells as cell mimics to alleviate this, a development that has been aided by recent advances in artificial cell construction. Cell mimics are simplified cell-like structures, composed from the bottom-up with precisely defined and tunable compositions. They allow specific facets of cell biology to be studied in isolation, in a simplified environment where control of variables can be achieved without interference from a living and responsive cell. This mini-review outlines the core principles of this approach and surveys recent key investigations that use cell mimics to address a wide range of biological questions. It will also place the field in the context of emerging trends, discuss the associated limitations, and outline future directions of the field. Impact statement Recent years have seen an increasing drive to construct cell mimics and use them as simplified experimental models to replicate and understand biological phenomena in a well-defined and controlled system. By summarizing the advances in this burgeoning field, and using case studies as a basis for discussion on the limitations and future directions of this approach, it is hoped that this minireview will spur others in the experimental biology community to use artificial cells as simplified models with which to probe biological systems.

scholarly journals Creation of Artificial Cell-Like Structures Promoted by Microfluidics Technologies

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Sato ◽  
Masahiro Takinoue
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Sample Volume ◽  
Future Perspective ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Artificial Cell ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Oil Emulsions

The creation of artificial cells is an immensely challenging task in science. Artificial cells contribute to revealing the mechanisms of biological systems and deepening our understanding of them. The progress of versatile biological research fields has clarified many biological phenomena, and various artificial cell models have been proposed in these fields. Microfluidics provides useful technologies for the study of artificial cells because it allows the fabrication of cell-like compartments, including water-in-oil emulsions and giant unilamellar vesicles. Furthermore, microfluidics also allows the mimicry of cellular functions with chip devices based on sophisticated chamber design. In this review, we describe contributions of microfluidics to the study of artificial cells. Although typical microfluidic methods are useful for the creation of artificial-cell compartments, recent methods provide further benefits, including low-cost fabrication and a reduction of the sample volume. Microfluidics also allows us to create multi-compartments, compartments with artificial organelles, and on-chip artificial cells. We discuss these topics and the future perspective of microfluidics for the study of artificial cells and molecular robotics.

scholarly journals The Usual Suspects 2019: of Chips, Droplets, Synthesis, and Artificial Cells

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Eilenberger ◽  
Sarah Spitz ◽  
Barbara Eva Maria Bachmann ◽  
Eva Kathrin Ehmoser ◽  
Peter Ertl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Microfluidic Systems ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Reagent Consumption ◽  
On Chip

Synthetic biology aims to understand fundamental biological processes in more detail than possible for actual living cells. Synthetic biology can combat decomposition and build-up of artificial experimental models under precisely controlled and defined environmental and biochemical conditions. Microfluidic systems can provide the tools to improve and refine existing synthetic systems because they allow control and manipulation of liquids on a micro- and nanoscale. In addition, chip-based approaches are predisposed for synthetic biology applications since they present an opportune technological toolkit capable of fully automated high throughput and content screening under low reagent consumption. This review critically highlights the latest updates in microfluidic cell-free and cell-based protein synthesis as well as the progress on chip-based artificial cells. Even though progress is slow for microfluidic synthetic biology, microfluidic systems are valuable tools for synthetic biology and may one day help to give answers to long asked questions of fundamental cell biology and life itself.

scholarly journals Artificial Cell Therapy: New Strategies for the Therapeutic Delivery of Live Bacteria

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satya Prakash ◽  
Mitchell Lawrence Jones
Keyword(s):  
Oral Delivery ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Immobilized Cells ◽  
Genetically Engineered ◽  
Live Cells ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Artificial Cell ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Live Bacterial Cells

There has been rapid growth in research regarding the use of live bacterial cells for therapeutic purposes. The recognition that these cells can be genetically engineered to synthesize products that have therapeutic potential has generated considerable interest and excitement among clinicians and health professionals. It is expected that a wide range of disease modifying substrates such as enzymes, hormones, antibodies, vaccines, and other genetic products will be used successfully and will impact upon health care substantially. However, a major limitation in the use of these bacterial cells is the complexity of delivering them to the correct target tissues. Oral delivery of live cells, lyophilized cells, and immobilized cells has been attempted but with limited success. Primarily, this is because bacterial cells are incapable of surviving passage through the gastrointestinal tract. In many occasions, when given orally, these cells have been found to provoke immunogenic responses that are undesirable. Recent studies show that these problems can be overcome by delivering live bacterial cells, such as genetically engineered cells, using artificial cell microcapsules. This review summarizes recent advances in the therapeutic use of live bacterial cells for therapy, discusses the principles of using artificial cells for the oral delivery of bacterial cells, outlines methods for preparing suitable artificial cells for this purpose, addresses potentials and limitations for their application in therapy, and provides insight for the future direction of this emergent and highly prospective technology.

