Bioengineering

A three filament mechanistic model of musculotendon force and impedance

1. Matthew Millard
2. David W Franklin
3. Walter Herzog

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study that develops a new model of the way muscle responds to perturbations, synthesizing models of how it responds to small and large perturbations, both of which are used to predict how muscles function for stability but also how they can be injured, and which tend to be predicted poorly by classic Hill-type models. The evidence presented to support the model is solid, since it outperforms Hill-type models in a variety of conditions. Although the combination of phenomenological and mechanistic aspects of the model may sometimes make it challenging to interpret the output, the work will be of interest to those developing realistic models of the stability and control of movement in humans or other animals.

Reviewed by eLife

Compositional editing of extracellular matrices by CRISPR/Cas9 engineering of human mesenchymal stem cell lines

1. Sujeethkumar Prithiviraj
2. Alejandro Garcia Garcia
3. Karin Linderfalk
4. Bai Yiguang
5. Sonia Ferveur
6. Ludvig Nilsén Falck
7. Agatheeswaran Subramaniam
8. Sofie Mohlin
9. David Hidalgo
10. Steven J Dupard
11. Dimitra Zacharaki
12. Deepak Bushan Raina
13. Paul E Bourgine

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study presents a potentially useful approach to genetically modify cells to produce extracellular matrices with altered compositions. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions regarding the chondrogenicity of lyophilized constructs is considered incomplete, as the study does not adequately demonstrate the formation of a histologically identifiable cartilaginous matrix. The study also lacks several significant details and does not have sufficient power to support the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Overcoming the nutritional immunity by engineering iron-scavenging bacteria for cancer therapy

1. Sin-Wei Huang
2. See-Khai Lim
3. Yao-An Yu
4. Yi-Chung Pan
5. Wan-Ju Lien
6. Chung-Yuan Mou
7. Che-Ming Jack Hu
8. Kurt Yun Mou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study combines proteomics and a mouse model to reveal the importance of iron uptake in bacterial therapy for cancer. The evidence presented is convincing. Notably, the authors showed upregulation of iron uptake of bacteria significantly inhibits tumor growth in vivo. This paper will be of interest to a broad audience including researchers in cancer biology, cell biology, and microbiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Near-perfect precise on-target editing of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

1. Fanny-Mei Cloarec-Ung
2. Jamie Beaulieu
3. Arunan Suthananthan
4. Bernhard Lehnertz
5. Guy Sauvageau
6. Hilary M Sheppard
7. David JHF Knapp

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents an important methodology to increase the efficiency and precision of gene editing in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing in that primitive LTC-ICs were minimally affected as a result of the editing procedure and the lack of edits at predicted off-target sites. The work will be of interest to biologists studying hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and genome editing for potential clinical applications.

Reviewed by eLife

A versatile high-throughput assay based on 3D ring-shaped cardiac tissues generated from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

1. Magali Seguret
2. Patricia Davidson
3. Stijn Robben
4. Charlène Jouve
5. Celine Pereira
6. Quitterie Lelong
7. Lucille Deshayes
8. Cyril Cerveau
9. Maël Le Berre
10. Rita S Rodrigues Ribeiro
11. Jean-Sébastien Hulot

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper reports a valuable platform for cardiac tissue cultivation. The throughput, consistency of the tissue, and the potential integration of high-throughput automation are an advantage over other approaches. The tissues and the platform are validated using appropriate methodology to provide convincing evidence of the tissue cultivation capability.

Reviewed by eLife

Automated cell annotation in multi-cell images using an improved CRF_ID algorithm

1. Hyun Jee Lee
2. Jingting Liang
3. Shivesh Chaudhary
4. Sihoon Moon
5. Zikai Yu
6. Taihong Wu
7. He Liu
8. Myung-Kyu Choi
9. Yun Zhang
10. Hang Lu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This research advance article describes a valuable image analysis method to identify individual neurons within a ‎population of fluorescently labeled cells in the nematode C. elegans. The findings are solid and the method succeeds to identify cells with high precision. The method will be valuable to the C. elegans research community.

Reviewed by eLife

ENDO-LYSOSOME-TARGETED NANOPARTICLE DELIVERY OF ANTIVIRAL THERAPY FOR CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS

1. Anton Petcherski
2. Brett M Tingley
3. Andrew Martin
4. Sarah Adams
5. Alexandra J Brownstein
6. Ross A Steinberg
7. Byourak Shabane
8. Gustavo Garcia
9. Michaela Veliova
10. Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami
11. Aaron H Colby
12. Orian S Shirihai
13. Mark W Grinstaff

Reviewed by Review Commons

Clinical phenotypes in acute and chronic infarction explained through human ventricular electromechanical modelling and simulations

1. Xin Zhou
2. Zhinuo Jenny Wang
3. Julia Camps
4. Jakub Tomek
5. Alfonso Santiago
6. Adria Quintanas
7. Mariano Vazquez
8. Marmar Vaseghi
9. Blanca Rodriguez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study contributes to the current knowledge in the field of acute and chronic infarction. It is a significant study because the results provide convincing evidence for the need to incorporate additional risk factors for assessing patients after myocardial infarction.

Reviewed by eLife

The vascularised chamber device significantly enhances the survival of transplanted liver organoids

1. Denis D. Shi
2. Evelyn Makris
3. Yi-Wen Gerrand
4. Pu-Han Lo
5. George C. Yeoh
6. Wayne A. Morrison
7. Geraldine M. Mitchell
8. Kiryu K. Yap

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This solid manuscript describes a preclinical model to assess different methods of infusion of organoids for clinical applications. This is an important and timely study with practical implications beyond a single subfield. The methods described, including the analysis, broadly support the claims although there are some areas for improvement.

Reviewed by eLife

Isolating Small Extracellular Vesicles from Small Volumes of Blood Plasma using size exclusion chromatography and density gradient ultracentrifugation: A Comparative Study

1. Fang Kong
2. Megha Upadya
3. Andrew See Weng Wong
4. Rinkoo Dalan
5. Ming Dao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work provides a robust yet simple protocol to isolate small extracellular vesicles from small volumes of plasma. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, although a more thorough statistical comparison of the different techniques and technique combinations explored in the study would have been appreciated. The work will be of broad interest to cell biologists and biochemists.

Reviewed by eLife