One primary objective of synthetic biology is to improve the sustainability of chemical manufacturing. Naturally occurring biological systems can utilize a variety of carbon sources, including waste streams that pose challenges to traditional chemical processing, such as lignin biomass, providing opportunity for remediation and valorization of these materials. Success, however, depends on identifying micro-organisms that are both metabolically versatile and engineerable. Identifying organisms with this combination of traits has been a historic hindrance. Here, we leverage the facile genetics of the metabolically versatile bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 to create easy and rapid molecular cloning workflows, including a Cas9-based single-step marker-less and scar-less genomic integration method. In addition, we create a promoter library, ribosomal binding site (RBS) variants and test an unprecedented number of rationally integrated bacterial chromosomal protein expression sites and variants. At last, we demonstrate the utility of these tools by examining ADP1’s catabolic repression regulation, creating a strain with improved potential for lignin bioprocessing. Taken together, this work highlights ADP1 as an ideal host for a variety of sustainability and synthetic biology applications.

Despite years of research, most preclinical trials on ischemic stroke have remained unsuccessful owing to poor methodological and statistical standards leading to "translational roadblocks." Various behavioral tests have been established to evaluate traits such as sensorimotor function, cognitive and social interactions, and anxiety-like and depression-like behavior. A test's validity is of cardinal importance as it influences the chance of a successful translation of preclinical results to clinical settings. The mission of choosing a behavioral test for a particular project is, therefore, imperative and the present review aims to provide a structured way to evaluate rodent behavioral tests with implications in ischemic stroke.

AbstractOne primary objective of synthetic biology is to improve the sustainability of chemical manufacturing. Biological systems can utilize a variety of carbon sources, including waste streams that pose challenges to traditional chemical processing such as lignin biomass, providing opportunity for remediation and valorization of these materials. Success, however, depends on identifying microorganisms that are both metabolically versatile and engineerable. This has been a historic hindrance. Here, we leverage the facile genetics of the metabolically versatile bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 to create easy and rapid molecular cloning workflows, a promoter library, ribosomal binding site (RBS) variants, and an unprecedented number of bacterial chromosomal protein expression sites and variants. Moreover, we demonstrate the utility of these tools by examining ADP1’s catabolic repression regulation, creating a strain with improved potential for lignin bioprocessing. Taken together, this work establishes ADP1 as an ideal host for a variety of sustainability and synthetic biology applications.

Bio-templates such as proteins, lipids offer rich structural and functional diversity for the synthesis of nanoparticles by controlling their shape, size and orientation. In this work we have exploited a pH dependent folding-refolding feature of Horse Spleen Apoferritin (HsAFr) to synthesize copper and manganese oxide nanoparticles in a controlled manner. Two methods of preparation were used in this study. In the first method, Copper Sulphate (100 mM) and Manganese Chloride (4.8 mM) have been incubated with the protein and the pH dynamically adjusted for homogeneous incorporation of the metal ions into the HsAFr shell. The second study involved the incorporation of Cu2+ and Mn2+ inside HsAFr cavity and subsequent designing of nanoclusters of the respective oxides. UV, fluorescence and far-UV circular dichroism (far-UV CD) spectroscopic techniques have been used to study the mineralization effect of the metal inside the HsAFr cavity. Size determination carried out using XRD suggested an average size ranging from 20-30 nm. The EPR of the nanoclusters show that incorporation of Mn2+ leads to a characteristic magnetoferritin behavior.