scholarly journals Review on Tauopathies: Clinicopathological Aspect

2021 ◽  
pp. 573-579
Author(s):  
Sonaakshi Kushwaha ◽  
Anil Wanjari
Keyword(s):  
Tau Protein ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Clinical Signs ◽  
Disease Process ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Protein Accumulation ◽  
Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Underlying Causes

A group of neurodegenerative diseases that differ in their morphology, biochemistry, and clinical presentation are Tauopathies. They are distinguished by aberrant tau protein accumulation in the brain. Currently, there is no conclusive method for preventing or curing tauopathies, but new scientific advancements have transformed this gloomy picture. Evidence from genetic research, experimental animal models, and molecular and cell biology has offered insight into the illnesses' underlying causes. Advances in radiology and biochemistry, notably in PET imaging, may offer critical biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and therapy. Tau, in addition to its role as a microtubule-associated tau protein, is involved in gene regulation, signal transduction, and metabolism. Experimental models allow for the development of novel diagnostic and treatment methods. Tauopathies are a set of disorders that can present with a wide range of clinical signs. It is still difficult to distinguish this disease from other protein-pathologies. In the last year, there has been a lot of interest in cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and radiotracers. Although the accuracy of diagnosis in non-disease Alzheimer's tauopathies remains debatable, PET tau tracers may be utilised to identify disease process. Although primary tauopathies are uncommon and diverse conditions, their combined incidence, as well as the importance of tau malfunction in Alzheimer's disease and secondary tauopathies, make tauopathy research a top priority since it might assist many people.

scholarly journals Building programmable multicompartment artificial cells incorporating remotely activated protein channels using microfluidics and acoustic levitation

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Li ◽  
William David Jamieson ◽  
Pantelitsa Dimitriou ◽  
Wen Xu ◽  
Paul Rohde ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Function ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Mechanosensitive Channel ◽  
Acoustic Levitation ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Emulsion Droplets ◽  
Artificial Cell ◽  
Spatiotemporal Regulation ◽  
Intracellular Compartments

Intracellular compartments are functional units that support the metabolic processes within living cells, through spatiotemporal regulation of chemical reactions and biological processes. Consequently, as a step forward in the bottom-up creation of artificial cells, building analogous intracellular architectures is essential for the expansion of cell-mimicking functionality. Herein, we report the development of a droplet laboratory platform to engineer customised complex emulsion droplets as a multicompartment artificial cell chassis, using multiphase microfluidics and acoustic levitation. Such levitated constructs provide free-standing, dynamic, definable droplet networks for the encapsulation and organisation of chemical species. Equally, they can be remotely operated with pneumatic, heating, and magnetic elements for post-processing, including the incorporation of membrane proteins; alpha-hemolysin; and large-conductance mechanosensitive channel (MscL) and their activation. The assembly of droplet networks is three-dimensionally patterned with fluidic inputs configurations determining droplet contents and connectivity. Whilst acoustic manipulation can be harnessed to reconfigure the droplet network in situ. In addition, a mechanosensitive channel, MscL, can be repeatedly activated and deactivated in the levitated artificial cell by the application of acoustic and magnetic fields to modulate membrane tension on demand. This offers possibilities beyond one-time chemically mediated activation to provide repeated, non-contact control of membrane protein function. Collectively, this will expand our capability to program and operate increasingly sophisticated artificial cells as life-like materials.

History of the Study of Apocrypha in Early Medieval England

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early English

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.

A review on aversive Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer in humans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Gerlicher ◽  
Merel Kindt
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Transfer Paradigm ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Threat Cues ◽  
Imminent Threat ◽  
Fear And Anxiety ◽  
Pathological Anxiety

A cue that indicates imminent threat elicits a wide range of physiological, hormonal, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional fear responses in humans and facilitates threat-specific avoidance behavior. The occurrence of a threat cue can, however, also have general motivational effects and affect behavior. That is, the encounter with a threat cue can increase our tendency to engage in general avoidance behavior that does neither terminate nor prevent the threat-cue or the threat itself. Furthermore, the encounter with a threat-cue can substantially reduce our likelihood to engage in behavior that leads to rewarding outcomes. Such general motivational effects of threat-cues on behavior can be informative about the transition from normal to pathological anxiety and could also explain the development of comorbid disorders, such as depression and substance abuse. Despite the unmistakable relevance of the motivational effects of threat for our understanding of anxiety disorders, their investigation is still in its infancy. Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer is one paradigm that allows us to investigate such motivational effects of threat cues. Here, we review studies investigating aversive transfer in humans and discuss recent results on the neural circuits mediating Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer effects. Finally, we discuss potential limitations of the transfer paradigm and future directions for employing Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer for the investigation of motivational effects of fear and anxiety.

Environmental Issues and Social Responsibility: A Scientomeric Analysis Using Citespace

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-94
Author(s):  
Zixuan Zeng ◽  
Thammannoon Hengsadeekul
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Citation Analysis ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Multiple Impacts ◽  
Quantitative Review ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Strategic Perspective

Environmental issues and social responsibility have a significant impact on the natural ecological system and economic development. Hence, it is important to find a relative balance path between them. Previous studies have sought to explore environmental or social responsibility rather than seek solutions from a systematic perspective, and there seems to be a lack of a systematic, quantitative review of systematic solutions or details. To identify the multiple impacts and relationships between environmental issues and social responsibility and illustrate emerging trends and challenges, this article proposes a scientometrics review based on 1,336 articles published from 2001 to 2020, through co-occurrence analysis and co-citation analysis together with cluster and burstiness analysis to reveal the depth and breadth of emerging research. This research demonstrates the research paradigm of environmental issues and social responsibility extends from a single stakeholder level to a systematic strategic perspective of multiple organizations and stakeholders. The results provide researchers and practitioners with a deeper understanding of future directions and implications Keywords: Environmental issues; social responsibility; strategy; scientometrics; review

Automatic Vulnerability Detection in Embedded Devices and Firmware

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Abdullah Qasem ◽  
Paria Shirani ◽  
Mourad Debbabi ◽  
Lingyu Wang ◽  
Bernard Lebel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Symbolic Execution ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Embedded Devices ◽  
Security Vulnerabilities ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Hybrid Approaches ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Internet Of Things

In the era of the internet of things (IoT), software-enabled inter-connected devices are of paramount importance. The embedded systems are very frequently used in both security and privacy-sensitive applications. However, the underlying software (a.k.a. firmware) very often suffers from a wide range of security vulnerabilities, mainly due to their outdated systems or reusing existing vulnerable libraries; which is evident by the surprising rise in the number of attacks against embedded systems. Therefore, to protect those embedded systems, detecting the presence of vulnerabilities in the large pool of embedded devices and their firmware plays a vital role. To this end, there exist several approaches to identify and trigger potential vulnerabilities within deployed embedded systems firmware. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art proposals, which detect vulnerabilities in embedded systems and firmware images by employing various analysis techniques, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, symbolic execution, and hybrid approaches. Furthermore, we perform both quantitative and qualitative comparisons among the surveyed approaches. Moreover, we devise taxonomies based on the applications of those approaches, the features used in the literature, and the type of the analysis. Finally, we identify the unresolved challenges and discuss possible future directions in this field of research.

scholarly journals Microglial Pruning: Relevance for Synaptic Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Experimental Models

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 686
Author(s):  
Maria Concetta Geloso ◽  
Nadia D’Ambrosi
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Neuronal Death ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Synaptic Dysfunction ◽  
Synapse Elimination ◽  
Neurodegenerative Process ◽  
Immune Mediated ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Demyelinating Lesions

Microglia, besides being able to react rapidly to a wide range of environmental changes, are also involved in shaping neuronal wiring. Indeed, they actively participate in the modulation of neuronal function by regulating the elimination (or “pruning”) of weaker synapses in both physiologic and pathologic processes. Mounting evidence supports their crucial role in early synaptic loss, which is emerging as a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and its preclinical models. MS is an inflammatory, immune-mediated pathology of the white matter in which demyelinating lesions may cause secondary neuronal death. Nevertheless, primitive grey matter (GM) damage is emerging as an important contributor to patients’ long-term disability, since it has been associated with early and progressive cognitive decline (CD), which seriously worsens the quality of life of MS patients. Widespread synapse loss even in the absence of demyelination, axon degeneration and neuronal death has been demonstrated in different GM structures, thus raising the possibility that synaptic dysfunction could be an early and possibly independent event in the neurodegenerative process associated with MS. This review provides an overview of microglial-dependent synapse elimination in the neuroinflammatory process that underlies MS and its experimental models.

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